Urban Broadcast Collective

In this episode of This Must Be The Place Elizabeth chats with Professor Carolyn Whitzman, on the eve of Carolyn winding up her 16 years at the University of Melbourne. Carolyn will now be heading back to Canada, specifically to Ottowa (“like a Canadian Adelaide”). In the episode she explains how being an academic was her second career, after working as an activist and ‘femocrat’ on violence prevention programs in Toronto. While her early contacts with Melbourne were as part of a campaign against an Olympic bid (“Bread not Circuses”), after completing her PhD and morphing into ‘pracademic’, Carolyn eventually moved to Melbourne to take up an academic position. Here she reflects on some of the themes in her research, teaching and projects in that time - which have been broad ranging but which have tended to centre on ideas of rights, marginality, and inclusivity. This episode focuses more on Carolyn’s work on affordable housing: on reasserting housing as a basic need or right, versus its role in wealth creation and inequality. She discusses working with housing developers and with their perceptions of how to adapt different models of affordable housing provision to the local context. There have been some projects and innovations that have cut through – for example a recent Launch Housing project of modular housing on a road allowance, and developments using airspace above parking lots. There is a slowly expanding understanding of what “good intensification” might mean. The challenge, Carolyn suggests, is how to scale affordable housing up – this an area where Canada offers some precedents, for example in Vancouver’s not for profit alliances, and the federal-level Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Carolyn hopes that her move to (and third career reinvention in) Ottawa, as it expands both its light rail system and its affordable housing sector, might mean “getting a little bit closer to the ideal of what an equitable and inclusive city would be like”. But there’s also much to take back from Melbourne, perhaps more so its public spaces and design culture, than its often-absurd transport and housing inequalities. Carolyn suggests that Melbourne doesn’t necessarily meet (and indeed sometimes is losing), “the preconditions for a decent life” but says that “I’d love everyone to be able to benefit from this beautiful city”. As well as being about rights to the city for diverse groups, more broadly the episode is about the challenges of change, and the fear that goes along with it. Also discussed: community participation, matching growth with planning and infrastructure, trust in government (lack thereof), cat fud and the far side, parking (versus football ovals = clash of titans?), Vancouver (Canada-lite), the idealism and motivation of students (versus the realities of exploitation and politicians that usually awaits them), public transport, Point Cook, federal government roles, planning schools, expertise, and generalisations about national anxieties. Note/apology: the episode is recorded in Carlton’s Kathleen Symes Library and Community Centre and has a fair bit of community background noise in it.

In this episode PlanningxChange interview Cazz Redding, Director of Red Ink Planning. Cazz is based in Bright, North East Victoria. She discusses her career progression, starting a business and working 'in the bush'.

An episode about a faceless man, and irrigation history. In April 1905, a man’s mutilated body was found in a bag in an irrigation channel in Girgarre East, northern Victoria. The channel was not far from where hundreds of men were constructing the Waranga Basin– a formative irrigation project storing water from the Goulburn River for distribution through channels that parceled up land for orchards, dairy farms and new towns. The body in the channel had been disemboweled, its head cut off, its legs missing, and its face sliced off in an apparent attempt to avoid identification. The find was dubbed The Tatura Tragedy, for the nearby irrigation town, and while investigators took weeks to identify the body, they quickly speculated on a connection to workers at the Waranga camp. This “rowdy township” housed “the usual navy class, neither better nor worse, prone to quarrel or to be hilarious and enjoy themselves on pay nights”, who “come and go without any notice being taken of them”. They typically travelled in pairs laboring, shearing or rabbiting. The Tatura Tragedy 1905 story was selected at random from the National Library of Australia’s Trove archive of digitized historical newspapers by Digital Death Trip, a custom bot coded by Sarah. The code uses Trove’s API to randomly select a Victorian town, then a random so-called Tragedy from it, then compile a case file. In the pilot run, DDT picked 2 stories from irrigation towns in Victoria, including The Tatura Tragedy. In this episode, Elizabeth has dug up more about the incident, its place and time. One theme is the nature of work, particularly itinerant work for men. When the victim, William Skinner (!) was finally identified, and killer James Edwards apprehended, speculation proved correct: the pair were workers and had been travelling together. A police description said Edwards was “fond of using the expression, ‘there’s no crawfish about me’, a shearer, a gambler, and two-up player; frequents country racecourses, drinks heavy when able, talks fighting, quiet when sober”. Edwards said he tramped the rivers of Victoria his whole life “like a book to me”, doing “any kind of work that comes my way”. Another theme is irrigation (which is interesting, at least in “Chinatown”). The Waranga wall is a 7km long, 12m high barrier built over a decade with horses, shovels and picks. It was Australia’s first major dam. Visiting Waranga Shores caravan park, maybe site of the workers’ camp, the basin looks like the sea but also like a flooded field. It’s popular for boating. Beneath the water lie remains of old grazing stations; and of the longer history of indigenous Taungurung people. Massive early 20th century irrigation and Closer Settlement projects were stages in the displacement embodied in settler colonialism: through which land, waterways, and rights to them, were carved out anew. Waranga still feeds Victoria’s irrigation system and its politics of water rights, environment, and the economic viability of farming and small towns. We also drove back roads of Girgarre East, searching for where Skinner’s body was dropped. Near where we narrowed it down to, someone had strung up bodies of dead hares, foxes and kangaroos along a barbed wire fence – including a fox’s decapitated decaying head. Very “In the Pines”. Edwards was found guilty of manslaughter: the defense argued the victim, Skinner, a comparatively privileged man, was bad-tempered and the killing was provoked. Edwards blamed drinking and working: “I’ve worked hard, lived hard, drunk hard and fought hard; but hard work has brought hard drink…”. Public fascination waned as Edwards seemed ‘ordinary’ back-blocks brawler. Today, there are rumors of unknown bodies from the camp buried in the Waranga wall. There are also tales of giant 2m waves coursing across the otherwise glassy surface of the basin, spooking workers and anglers. Like 70s song the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, “the lake, it is said, never gives up her dead”.

In this ‘mini’ (read: no guests) episode of This Must Be the Place Elizabeth visits the Murray River town of Koondrook, once the terminus of the Koondrook-Kerang private tramway. This country tram venture was started by the Shire of Swan Hill 1887, making use of private finance but also of Victorian funding from the “Tramways in Country Districts Act 1886”. While we might reasonably assume that the intention of this latter scheme was to subsidise tramways in middling regional cities, the Koondrook-Kerang venture instead built a 22km long tramway through the countryside to meet the state railway in Kerang. This was a kind of ‘feeder tram’ to connect goods and people to the public railway through to Melbourne. Railway construction in Victoria was at its peak at this period via the so-called “Octopus Acts”. The Kerang-Koondrook tramway ran privately until the 1950s, when it was taken over (or surrendered to?) Victoria Railways. It then continued as a publicly run passenger service and later as transport for school children, until either 1976 or 1981 (reports vary). The 1970s were a peak time for closing down train lines in Victoria and especially those in country areas - reflecting declining fortunes in some places but also improvements in roads. In this mini-installment Elizabeth reports from the quiet centre of Koondrook where there’s an old tram station (train enthusiasts can confirm the actual difference between a tram and a train, because this one looks a lot like an old train station); plus the old reserve for the tramway and some bits of track. Apparently down through the irrigated countryside there’s some more remnants near former tram stops at Yeoburn, Hinksons, Teal Point and Gannawarra. The remnants of the tramway are heritage listed. Elizabeth speculates on what the story means for the historically intermingled declines of small towns and of railways; what we might learn from history in terms of local and private initiatives today; and for how we price and assess transport projects. Also discussed (with herself) are the current local politics of dairy farms, water allocations, sawmills, and the legacy of gaming machine tourism (which was a big thing for border towns up until the 1990s). Plus there’s a visit to the local swimming pool (Koondrook still has a community-run pool). If Elizabeth were a real journalist she’d find some people who used to catch the country tram to school etc. and interview them – next time. There may well be a next time as Koondrook is very nice to visit – big trees, river, sculptures, walks, old trams, a nice pub, pool. You can’t get the tram there but you can, if so inclined, like Elizabeth, get the Vline bus (it’s the Barmah bus – not to be confused with the Barham bus even though they leave around the same time and let’s be honest they sound the same). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerang%E2%8…oondrook_Tramway www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/gid/slv-pic-aab45791 www.victorianplaces.com.au/koondrook

In this episode PlanningxChange interview Aaron Organ, Director and Principal Ecologist at Ecology and Heritage Partners. Aaron outlines current ecological issues, technological advancements and how we are better understanding the world around us. He talks to the link between town planning regulations and better ecological outcomes. In the podcast interview, new ideas are discussed on how to better help the natural world. A wide-ranging discussion on a subject not widely understood. Aaron also makes a plea for us to get out into the natural world and experience its delights.

In this episode of This Must Be The Place Elizabeth speaks with Associate Professor Seamus O’Hanlon of Monash University, about his new book, “City Life: the new urban Australia”. To quote the official blurb: “Remember when our cities and inner-cities weren’t dominated by high-rise apartments? This book documents the changes that have come with the globalisation of the Australian city since the 1970s. It tells the story of the major economic, social, cultural and demographic changes that have come with opening up of Australia in those years, with a particular focus on the two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, which have been transformed. But throughout it also looks at how these changes have played out in the smaller capitals and regional centres. How does one of the most urbanised, multicultural countries in the world see itself? This book challenges received ideas about Australia and how it presents itself to the world, and how in turn many Australians perceive and understand themselves. Rather than rehashing old stereotypes about mateship, the Bush or Anzac, this book places the globalised city and its residents at the heart of new understandings of twenty-first century Australia.” In the podcast, Elizabeth and Seamus discuss deindustrialization; post-industrialization; the field of global histories (tracing the flow of commodities etc – kind of like those ‘salt’, ‘cod’ and other single-item books Elizabeth reads so often); gentrification; successes and failures of deregulation; the rise of the international student industry; tennis and live music and other things governments are desperate to lay claim to; and more. How have the changes wrought by globalization played out in specific Australian places, who wins and who loses, and what are the divisions that remain? What opportunities have been lost? What can a historian’s view offer to urban planners today? Are high-rise student/investor apartments running the risk of becoming the new Fordist factories past? Was Adelaide really a go-ahead city in the early 1970s? Does looking at urban history bring out your inner libertarian? Why don’t Irish people like seat belts? “For all its faults, the post industrial economy can be more inclusive than the old industrial economy. But I think decisions were made – political not economic - to basically say we’re going to write off whole generations and regions, and I think that’s wrong”. “City Life – the new urban Australia” is available through New South Publishing. Unlike Elizabeth’s book you can buy it at normal book shops and it has nice pictures. www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/city-life/

In this episode PlanningxChange interview Kate Roffey who has extensive experience as a CEO and Senior Executive within the commercial, government and not-for-profit sectors. In her current role as Director Deals, Investment & Major Projects at Wyndham City, Kate is focused on the growth of key international and national industry sectors and facilitating investment from both public and private entities via the creation of innovative deals that leverage value capture concepts to fast track delivery. Kate is also responsible for overseeing major projects in the areas of transport, construction and mixed used developments.

In this episode PlanningxChange interview the dynamic Olivia Christie about her role as a project manager on various large scale commercial projects and specialist developments within the hospitality sector. Olivia talks of the importance of team spirit, co-operative engagement with regulators and the benefits of flexibility. She also talks about what she has learn't as a developer of a high quality mid sized residential development in Melbourne's inner south. Olivia talks about her career development in a traditionally male-dominated industry sector.

Hannah Arendt, in The Origins of Totalitarianism, and on the rise of Anti-Semitism in Europe, recounts a joke popular after the first World War: “an anti-Semite claimed that the Jews had caused the war; the reply was: Yes, the Jews and the bicyclists. Why the bicyclists? Asks the one. Why the Jews? Asks the other”. To Arendt the joke illustrates how scapegoating is understood: if bicyclists seem self-evidently harmless, this incongruity shows deep-seated rationaliation of bigotry against Jewish people. (The book goes on to examine identity, rights, and nation states - or it seems to, Elizabeth has only read 50 of 700-ish pages). In the context of nowadays Australia, the bicycle ‘joke’ resonates less and seems even less funny. Actually it’s hard to believe it was ever funny, but most jokes go flat with time. Cycling issues are divisive both on Australia’s roads and its internet forums. In this episode Elizabeth speaks with two researchers interested, in effect, in questions of “why the bicyclists?”: why are Australians so angry about cycling? Tom Andrews is a PhD student in law at the University of Melbourne writing on the history of criminal procedures. Dr Peter Chambers is a senior lecturer in criminology, global crime and boarder security at RMIT University. They have a shared interest in conflicts between cars and vulnerable road users and recently published an article in the Conversation, “Rising cyclist death toll is mainly due to drivers, so change the road laws and culture”, examining statistics on deaths on Australian roads: 1,222 in 2017-18, with 1,100 due to driver inattention. They are critical of responses focused on high-tech sensors and separated infrastructure: arguing these disavow statistics on causes of cyclist deaths and ‘bake in’ infrastructure for paying less attention. Debates downplay real people and causes of injuries, in favour of anecdotes and hypotheticals – “once saw an X”, “what if a Y”. This contrasts with how other sectors –eg. aviation- respond to risk. It also poses questions. Tom recounts a literally frothing-at-the-mouth encounter with rage about cyclists-“there’s nothing about that level of anger that is easy to explain”–and how a comment moderator told him “in Australian media if you publish a piece on violence against women, or about cycling, there will be a rush of aggressive comments”. The episode discusses how ‘third rail’ cycling issues tap into questions of culture, history, and jurisprudence (how people discuss and understand rules). In criminal law, a separate set of offences for driving was introduced because of reluctance of juries to convict drivers of manslaughter. In civil law, prior to Victoria’s no-fault personal injury insurance, when injury occurred as a result of cars people had to go through the (stressful, costly) general legal system for compensation. Registration in large part pays for TAC insurance, proportionate to risks of injury from different motor vehicles. How does this relate to frequent calls for cyclists to be registered? Is a bike an unregistered vehicle? Peter semi-facetiously suggests arguments for cyclists to be registered are less interested in specific implications for rights and responsibilities than “cyclists should be registered…and then put in camps”. It’s a rambling chat touching many third rails – helmets (“in Australia it’s easier to imagine touching someone’s car as a form of assault to the person, than it is to imagine trusting people to make informed decisions about risk and headwear”), liability (strict versus presumed), parking, property, rights to public space, colonialism and land appropriation, gender, f-bombs, ‘boulie tacks’. And Big Lebowski quotes (“at least it’s an ethos”).

Sadie Black: Café and community in Melbourne’s West. Melbournians have been told for thirty plus years now that café society has been a key driver in cultural growth, valuing of place, and foundation of communities (cue Ray Oldenberg). David has been ‘on the ground’ for the last year or more tracking the rise and rise of Sadie Black, a café in his neighbourhood in Melbourne’s west. He spoke to the owners, Chris and Meaghan Blackwell, about their hopes and ideals, the gamble of opening a café in the first place, and the local response.