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Par for the course - Wooyung and Fortress Australia

By Malcolm King - posted Tuesday, 6 February 2007


So rich ageing boomers will see out their days playing golf in their own personal Fortress Australia? Golf becomes the core, existential reason for being. I golf, therefore I am. Who really believes the most politically active and vocal generation in the nations history is going to “grey out” playing golf? Clearly marketing people.

But as the “pig in the python” baby boomer demographic passes, what environmental legacies will the gated dwellers leave for the smaller generations coming behind them (especially those born in the 1970s) to inherit on the coast? Golf courses.

Here's another angle. To build a gated community with a golf course you need an abundance of one prime quality - water.

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What's the most valuable commodity Australian has? Water. And both gated-communities and golf courses are gluttons for water. The MCG uses about 40 million litres of water a year. The planned 81 hectare Wooyung development will use about 1120 million litres of water a year - and that's not including human consumption or allowing for evaporation.

So the cost is both social and environmental.

It works like this. Developers hire a team of spin doctors who tell the locals in “community consultations” that a gated community with a nine-hole golf course will bring tourists flocking to the local shops. More money will float around the local economy. Property prices will rise. It'll be economic sunshine from here on.

This is called the “multiplier effect” but unfortunately the amount of money bought in to a community by gated community tourists is very, very low. Economic geographers agree that no where in Australia have self sustaining gated communities substantially added to the social and or economic welfare of its nearest town(s) or hinterland.  Surely there has to be something in it for the locals?

Yes. A few local kids might get jobs in the kitchen or as waiters but the majority of hospitality staff are recruited by large city based HR companies who look for service sector graduates. Stores are bought wholesale and trucked in from the closest city. The large economies of scale of gated communities mean that they need large quantities of goods from wholesale markets, not local shops.

One would think that real estate agents up and down our coastal crescent would be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of more gated communities being built?

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No. As they're finding out in SE Queensland, why should people buy land, apartments or flats when they can live in a gated community? People aren't buyers. They're drive bys.

Gated communities infer a “quasi-citizenship” upon all those who can afford to belong to them and all those, such as the local fish and chip shop owner, the real estate agent, the video store proprietor or those trying to rent their holiday apartments, are left out in the cold.

“Kenny” - a local

Let me introduce you to “Kenny” who has lived in the area for 40 years and paid his taxes and rates. He's a bit rough around the edges but he's a member of Rotary and always helps at the sausage sizzle for the Nippers lifesaving carnival. He likes fishing and a beer.

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About the Author

Malcolm King is a journalist and professional writer. He was an associate director at DEEWR Labour Market Strategy in Canberra and the senior communications strategist at Carnegie Mellon University in Adelaide. He runs a writing business called Republic.

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Wooyung Defenders

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