The property development maniacs running Australia have a new target in sight. If you were thinking about a tree-change or sea-change to escape their sardine can cities, then think again:
In this series focusing on the imminent transformation of Victoria’s regional cities, The Age explores how Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Albury-Wodonga will change in the coming decades.
It appears the CCP Ministry of Information has taken over the fake left. If the loaded language of “imminent transformation” wasn’t bad enough, try the article itself on for size:
In 2010, your correspondent spent a year in Ballarat and rented one of those classic three-bedroom period weatherboard houses that have helped define the regional city’s architectural character.
This house, like most others nearby, was a roomy single-storey dwelling on a spacious block.
The local creeks and vast stretches of grassy open space beside the train line gave this suburban pocket of Ballarat East an almost semi-rural feel. Yet, it was less than three kilometres from the city’s CBD.
But this old neighbourhood will look entirely different in coming decades. Ballarat East is among the established suburbs earmarked for greater residential development as the population soars.
Newcomers might look to Ballarat for affordable housing with land. But planners say apartment living is an inevitable part of the city’s future.
Forget about it. There will be no added infrastructure or affordable accommodation. That is not the plan.
The plan is to build as many apartments in as many neighbourhoods as possible without considering what it will do to amenities, environment or living standards.
It’s not a bug in the system. It is a feature.
The job of the fake left media is to cover this up by pretending there is a plan, then scolding those who didn’t have a plan as living standards crumble, before demanding a plan in retrospect.
Rinse and repeat.
What is the payoff for fake left media in this?
Simple. Nine owns Domain. It is its only growing asset. So, it protects it with corrupt journalism. Such as this:
Brendan Wrigley, who opened a cafe in the centre of Ballarat in 2020, hopes this soon becomes a reality.
“Having a greater density of people living in the middle of town – you’ll see those areas come to life a bit more. That can only be a positive.”
For who, Brendan? You, mate. But nobody else.
This is the new Ballaratian. Gone will be the farmers and industry purpose built by previous generations. Creating value-added goods to sell into global markets, deepening capital and lifting living standards.
In their place will be a hoard of Lilliputian globalists with the grand ambition of serving coffee, wedged between Thai massage joints, and fantastical retro barber shops. In a word, “vibrancy”.
They will churn capital, not deepen it, and only be able to grow if the population ponzi scheme continues as living standards keep on falling.
Until one day, Ballaratians will glance out the window to see an endless vista of ragged and crush-loaded urban sprawl.
And the fake left press will ask, “Where is the plan?”
