The Reserve that bears the name of this long serving Town Clerk of the City of Port Melbourne has been transformed with the planting of many trees, and the re-location of a plaque that marks his contribution to a more prominent spot. A red flowering gum - a particular favourite of Mr Jackson - has been planted alongside the re-located plaque.
John Holland/Melbourne Water has begun dismantling the worksite for the Melbourne Main Sewer at Swallow St. The road opening at Swallow/Ross/Byrne will be re-instated where it was before the works began. Following meetings with residents, changes have been made to the design to make it safer for pedestrians. Landscaping improvements will also be incorporated. This road opening provides important local access from Garden City to Bay St - so that residents can avoid Williamstown Road and Graham St.
In addition, Port Melbourne will receive its share of funding for any programme that rols out through the City such as tree planting, pedestrian safety improvements and small parks.
Port beat Geelong by 41 points yesterday at North Port Oval and remains unbeaten in the competition this season. I wasn't there so can you tell - was there anything memorable about the game?
There has been some criticism of the City of Yarra recently for discouraging the use of gas heaters for outdoor dining. They were ridiculed for recommending the use of blankets - something I had heard was common in cycle friendly Copenhagen. I was interested when in Martin St, Brighton recently to see blankets in action.
image with thanks to Fat Cat Spencer http://www.spencersguide.orgThe meeting will be at St Kilda from 6pm
"Walking for us is low keyed, semi spontaneous and just part of our life pattern, up to twice per week, near the Yarra and bush, from 4 - 11 ks, usually with a sandwich and a thermos of tea, or occasionally a light lunch at Abbotsford Convent Bakery. . . As we travel past Princes Pier we usually wonder when it will ever be completed for us all as a venue to further appreciate our seafront, and also when Ghost bus route 606, as a viable public transport facility, as proposed by CoPP, will ever be forthcoming. We also aprpeciate the big bins, and fishing line disposal bins along the Webb Dock East access walkway. Its gentle happy fun."
The planning applications for 19 to 25 Nott St, and 41 Nott St were approved by Council last night with refinements to some of the conditions on the permits.
A new section of granitic path is being installed in Murphy's Reserve as part of the masterplan commitment to create a walking/running/access path around the Reserve. You can [just!] see the gate to Dig In community garden in the background. Dig In has not been accessible until now. The path parallel to Williamstown Rd is under construction at the moment.
Holy Trinity played a big role in the community life and history of Port Melbourne. In the late 1990s, the church was sold and re-developed. Sacred items from the Church were dispersed. A small congregation has held together since Con and Sally Apokis went to live and work in England. Now Holy Trinity is coming back to life under the direction of the Reverend Noel Whale. The beautiful church hall is now dedicated to church. Services are held at 10 am on Sundays. Noel Whale is in the Church on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays and he'd be glad to meet you if you dropped in.
"The competition's benchmark, Port Melbourne, answered what was supposed to be its biggest challenge so far with an emphatic 64 point thrashing of reigning premier North Ballarat at Eureka Stadium yesterday" [Brent Diamond, Sunday Age, June 19, 2011, p16]
Just returned from a forum hosted by a collaboration of local community organisations to provide accessible information on carbon pricing and climate change science. John Thwaites, now the chair of Climate Works, described the difference between a carbon tax and an emissions trading scheme - a critical difference being that a trading scheme includes a cap on emissions, while a tax does not. Peter Christoff, from the University of Melbourne, was forceful in spelling out the climate consequences of the emission reduction targets that are set. Should our emissions continue to track on current trends we are likely to face warming of 4 degrees whereas most scientists agree that warming of 2 degrees is the absolute maximum for a safe climate. All speakers rued the lack of bi-partisanship in tackling climate change and contrasted this with Germany and the UK. We were reminded that Australia is the biggest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. Speakers agreed that any revenues arising from a carbon tax should be directed towards assisting low income households [for whom energy costs are a higher proportion of expenditure than a higher income households] and reserved to deal with the high costs of climate change adaptation. It was emphasised that any action taken now will be cheaper than action taken later. Peter Christoff emphasised that energy efficiency technologies are known and available to implement right now. Thwaites said in response to a question that only 18% of the anticipated rise in the price of electricity is attributable to the carbon price - the rest is for network and infrastructure improvements to meet our growing demand for electricity.
Council will consider two planning applications for Nott St, between Beach and Rouse St, at the Statutory Planning meeting on Monday 20th. The applications are for 19 to 25 Nott St and for 41 Nott St. Both applications are for 6 level buildings. The Council meeting is on Monday evening at St Kilda Town Hall at 6pm. These are the only planning applications on the agenda so they will be considered straight away. The report can be accessed from here.
Just wanted to let you know that I was away at the weekend planting trees in Jeparit, in north west Victoria. City of Port Phillip has a friendship with the Shire of Hindmarsh. Do you have any connections with this area that includes Nhill, Rainbow, Jeparit and Dimboola? Then briefings and the Council meeting to late last night followed by back to back meetings today. I will be back on deck with Port Melbourne news tomorrow.
All reports are available on Council's website or here
'Fitzroy's ... auctioned a recording studio in Port Melbourne for $3,425,000. The strongly contested auction and sale of 111 Nott Street resulted in a yield of $5385 a square metre of land. The property was one of the last remaining building sites in the area.' [Age Business Day p9]
Victoria's marine emblem - the weedy sea dragon amongst seagrass
Today I attended the final presentations of student landscape architects from RMIT on a project to improve the area underneath the Graham St overpass. Each of the students brought inventive and transformative ideas to this unlovely space by encouraging activity and improving the aesthetic. Many people have identified that lack of lighting makes them feel unsafe under the overpass. RMIT is exploring the use of a material that absorbs and then emits light - you can see a square of the material on trial here. I am very attached to those sailing boats but they weren't picked up as a theme in any of the presentations.
A second demonstration day was held with Hobsons Bay Obedience Dog Club at Garden City Reserve this morning. Several local families with their dogs joined in to trial the Club. It is proposed to build a modest structure adjacent to the Trugo Club, still within the fenced area of the Trugo Club, [at the Beacon Road end] where the HBODC will take registrations.
Port beat the Werribee Tigers 17 9 111 to 13 14 92. Port wasn't looking too good in the third quarter but they pulled away in the final quarter to finish with a goal on the siren. Port continues top of the ladder. The game was marred by an incident of racial vilification against the Tigers' Sudanese born Majak Daw. 'A spectator at the game ... was escorted from the ground by the police at half time, after members from both teams had told security and the police. ... AFL Victoria football operations manager John Hook said there would be ramifications for the offender. "The good thing about it is we know who he is now and clubs don't tolerate it and we don't tolerate it. We're all about encouraging multi-culturalism into our footy. There's no place for people like that."' Brent Diamond the age.com.au/sport
Happened to be making my way home from St Kilda today as the 606 bus pulled up outside Luna Park. The fabulously friendly driver welcomed me as well as all the school students making their way back to Port. He knew every student on board and greeted some by name. What a service! He has been driving the route for 18 years, and remembers when the service ran half hourly to service Kraft, Holden and other Fishermens Bend industries. It reminded me that we haven't heard anything for a while about the promised 606 route upgrade. I will follow up.
