Car parking, Councillors, Manningham Council, Town House Style Development, VCAT 15 comments

BUILT FORM OUT OF NEIGHBOURHOOD CHARACTER

By on June 19th, 2018

COUNCIL BIAS SIDELINES WINBROOK CRESCENT OWNERS

Unit developments have to be well designed, site responsive and must not adversely impact on neighbours, the surrounding environment, streetscape or existing neighbourhood character as per clause 21.05 in the Manningham Strategic Statement  (MSS) of the Manningham Planning Scheme.

Winbrook Crescent High Quality Neighbourhood Character

It seems that the Council have not taken into account a recent VCAT decision where the member Taranto ruled against a development that proposed three storey buildings on a site area of less than the mandatory minimum land size which only permitted two storeys.

“The height prescribed, Continue reading BUILT FORM OUT OF NEIGHBOURHOOD CHARACTER →

Apartments, Car parking, Manningham Council, Traffic Congestion, Transport, VicRoads 12 comments

HILL PROJECTS ON HOLD AS UNIT PRICES DECLINE

By on June 1st, 2018

Oversupply, poor transport, tougher lending conditions and higher mortgage rates, particularly for investor loans, are contributing to the free fall in Doncaster Hill apartment prices. Median property valuations in Melbourne and Sydney are expected to drop by up to $1000 a week this year with additional falls in 2019, Shane Oliver, chief economist of AMP Capital, told the Financial Review.

“UNITS LOOK MUCH MORE VULNERABLE THAN SINGLE DWELLINGS”

Bunnings Store and 258 Apartments Delayed
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The Bunnings three stage development on Doncaster Hill could be a risky venture for Wesfarmers who have just abandoned its disastrous attempt to expand its Warehouse chain into the United Kingdom and Ireland, and have sold the business for a single British pound after having invested $705 Million.

The Doncaster Road proposal, is to be built in three stages. The first stage, which was to have started early last year, will include the construction of Continue reading HILL PROJECTS ON HOLD AS UNIT PRICES DECLINE →

Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Global Cooling, Global Warming, Goupthink, IPCC 28 comments

HERD MENTALITY, MOB MENTALITY & GROUPTHINK

By on May 11th, 2018

 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DRIVE FOR CONSENSUS AT ANY COST

“It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints”. Paul MacCrae.

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The overwhelming need for many individuals to blindly and unquestioningly follow others is commonly known as ‘mob mentality’ , ‘herd mentality’ or ‘Groupthink’.
It is a manifestation of consensus thinking and blind adherence to peer group pressure irrespective of the facts or consequences. Most sensible people who are not financially dependent upon the climate change gravy train are sensible enough to fully realise man cannot control climate and extreme weather. Yet, incredible though it may seem, there still remain some, who are otherwise intelligent, who still believe the claims of reversible Continue reading HERD MENTALITY, MOB MENTALITY & GROUPTHINK →

Bottled Water, Dehydration, Fossil Fuels, Plastic From Oil, Plastics 10 comments

THE DEHYDRATION SCAM TO SELL BOTTLED WATER

By on April 26th, 2018

“DON’T WAIT UNTIL YOUR THIRSTY TO DRINK WATER”

The original marketing campaign for a water consumption habit was to convince people that dehydration is dangerous. The message was that you should carry a bottled of water with you at all times. Better to pay 300 times more for bottled water than from the tap and risk your health.

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We thank Judith of Donvale who gathered information for this item. There was a time when people drank because they were genuinely thirsty. People in office jobs didn’t give hydration much thought beyond refilling their cups at the morning tea break. When we attended University, no one carried water into the classrooms. Now at least one out of three students carry a water bottle. This can be attributed to the media’s false advertising that tells us we should be drinking eight glasses of water per day even if we are not thirsty. There is no difference between a glass from the bottle or the tap they are the same as far as the health and nutritional quality are concerned. Continue reading THE DEHYDRATION SCAM TO SELL BOTTLED WATER →

Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gases, RICO 17 comments

AGW ALARMIST WANTED RICO TO SILENCE DENIERS

By on April 14th, 2018

Environmental activists thought they had found a new weapon to use in their battle with global warming realists: the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a law enacted by Congress in 1978 to battle the mafia. Environmentalists had hoped to use RICO to criminalize any exercise of free speech that was critical of their extreme views on climate change.

Rico Act 1978       Image Watts Up with that

The Left Exposed reported On September 1, 2015,  that Jadadish Shukla, whose group the Institute of General Environment and Society (IGES), are alleged to have received up to $81.3 million in Federal funding. Under the guise of (IGES), and one of several groups,  had issued a letter to the Attorney General and President along with 20 additional signatories, calling for a Federal investigation into possible “racketeering” and collaboration among entities questioning the science behind “climate change.” Dear President  Continue reading AGW ALARMIST WANTED RICO TO SILENCE DENIERS →

Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Climate Change, Global Cooling, Global Warming, Solar Radiation, Weather 26 comments

MILANKOVITCH CYCLE A TIMETABLE FOR ICE AGES ?

By on March 26th, 2018

“Orbital variations (eccentricity) remain the most thoroughly examined mechanism of climatic change on time scales of tens of thousands of years and are by far the clearest case of a direct effect of changing insolation (the amount of solar radiation) on the lower atmosphere of the Earth”                                  (National Research Council of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1982).

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After about 50 years, Milankovitch’s theory was largely ignored. Then, in 1976, a study published in the journal Science examined deep-sea sediment cores and found that Milankovitch’s theory did in fact correspond to periods of climate change. Specifically, the authors were able to extract the record of temperature change going back 450,000 years and found that major variations in climate were closely associated with changes in the tgeometry (eccentricity, obliquity, and Precession) of Earth’s orbit. Indeed, ice ages had occurred when the Earth was going through different stages of orbital variation. “A model of future climate based on the observed orbital-climate relationships, but ignoring anthropogenic effects, predicts that the long-term trend over the next 7,000 years is toward Continue reading MILANKOVITCH CYCLE A TIMETABLE FOR ICE AGES ? →

Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gases, Overpopulation 13 comments

CARRYING CAPACITY AND POPULATION OVERSHOOT

By on March 15th, 2018

“We are dealing with two opposing forces, the scientific power of food production and the biologic power of human reproduction. … There can be no permanent progress in the battle against hunger until the agencies that fight for increased food production and those that fight for population control unite in a common effort.” .These comments by Norman Borlaug brings to mind the equally exasperated comment by Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson when he wrote…“The raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its presence, sustainability is but a fragile theoretical concept.”

Carrying Capacity
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Population From 1950
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Paul Chefurka describes carrying capacity as a well known ecological term that has an obvious and fairly intuitive meaning: “the maximum population size of a species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water and other necessities available in the environment.

Unfortunately that definition becomes more nebulous the closer you look at it – especially when we start talking about the planetary carrying capacity for humans. Ecologists claim that our numbers have already surpassed the carrying capacity of the planet, while others (notably economists and politicians…) claim we are nowhere near it yet! Continue reading CARRYING CAPACITY AND POPULATION OVERSHOOT →

Infertility, Plastic Garbage, Plastic to Oil, Public Health, Waste Management 11 comments

SPERM COUNT DECLINE MORE A WORRY THAN AGW

By on March 1st, 2018

Forget about trying to prove Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). By far the most pressing problem is the threat of human extinction as sperm counts continue to fall. Sperm counts have plunged by nearly 60 per cent in just 40 years among men living in the West, according to a major review of scientific studies which suggests that the modern world is causing serious damage to men’s health.

Haaritz News Photo

Pesticides, hormone-disrupting chemicals, diet, stress, smoking and obesity have all been “plausibly associated” with the problem, which is associated with a range of other illnesses such as testicular cancer and a generally Continue reading SPERM COUNT DECLINE MORE A WORRY THAN AGW →

Apartments, Home Ownership, Housing Affordability, Leaving the Nest 10 comments

WHY MORE ADULT CHILDREN ARE LIVING AT HOME

By on February 18th, 2018

It is not surprising to read that one in five people in the 25 to 29 age group are still living with their parents, many of whom had left and returned after getting into financial difficulties through no fault of their own. There were so many reasons, a marriage breakdown caused by a partner wanting to maintain a life style beyond their means, those who became addicted to drugs, alcohol or gambling or had lost their savings on poor quality “dead end” real estate products such as high rise units.

Reasons For living at home
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By Carolyn. Rosenblatt

People keep living longer. Longevity usually leads to expensive costs of care.  Parents spend their savings and eventually need to sell the family home because one elder (sometimes both) needs cash to cover assisted living, home care workers or other care  giving arrangements.  By the time one parent needs full time care in or outside the home, there may be no other choice and the parents want to put that house on the market.  As they age they elect not to be homeowners any longer, or they want to move closer to other family members. In numerous parts of the country it’s a good time to sell with low interest rates and rising home values. Their dependent live-in adult children are unwilling to leave the parents’ home.  It’s our observation after seeing many of these situations that there is typically something Continue reading WHY MORE ADULT CHILDREN ARE LIVING AT HOME →

Apartments, Car Ownership, High Density developments, Manningham Council, Traffic Congestion, VicRoads 15 comments

CAR DEPENDENCY THE DONCASTER HILL DILEMMA

By on February 3rd, 2018

 TRAFFIC CONSULTANT’S REMARKS AND RECOMMENDATION

“A strategy based largely on car dependency (or existing travel patterns) to service future development is likely to return back to pre-1997 congestion levels on main roads through the study area. However, the performance of these scenarios is unsatisfactory in the PM Peak periods and as such demonstrates the need to accept a lower development density if travel behaviour is not changed”.

Freeway Peak Hour
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2001 Volume Estimates
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“The clearest statement about how to achieve the broad aims of the Strategy are to change people’s travel behavior by encouraging increased public transport use and to reduce the level of car dependency. Council policies and guidelines will form a key element of this task, with Council acting as an advocate of change in travel conduct”.

Preliminary work by consultants had based their reports on there being an integrated transport  system for the centre which suggested that it would have all three modes of transport made available, the promise of a railway station on Doncaster Hill and an extension of the Tram line, however were never more than political skulduggery. As early as 2002, Continue reading CAR DEPENDENCY THE DONCASTER HILL DILEMMA →