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The Forum > Article Comments > Building cities is Australia's next export industry > Comments

Building cities is Australia's next export industry : Comments

By Edward Blakely, published 4/11/2010

Australia does a lot of things well, and one of them is building world class cities.

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You do mean a public sector (Public service union) green labor politically supported doctrine, don't you?
Posted by Dallas, Thursday, 4 November 2010 10:28:45 PM
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I think this bloke is living in the clouds like most academics & handsomely supported by our tax money via incompetent bureaucracy.
Posted by individual, Friday, 5 November 2010 6:36:45 AM
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Sorry, this article is garbage;
"Competition" should not, ever, EVER mention in a discussion about Australia's urban planning- nor should the Macquarie Group.
Those two elements will guarantee the cities of Australia become an unlivable circus.

We should only be accepting proposals from public-hired institutions THAT advocate planning for convenience of residents' living and their access to businesses, along with the different sectors of the city, with some mention of open space and (public) expressways, and NOT spending more time attempting to gloss about superficial credentials.

Otherwise, no actual propositions- just superficial rhetoric.
I'm quite alarmed this man was actually part of a planning consultancy board.
Posted by King Hazza, Friday, 5 November 2010 9:23:16 AM
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This article could so easily be satire.

The author is clearly living in a sheltered workshop somewhere, since he fails to demonstrate any understanding of the words "export" or "industry".

Let's imagine for a moment that I were given the opportunity to sell this "product" - building cities - to an overseas audience. I'd obviously use Professor Blakeley's material in my presentation - all that great stuff about the weather, our design engineering and construction firms, our project financing capability etc. etc...

The first question from the audience, I suspect, would be "can you provide any examples from your own country, Mr Pericles?"

Let me think. Sydney, from its harbour-defacing Cahill Expressway to its endless, soulless, McMansioned suburbs? Melbourne... Federation Square... Brisbane... err... Canberra-a-a-a-agh...

Do you know, I cannot think of a single instance of an Australian city that would pass muster as an illustration of how brilliant we are at building cities, Professor.

Can you?
Posted by Pericles, Friday, 5 November 2010 9:48:25 AM
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He wants to remodel our cities to cram us in more along our transport corridors. He then suggests we export our new found sardine cans to other nations. His lies are that we have no competition in this arena. He can say this because he fails to tell you that all the other cities are being force fed the same tripe.

It's classic Agenda 21 spin and is full of BS to cram you in like sardines along growth corridors and take away your right to own private property.

It's already happening but most aren't seeing it. Already in Victoria all rural land along our rail lines has been re zoned residential(The Urban growth corridor). A $95,000 tax has been levied on any sale of property for every 2 hectares sold, raising more money for the state to implement its agenda, whilst also reducing the wealth of the property owner. Remaining rural lands have had new laws placed on them to reduce their value over time to nothing via native vegetation regrowth. The Murray Darling Authority's report was based on nothing but lies. They had no intention of fixing the rivers, it's purely a means to remove self sufficient people from their farms and move them into these new found cities.

This mans vile propaganda must be seen for what it is, a vile sinister plot to take away our rights to own private property and to cram us in like sardines where we can be better controlled and culled!
Posted by RawMustard, Friday, 5 November 2010 3:38:08 PM
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//Australia does a lot of things well, and one of them is building world class cities.//

WOAH... but I read the article and suddenly it's all about CLIMATE CHANGE ? ? ?

*scratches head*.....

In short mate... if you want to know about building good cities.. Australia is the LAST place you go... try Kuala Lumpur or Singapore.

-Fast Trains.
-Mass rapid transport
-World Class Airports (connect directly to MRT and FAST TRAIN)

"We"....are 3rd world.. sorry but true.
Posted by ALGOREisRICH, Friday, 5 November 2010 6:59:08 PM
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Perhaps Pericles after the Rail Link is passed!
Posted by we are unique, Friday, 5 November 2010 10:28:42 PM
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This is utter nonsense written by some fool who is definately not in touch with reality.

Central planning has not worked in Sydney but has been the main cause of congestion and destruction of Sydney suburbs.
Developers must be clapping their hands as they whack up more and more chook pens for human habitation.

Instead of maintaining and providing infrastructure to keep up with population the planners have decided to cram as many buildings together so as to use the existing infrastructure and this has led to problems that are becoming evident now and will continue to become evident as the existing infrastructure collapses through lack of any maintenance.
Posted by 4freedom, Monday, 8 November 2010 9:49:31 AM
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Edward Blakelywrote 4 November 2010:

>... Christie report on transportation ...

Fortunately the NSW Government has made one step in the right direction by moving rapidly to extend the Inner West Sydney Light Rail Extension. But that is relatively easy as much of the infrastructure is already in place: http://blog.tomw.net.au/2010/01/bicycling-sydney-light-rail-extension.html

>... new sustainable industrial base ...

We need to pick industries where it is feasible to compete internationally. Japan has spent decades on high speed rail technology. More recently South Korea and China have purchased technology from Europe and used that to create their own export products. China is now mass producing very high speed trains and the infrastructure to go with them. Australia may be able to find a niche, perhaps in software, logistics, environmental planning or track side buildings, but it is unlikely to be able to compete building track or trains.

>... new industries to build the urban forms ...

As Professor Brenda Vale and Doctor Robert Vale detailed in their 2010 Walter Burley Griffin Memorial Lecture last week in Canberra, sustainable cities are mostly a matter of attitude not technology: http://blog.tomw.net.au/2010/11/canberras-ecological-footprint.html

Building smaller homes and public transport does not require any radical new technology. But some can help. As an example the Australian National University has a student apartment building built rapidly from shipping container modules: http://blog.tomw.net.au/2009/10/shipping-container-apartment-building.html

To help with a more sustainable planet I teach green ICT : http://www.tomw.net.au/green/
Posted by tomw, Monday, 8 November 2010 10:30:30 AM
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The thing is, tomw, we're not actually any good at any of these either.

>>Australia may be able to find a niche, perhaps in software, logistics, environmental planning or track side buildings, but it is unlikely to be able to compete building track or trains.<<

I cannot think of a single success story for Australian software in the transport or logistics area. If there were such a thing, both Sydney and Melbourne would already have an integrated ticketing system for public transport, such as they have had for decades in other major cities around the world.

And where is there evidence of our internationally-recognized "environmental planning"? Is that actually an industry? That is, are we talking about something larger than a handful of "consultants"?

I've no idea what the world market is like for "track side buildings", by the way - do you? Does anybody? How big is it? And what would be our competitive edge?

Sorry, those are all areas where we would be starting from a long way back in the pack, and with some massive handicaps to overcome before any could be considered export-ready.

And what's with this?

>>...the Australian National University has a student apartment building built rapidly from shipping container modules<<

On my first visit to Kingston Jamaica in the 60s, there were many people living in home units that had been fashioned from the boxes used to import cars.

I find that quite significant.
Posted by Pericles, Monday, 8 November 2010 4:27:04 PM
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Indeed Pericles, I think the old saying "You cannot know England from what only England knows" applies quite well to this whole discussion;

The odd thing is, most of our shortcomings should have been apparent enough even without the evidence of most of the other first-world doing these much better in any one form of development than we are (and we can't even really claim credit for generally doing them all well either).
Posted by King Hazza, Monday, 8 November 2010 9:27:24 PM
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