Archive: Peri Urban
Last Updated 28/4/15
NEW "Alternative Futures For Melbourne's Peri-Urban Region" Project Launched: A Proposal To Restrict Loss Of Rural Land To Rural Living
(28/4/15 - P) Go back to prescriptive planning and tenement controls to protect rural land
The recently-launched "Alternative Futures" report is now available. You can download a copy of it from http://www.periurbanfutures.com/ It has been produced by an RMIT-auspiced project team headed by Michael Buxton and Trevor Budge, with funding support from the previous (Bracks/Brumby) Labor government.
MRRA Says:
It's a large report, physically and conceptually, which tackles the need to make changes if rural (as opposed to rural living) land is to continue to exist. It introduces several scenarios for protection, including re-introduction of planning controls many areas had until the Kennett government introduced the Victoria Planning Provisions in the late 1990s. Macedon Ranges Shire is one of the areas this report addresses in detail.
The report finds that growth that would otherwise occur on rural land (i.e. small rural lots) can be accommodated in regional cities and towns. The good news for Macedon Ranges Shire is that its 2011 Settlement Strategy already does that - directs growth (until 2036) into our towns and sets a concurrent 'no-growth' scenario for the Shire's rural balance. Not that some Councillors seem to have read it, or care, as they ignorantly keep on approving houses in rural areas, precisely where this Council's own Settlement Strategy says they are not to be approved.
Proposed controls in the Alternative Futures report would - through planning controls - make it crystal clear what can, and what can't, be done, which would be a very welcome and urgently needed change from the current serendipity of whether individual decision-makers like an application on the day.
Change And Continuity In Peri Urban Australia: Monograph 4 Now Available
(29/9/08 - P) Final chapter puts forward two scenarios
The final installment of this 4 part study is now available. Needless to say, it's another large report which takes some digesting. It's recommendations relate to a future 'improved' agriculture scenario and a future 'declining' agriculture scenario and the benefits/disbenefits that flow from either. Recommendations centre on action to better focus policy and planning controls.
You can download a copy of Monograph 4 from the Griffith University website by clicking on:
http://www.griffith.edu.au/environment-planning/urban-research-program/research/peri-urban-research-griffith
Note: It's a 2.5 megabyte file.
Change And Continuity In Peri Urban Australia - Monograph 2 Now Released
(10/8/08 - ) Towering strategic report on Bendigo Corridor
The second 'installment' of a major strategic study of peri-urban areas has now been released. A final monograph (4), incorporating recommendations, is yet to come. Monographs 1 and 2 have been prepared by RMIT. Monograph 3, which deals with peri urban areas in Queensland, and Monograph 4 are the responsibility of Queensland's Griffith University (including Brendan Gleeson, who authored the "Hell To Pay - Cities In The Age Of Default And Revolt" paper in 2004).
Funded by the Federal Government, the Change and Continuity series is one of the most significant strategic studies done in years. The findings in Monograph 2 (Bendigo Corridor) can be roughly summed up as there is an urgent need for integration across disciplines, and the area's sensitivity and potential for agricultural production warrant specific planning solutions.
MRRA Says:
Like the 300-odd page Monograph 1, this comprehensive 200-odd page work is quintessentially 'strategic' planning, and may be heavy going for some. There isn't a lot in it that is specific to Macedon Ranges; it instead focuses on the entire Bendigo corridor. There is a 17 page Executive Summary. The conclusions pick up many issues MRRA has raised over recent years (great minds think alike?). It will be interesting to see the Monograph 4 recommendations that flow from the work done so far.
"Change and Continuity In Peri Urban Australia" - First Report Of Federal Study Now Available
(7/8/07 - P) Critically important study looks at rapid growth in semi-rural areas on the fringe of capital cities
Monograph 1 is the first in a series of works addressing this under-studied area of planning (be warned, it is more than 300 pages long). The first publication is a review of peri-urban literature and experience which analyses research, identifies issues to inform later project work and examines governance, sectoral and cross-sectoral issues, policy and institutional responses. The second and third monographs will focus on two Australian peri-urban regions: The Bendigo corridor north west of Melbourne, and the Extended Western corridor to the west of Brisbane. The fourth will model possible future land use, development and management scenarios based on business-as-usual, interventionist and deregulated options.
The Change and Continuity Study is being undertaken with funding and support from the Federal Department of Environment and Heritage (now Environment and Water) - Land and Water division, along with Griffith University in Queensland, and RMIT in Melbourne. To go to the Land and Water website to access Monograph 1, click www.periurban.org.au
MRRA Says:
The two areas referred to as being under close study are, we believe, Macedon Ranges, and Beaudesert (Qld). MRRA can hardly wait for the next stage of the Study to be released.
Macedon Ranges was the subject of a previous Federal study in 1976. That report found the stringent planning controls put in place by the Hamer State government in 1975 were not only appropriate, but that planning controls introduced for the Dandenong and Macedon Ranges were, together, a shining example of great planning and should be a template for the nation. What ever happened to that kind of thinking...
Note: We weren't completely sure what a monograph was so we looked it up. From Wikipedia: A monograph is a scholarly book or a treatise on a single subject or a group of related subjects, usually written by one person. It is a one-time publication that is complete in itself. It may refer to a detailed, well-documented work on a limited subject or a person. So there you go...