Pick of the week: A Decline in Prophets
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 | 03-Jun-2011 1.53
A Decline in Prophets
Sulari Gentill
Pantera Press, $29.99
Reviewed by Brenda Stevens-Chambers
I have lost count of the recent publications of around 350 pages where I have wanted to do some serious pruning.
However, it was with some relief that I zoomed through A Decline in Prophets, by Australian writer Sulari Gentill, without picking up the shears.
A Decline in Prophets is a second “Rowland Sinclair Novel”, and there could be a third in the offering.
Rowland Sinclair is the novel’s handsome, gentlemanly protagonist. Rowly, as his friends affectionately call him, lives the life of an artist in Woollahra, Sydney. He is the younger son of a grazing dynasty, and absolutely rolling in money. His friends include Norman Lindsay (Gentill has great fun dropping names).
The novel opens with Rowly on board a luxury liner returning to Sydney, via New York.
With him are close Aussie friends: Enid a ditzy ‘‘sculptress’’ and two mates, one an artist, the other a lack-lustre poet. This lucky trio has been shouted by Rowly and share his Stateroom.
Rowly, whose mansion is adorned with paintings of nudes, may seem privileged, but he is smart: he helps solve several murders while magically escaping the same fate.
Rowley is surrounded by wealthy, educated eccentrics, all of a religious frame of mind. Annie is a Theosophist who is returning to New York while several other Theosophists are heading home to Sin City.
There is also an Irish Catholic Bishop, two Catholic deacons, and the Bishop’s wayward niece on board.
Gentill sets up a rollicking high-seas yarn topped off in Sydney with a fall from a bell tower and some shenanigans in a graveyard where Rowly has another close shave.
And then, Rowly is briefly considered a Prophet, the second gorgeously farcical idea that Gentill has some fun with.
Readers will find an interesting twist in the relationship between Rowly and his older brother Wilfred. Wilfred is a judgmental, manipulative conservative and Rowly experiences considerable character assassination as he struggles to please his bully of a brother.
The denouement is deft.
For this week’s Top Ten supplied by Dymocks Bendigo, www.bendigoweekly.com.au/book-club/
Winter readers’ BW Bookclub offer: Email bookclub@bendigoweekly.com.au and we will send you a new release paperback for your winter reading pleasure.
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.”
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