Alistair Knox Recalls 1969
A year later the largest housing firm in the country purchased an area of two hundred thirteen acres on the far bank of the Yarra River in Templestowe and brought changes to the regulations to allow it to be changed from a rural to a built-up area. The minister for local government was Rupert Hamer, who later became premier in the wake of Sir Henry Bolte. Hamer had granted an active group, the Yarra Valley Defence Committee, an audience to hear their views on the future of the Yarra Valley, our great green finger that reached from the high country through the city to the sea. Its course included several tributaries that meandered over the Melbourne landscape to make it a conservative but unique city of restrained mood, in keeping with its peaceful, middle-class inhabitants. I attached myself to this effort as the Natural Development Association representative in order to frustrate the scheming land-developers' efforts to turn to profit every bypassed area in the Greater Melbourne Plan, which comprised an area of almost two thousand square miles.
The first indication of their designs on the Yarra Valley in the Eltham area occurred when Jann Merton, a vigilante lady, saw a small sign, on the subject land, applying for its change of use. In due course the battle lines were drawn, and we all found ourselves debating the issue one Friday morning in the RSL hall at Templestowe. If someone disapproves any change of land use that requires planning approval, he is called an objector and finds himself at an immediate disadvantage. The developer is called the applicant, and he appears to be a quiet citizen in whose mouth butter would not melt; he patiently waits until his council throws a bone or a scrap to the grumpy, antediluvian objector who does nothing and resents anyone who does. Democracy may be a matter of argument and counter-argument, but in my thirty years of non-academic approach I have always found the slightly bloodshot, angry, unswerving eyeball a far more formidable ally. Most development occurs because the applicant is silently manipulating an uninformed, amorphous majority for his private gain. The last thing he wants is to be examined by a determined, searching eye that won't go away.
I believe that day at Templestowe was the apex of the great conflict for the City of Melbourne. It would decide, once and for all, the issue: that of the relationship between public open space and the manipulation that private ownership can impose on it. Sir Henry Bolte's Royal Botanic Gardens project and the Little Desert development were straws in the wind compared with this dagger to the heart. It was blatantly clear that if this battle were lost, any hope for an environmentally oriented city would go with it. The objectors were numerous but disorganised: Len Allen, the hard-working president of the Save the Yarra League; John Stover, the Doncaster City town planner; and other leading citizens gave a well-intentioned lead, but they failed to identify the applicant as an enemy bent on destroying a great natural heritage for short-term gain. The objectors were far too polite. In the afternoon, the land developers replied through their competent solicitor, who dwelt on the possibility of a golf course close to the river and an ideal natural environment for those privileged to live there; but they were understandably silent on the loss all of this would cause the local community or the whole city. By five o'clock, the application appeared to have been won. As we all went off to have a drink, the town planner said, 'Never mind, we'll win the next one'. 'John', I replied in a white rage, 'there will not be another one! This is it!' The process of a planning appeal allows the objector to be heard, followed by the applicant; then the objector has the right of reply to the applicant; finally, the applicant replies to the objector.
I went home and wrote my reply to the applicants with all the controlled venom I could muster. I attacked the concept and the applicant, without reservation. When I read my reply to the four other objectors, they were concerned that it was too abrasive; but my only thought was, how could it be otherwise if it were stating the truth? The second day of the hearing took place at the local-government office in the city. I was the final objector to speak, and I felt the applicant's council thought it 'was in the bag'. As I started reading my reply aloud from six typewritten sheets, I could feel the developer's advocate starting to grunt, as though my remarks were body blows at him. It was quite exhilarating. The attack was as successful as it was unexpected. Upon finishing, I handed my statement to Mr Chipman, the chairman of the inquiry, and waited for the applicant's reply. He spent the whole time trying to ameliorate what I had said; no one else rated a word, good or bad. I felt we had regained the ground we had lost on the first day, but I was also very aware of how difficult conservative governments can be about stifling any opportunity to exploit undeveloped land in the colonial situation.
Rupert Hamer was an exception. He made sure he would be the final arbiter, even though there would be a three-month wait while he was overseas. The whole issue was very much in the background on the Saturday morning I walked down to get the mail (when it was still part of our way of life to receive it six days a week). I opened a large duplicated letter from the local government, and was confused because it appeared to be a copy of my submission on the second day of the Westerfolds' Planning Application. It was only when I glanced at the final page and saw the statement 'The Appeal is therefore disallowed' and went back over the communication - to observe that whole paragraphs had been taken from my submission, with the word because prefixing it - that I realised the minister had used my argument to knock back the developers. No one could have any doubt about who saved the Yarra Valley at Eltham!
Source: A Middle Class Man: An Autobiography Chapter 44: Templestowe, town planning protests by Alistair Knox. Mirrored from https://alistairknox.org/chapters/115 with permission of Tony Knox 6Feb2023
No comments:
Post a Comment