Victoria and the price of popularity

Victoria: it’s variously known as a state that’s “The Place To Be” or “On The Move”, depending on what licence plate you prefer. And it seems that not only Victorians, but people across Australia and internationally, believe the hype. The state is in the midst of a record growth spurt; the population went up by almost 77,000 in 2006-07, an increase of 1.5 per cent in just 12 months.

A growth in overall population by one million is expected by 2020, 10 years ahead of the State Government’s original estimates. And research completed by the University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport (GAMUT) in 2006 showed that while we may be on the move, cars remain our favoured form of transport to and from work (an increase of 70.1 per cent in the number of cars on the road since 1976).

Dr Carolyn Whitzman, from the University’s Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, says Victoria is clearly an attractive place for migration, especially for those after jobs and education. “Victoria is a really attractive option for students; we have good tertiary institutions that are teaching things that aren’t otherwise available in East and South-East Asia, and a third of people living in the City of Melbourne are students,” Dr Whitzman said.

“And I think that Australia, Melbourne in particular, has a good reputation as a tolerant country that is very liveable.”

Contrary to popular belief, the population boom has not come from interstate. In fact Victoria lost more than 2,000 people to net interstate migration in the last year. According to the latest Department of Immigration and Citizenship population flows data, the state’s top two source countries for immigration are India and China, with the UK and New Zealand not far behind that, with net overseas migration accounting for the majority of the state’s growth - more than 47,000 people - compared with almost 32,000 through natural increase.

The benefits of such rapid and expansive growth are many, according to Dr Whitzman.

“Some of the best, brightest and most enterprising people are ending up in Melbourne, and they’re changing arts, they’re changing commerce, they’re changing culture and it’s all for the positive, and to the benefit of people living in Melbourne,” she said.

“Australia, like many countries, is attracting young able-bodied workers who are going to support many of us into our retirement.”

In line with this year’s theme of the “Olympic Year”, Victoria is certainly going higher, faster. But is it making things better? Many of Victoria’s more than 200,000 public transport users would perhaps argue otherwise, and thousands of homeowners and renters alike have likewise been vocal in their angst in the current economic and social climate.

Their concerns about overcrowding are being steadily backed up by other critics, who go so far as to say that the record $1.8 billion promised in new infrastructure from last month’s state budget would only scratch the surface of what is needed.

These issues of functionality are becoming a pressing issue in many of Melbourne’s so-called satellite suburbs.

“The sustainability and infrastructure issues are the responsibility of all governments beholden, as they should be, to a populace which is reluctant to sacrifice a lifestyle which while comfortable, is tied in many cases to overpriced and poorly planned housing,” says Dr David Nichols, a lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Melbourne.

If nothing else, Melbourne’s booming suburban areas need to be functional, and increasingly, “green”.

“Functional really means that they (the suburbs) need to be relatively comfortable, that the required amenities are available and easily accessible, and that public transport is one of the top priorities when it comes to providing such amenities,” he said.

Dr Whitzman agrees. “We used to build out Melbourne by building a train station first and then by building a community around the train station. We really don’t do that anymore.”

Ian Woodcock, a Research Fellow in Urban Design at the University of Melbourne is helping more people understand the importance of sustainability in planning.

“To make low-density cities more sustainable, two main things need to happen: better utilisation of public transport and intensification of land use,” he said.

“A place that works this way will be one that is walk-able and accommodates cyclists and children, and one that is perceived as safer, due to the higher numbers of people in public space throughout the day.”

Increasingly, the word “sprawl” is being used to describe (in particular) Melbourne’s growth, and the negative perceptions associated with it are also cause for concern to planners trying to make our communities more functional.

Dr Nichols cites Dandenong, and more specifically Doveton, as an example of a satellite suburb developed post-World War II to solve a housing crisis and create a convenient employment-business-residential arrangement.

“Unfortunately it was based on manufacturing, which has died off since the 80s, and now it is one of just a number of areas that suffer from a lack of employment opportunities, and which therefore serve more as dormitory suburbs for commuters who travel to the city, than as symbiotic work-life suburban areas.”

Setting aside issues of infrastructure, how can we improve the use of our suburbs and spaces? Students at the Melbourne Graduate School of Design, under Mr Woodcock’s supervision, recently completed a series of “revitalisation and re-urbanisation” designs of the old Atherton Gardens site in Fitzroy as a case study. Though many people would associate the word “urban” with high-rise apartments, Mr Woodcock says that it’s important to note the different ways such towers can work.

“Urban can also mean diverse, vibrant, vital,” he said.

“In the case of apartment towers, they tend to reduce this urbanity because of the way that people connect with each other and the place they live in is organised by the buildings and large spaces around them - they are disconnected from everyday streets.
“This leads to loss of vitality, so any re-urbanisation process should also be called re-vitalisation, which comes back to intensification of use; higher residential densities with non-residential uses mixed in.”

This vitality is especially important when related to building communities, an aspect of planning that needs to be paid greater attention, according to most of the academics contacted for this article. Sue West, a Research Fellow at the University’s McCaughey Centre, has helped make such a building project easier, with the creation of a checklist for the development of a healthy, safe and socially connected community.

“Community wellbeing is enhanced when people feel they can contribute by saying what they desire for a community and when that community reflects those desires,” she says. “The size of the community being planned impacts on the level of community engagement. Participation and ownership by residents increases as the size of the community decreases.

“Some of the questions we ask are: will the development of a “local identity” reflect the physical and cultural values of the existing land and community? Have people in communities surrounding or near the precinct site been engaged in the Precinct Structure Plan development process, as well as future residents, where possible?”

Dr Whitzman believes that creating a local identity, particularly when associated with the high level of international immigration Victoria is having, is a vital and difficult task. “One of the dilemmas right now is that most of the migrant services are the in the central city, and more and more new migrants are getting priced out of the city. While there are great services that can assist new migrants with religious services or adult education, not many are properly funded and as a result they haven’t been able to keep up with where the new migrants are.

“There’s quite literally a price to pay for the benefits of migration. Right now we are suffering from an enormous pressure on social infrastructure in the middle and outer suburbs - schools, health care centres, community services, neighbourhood houses, all of those things that are necessary not just for new migrants but for anyone moving out there.”

While it’s clear Victoria needs migration - both incoming and outgoing - Dr Whitzman says that for the system to be successful, perceptions need to change. “I don’t agree with the notion that Australia as an ecosystem can support only ‘x’ many people or new migrants. The problems we have are not a function of the number of people, but of our way of life.”