PIck of the week, Jackaroo
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 | 24-Jun-2011
Jackaroo
Michael Thornton
Penguin, $29.95
As Michael Thornton drew close to the day when his book was to be published, he was astounded that his was the first.
“I kept wondering if someone would beat me to the mark,” Thornton said before the launch of Jackaroo last evening in Melbourne.
“I said to my publishers, I can’t believe no one else has written about this. Either they haven’t felt their story is good enough, or they think they can’t write.”
Thornton himself is beset with doubts about his own worth and ability to tell the story about surviving the tough, sometimes brutish, experience of being sent as a 17-year-old to a sheep and cattle station.
Brought up by parents who refused to encourage him, even to this day Thornton can feel within his very soul that plunge of self-esteem that besets sensitive people.
Even though he is now the director of advancement at the Melbourne Business School, and even though he has written about and is sought-after as an expert on philanthropic fundraising, Thornton can fall back into the old habit of doubt and uncertainty.
“Do you think it’s self-indulgent claptrap?”, is more or less how he started the conversation about Jackaroo, and then he laughs.
“I do still remember as a boy being told, let a real boy do it,” he says.
“Being put down doesn’t ever wear off, it stays with you.
“And our education also knocks creativity out of you; so one of the reasons I wrote the book is to tell young people, don’t let it defeat you, follow your dreams.”
Jackaroo begins in 1970, when Thornton arrives to take up a job at Nareen, four years after he first took up a place at the infamous Habbies Howe station, under the revered and ruthless Dick Webb.
The book also ends at Nareen: Thornton had graduated in the school of self-respect, by working well and with thanks at the property of the future Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser.
He had been offered more money to work elsewhere, but he knew his time at Nareen would give him not only the contacts and experience, but the confidence he so needed.
“It was often tough, but compared with others who have written memoirs (he cites Barry Heard’s Vietnam memoir Well Done Those Men”, mine’s nothing, just a boy’s story really.”
Now he has spilled the beans on his own family, on those he worked with, and, with a few carefully chosen omissions, on the Frasers, he is sitting back and waiting to see the reaction.
The Thorntons still have a small cattle property at Taggerty, near Seymour in central Victoria. They are also struggling with the recent death of their son, from diabetes, coping each day with grief.
“Memoir is the most special kind of book,” Michael says.
“You really open yourself up for public view.
“Publishers talk about finding your own voice, and my wife says to me, you certainly have a voice!”
– Rosemary Sorensen
Online at www.bendigoweekly.com.au/book-club/ this week’s Top Ten, supplied by Dymocks Bendigo.
Join the bookclub, and we’ll keep you up to date with book news, and send you a book to say welcome: email bookclub@bendigoweekly.com.au.
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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