A fair go for the humble book

BENDIGO’S residential Strategy will be reviewed because of greater than expected growth.

The State Government has announced a grant of $50,000 to carry out the review.

The review is needed because, according to the State Government, 40 per cent of the forecast growth between 2006 and 2031 had already been realised.

Regional Development Parliamentary Secretary Damian Drum made the announcement this morning.

Mr Drum said the Bendigo Residential Strategy Review would deliver greater community and investor certainty, helping the region grow.

“The Bendigo Residential Development Strategy was adopted in 2004 and is currently being audited because of the faster than anticipated growth that has occurred in Bendigo in recent years,” he said.

“Strong residential growth has many flow-on economic benefits and having a clear framework for future development will position Greater Bendigo City Council to undertake more detailed, place-based planning in the future.”

Deputy Premier Peter Ryan said about 40 per cent of the forecast growth between 2006 and 2031 had already been realised.

The Residential Strategy impacts directly on where and how property developments use “infill” parcels of land, range of housing styles and also on housing affordability.

“This project will review the strategy, assess current and estimated land supply and demand and consider various legislative and policy changes,” Mr Ryan said,

“It will also consider the latest demographic data and establish a new strategic framework to guide the long-term residential growth of Greater Bendigo.

“The project will result in a revised residential strategy that will give developers, the community and service providers greater surety and confidence about where land can be developed for residential purposes, and that sufficient land is available to accommodate the City of Greater Bendigo’s future growth.”

Mr Ryan said a contemporary strategic planning framework was essential to the economic development of a large regional centre like Bendigo.

“Clearly identifying future growth options and supporting infrastructure needs will enable the Greater Bendigo City Council and other infrastructure providers to plan their capital works programs well in advance,” he said.

“Identifying long-term growth areas will enable the council and other service authorities to start planning for the delivery of services, thereby minimising the lag time between when residential development occurs and when the services need to be in place.”

| Bendigo Weekly | 29-Apr-2011 4.3

Peter Unmack

Digital publishing is threatening book sales and downloading your favorite tome onto iPads and Kindles – the latest “portable book reader” – is apparently ‘de rigeur’.
Poppycock! The book is alive and well, proven without a doubt by the phenomenal success of the Bendigo Y-Service Club’s annual Book Fair, held last Easter Weekend at the YMCA.
A line of 400 snaked around Mundy Street’s block on Good Friday, people champing at the bit to be first through the doors at 9am,
to get their eager mitts on thousands of second-hand books.
Come close of business Easter Sunday, the volunteers who ran the three-day event – “the Y’s Men” as they are known – had seen over 3000 people, raise many, many thousands of dollars, and watched over 50,000 books walk out the door for another year.
Peter Unmack is the Y-Service Club secretary. He’s been involved in the Y’s Men for 49 years and started the Book Fair to raise funds for charity after getting the idea from a visit to America in 1978.
“The first year we took a profit of $50,” he grins when we chat on Good Friday eve.
“Most of the books were donated by the YMCA members and their families. Now we have a donation bin that’s emptied three to five times a week!”
It took about six to seven years for the public to weigh into the book drive that supports the Fair, but now says Peter, it’s “on for young and old”.
“Throughout the year we also source books from schools and libraries, and we get books from a collection point in Melbourne and deceased estates.”
An army of volunteers sort them weekly (of which my own dad Bob is one!), with damaged books going to recycling.
“The whole Club’s on a high at the end… it’s very social,” says Peter of the Fair.
“We have a cup of tea and cake each week at the book sorting – the fellowship’s fantastic”.
They sell for between 50 cents and $3.50, with booksets going for $10.
Of the people who come to the Easter sale Peter says “We get everyone. Lots of students looking for text books, older people, mothers and kids...”
“The support from the public has been quite incredible – some people wait for Easter to get their year’s supply of reading, and leave with boxes of books!”
The Fair has grown so big that the Y’s Men have brought in other groups to help.
“Some us are getting a bit old..” he smiles of the Y’s Mens’ predominantly septuagenarian membership.
“So this year we’ve brought in the scouts and some of the members from Kangaroo Flat.
And the Y-Service Women are invaluable – invaluable! They do a great job of keeping the books nice during the Fair”.
The money raised is donated to a wide variety of places, many youth-related: the Bendigo Youth Choir, the Discovery Centre, the YMCA’s B-Central Youth Hub, residential housing, local women’s support groups, with their latest sponsorship project being the Bendigo Inventor Awards.
But the burning question.. The art of reading and how we do it. Are books on the way out?
“Books aren’t dying,” declares Peter who was given a laptop for his 70th birthday.
“Downloading books is an alternative way of reading, but people still have the wish to read printed material and have the object in front of them”.
He won’t get an argument from me, nor the other thousands of locals who spent a good part of their Easter Weekend enraptured in the Y’s Mens’ wonderful world of books.