Posts Tagged ‘suburbs’
The end of suburbia: and the beginning of what?
Posted in Events by EcoCentre on January 13th, 2012
| 23 January , 2012 | ||
| 7:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
Join us for a FREE Film & Discussion Night. Monday 23 January 2012, 7pm @Port Phillip EcoCentre
The urban sprawl of Melbourne is reaching further and further, taking habitat for wildlife and prime land for growing food. It makes us more and more dependant on cars and doesn’t provide a space for a thriving neighbourhoods and engaged communities. With growing Australian population we all need a space to live but why instead of being more resourceful are Australian houses are getting bigger and bigger?
How do we deal with all these tensions? What is our outlook for the problem for the upcoming years?
Before solving all these issues let’s step back and watch a documentary: ‘The End of Suburbia’ (2004, Gregory Greene) that provides us with the historical background on how suburbs came to being in the USA and what are the challenges that face these places and their habitants.
After the screening join us for a snack and fun activities during which we will explore alternatives to a typical suburbian urban sprawl. Share your experience about the challenges of current housing realm.
Address: 55A Blessington St, St Kilda
Contact us:
- phone: 03 9534 0670
- e-mail: reception@ecocentre.com
- event’s website: http://www.ecocentre.com/node/703
To get the gist of what we will be talking about see this amazing short animation An Urban Sprawl Thinking Piece: http://vimeo.com/8001833
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Stringybark Suburban Sustainability Festival 2011
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on October 12th, 2011
| 15 October , 2011 | ||
| 16 October , 2011 |
Stringybark 2011 Knox’s own national festival celebrating sustainability in the suburbs.
USE LESS – WASTE LESS – PAY LESS – LIVE SMARTER
Knox City Council’s Stringybark Festival is Australia’s longest running sustainability festival.
The event focuses on ‘suburban sustainability’ and aims to engage, educate and entertain people of all ages through seven key sustainability zones of interactive workshops, and presentations of sustainable products and concepts.
- ENERGY Harnessing the power of the sun, wind, geo-thermal and others, through new alternative technologies that save you money and save the planet
- WATER Water conservation, rain water systems, grey and black water recycling and ways to stop our dams from emptying
- BIODIVERSITY Conservation, the environment, native flora and fauna and everything about the beautiful planet we live on
- SUSTAINABLE HOME Alternative cleaning, clothing and beauty products, food and drink and what you can easily do to make your own home more sustainable
- TRANSPORT Walking, cycling, public transport, electric vehicles and every way to prevent traffic pollution
- RECYCLING Refusing, reducing, reusing and recycling plus what we can make out of what we throw away
- COMMUNITY Sustainability in education, health and wellbeing, young and old, diverse cultures and interests celebrating our community
In addition, an extensive market of fair trade and locally produced, handmade crafts, entertainment and music, organic produce and food demonstrations and workshops will be delivered by community groups, business partners, Knox City Council staff and volunteers.
10 am – 5pm, Saturday & Sunday 15-16 October 2011
Rowville Community Centre Reserve, Fulham Road, Rowville (Melway 81 K1)
Kids/Concession $2, Adult $3, Family $7 – Entry is free if you travel by bike, foot or public transport (there is a festival shuttle bus)
Visit the website or download the flyer for more information.
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The Housing We’d Choose: Grattan Report Launch
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on June 20th, 2011
| 27 June , 2011 | ||
| 5:45 pm | to | 7:00 pm |
Image: monkeyc.net via flickr CC
Ask Australians what kind of home they want, and odds are they will say a detached house on a big block. The new report from the Grattan Cities Program, The Housing We’d Choose, shows that when residents are asked to make real-world trade-offs between housing and location, the picture is far more varied. The report examines both what Australians say they want from housing in their cities, and the incentives that make it difficult for new construction to meet this demand. Come and hear Grattan Cities Program Director Jane-Frances Kelly in conversation with John Daley on the challenges to Australian cities and governments presented by The Housing We’d Choose.
Monday 27 June 2011
Registration at 5:45 pm Seminar 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
The Wheeler Centre 176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne VIC 3000
For further information please telephone 03 8344 3637 or visit our website at www.grattan.edu.au
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Stringybark Festival 2010
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on October 9th, 2010
| 16 September , 2010 | ||
| 17 October , 2010 |
Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 October 2010
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A City of Short Distances: VEIL at the Stringybark Sustainability Festival
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on October 15th, 2009
Design: Jessica Bird, RMIT
Knox City Council’s Stringybark Festival is spread across five acres of the Rowville Community Centre reserve.
Attracting more than 20,000 visitors, the festival is one of the most significant community environmental festivals on the national calendar. In 1984, Rowville sat on Melbourne’s semi-rural fringe and Stringybark was Australia’s premier conservation- based environmental festival. Today, Knox City Council is at the apex of one of this country’s largest suburban growth corridors and Stringybark now showcases a contemporary sustainability program that more accurately reflects its own current day suburban context both in practical terms and future vision.
“As the suburbs are where most people live, we believe they hold the key to our future.”
The Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab (VEIL) is proud to exhibit a selection of student designs from University of Melbourne, RMIT, Swinburne University and Monash University. The designs are set in the year 2032 and explore how Rowville could become a sustainable community, able to prosper despite peak oil and the inflation of petrol prices to more than $5.00 a litre. The 2009 way-of-living with cars is no longer affordable.
Report released on the impact of fuel and mortgages in Australian cities
Posted in Research by Ferne Edwards on September 4th, 2008
The abstract was recently listed on Australian Policy Online. Sustainble Melbourne readers will be interested to find that Melbourne is one of the cities as case studies in the report. To see the original document visit http://www.apo.org.au/linkboard/results.chtml?filename_num=227134.
Unsettling suburbia: The new landscape of oil and mortgage vulnerability in Australian cities
Jago Dodson and Neil Sipe / Urban Research Program, Griffith University
Posted: 26-08-2008
The devastating impact of soaring fuel and mortgage prices on Australian households is graphically revealed in the new Griffith University Urban Research Program VAMPIRE index. This paper describes the devastating impact of soaring fuel and mortgage prices on Australian households. The VAMPIRE index identifies the relative degree of socio-economic stress in suburbs in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
To read the full document visit http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/88851/urp-rp17-dodson-sipe-2008.pdf.