News from the DCA

Greetings everybody

Christmas time is approaching again – seems to come around quicker every year. Anyhow it’s good to see the weather warming up! Given that, we’ve scheduled the DCA  Christmas Party for Wednesday, December 10 so put that in your diaries now. Venue to be decided and will be advised later.

It’s good to see some additional attractions and facilities being introduced into Docklands. We have the car museum at the southern end of the Esplanade, the library/ community centre with a boating hub to come nearby to that and the 2ha Western Park area being worked on at the end of Docklands Drive. We certainly need things like that, apart from other major items to be dealt with.

I met, on September 25, with senior managers from the City of Melbourne and Places Victoria to discuss some issues. Firstly provision of amenities in NewQuay, including our request for provision of a children’s playground near the main residential towers following the removal of a small one by the developer.  A site offered by council is not that central but better than originally proposed. Removal by the developer of some six mature palm trees, shrubbery and innovative boat-shaped planter boxes was also raised.

Discussion moved on to the Esplanade re-development. At an earlier meeting in September with the Docklands Steering Group, composed of senior managers from council and Places Victoria, a council manager stated that alleged windiness was the reason for proposing to put a string of sheds/ pavilions along the Esplanade. I argued that windiness occurs adjacent to buildings at either end due to the wind tunnel effect but the main open stretch is no worse than anywhere else and in fact more protected.

Funnily enough, the group met in the Hortus café situated in the centre of the stretch and no wind was present.  In any event however, at the more recent meeting the council manager stated wind is not the only reason for the sheds/ pavilions proposal but rather they believe the buildings will draw crowds more to inside markets and other activities. Of course the DCA argues that the proposed buildings will block the water views as well as deny badly-needed open space.

With so many buildings already crammed into Docklands, more buildings on the Esplanade will increase the sterility of the area and do nothing to improve its attractiveness. We plan to call in some expert opinion. Incidentally I had supplied the DSG with the results of our online survey showing that 76 per cent of 80 respondents voted for a linear park.

The managers stated they plan to present their plans at the next Docklands Community Forum in late October; also that as they don’t involve high-rise they don’t require approval by the Minister.
It’s surprising how determined council and Places Victoria are to enforce their own ideas. We’d be interested to know what companies in the area think.

We continue to liaise with other resident groups who are gearing up for the November state election. There’s a lot of argument about infrastructure not keeping up with population growth. Victoria’s population grew by 109,000 last year including 62,000 new migrants, so the Government needs to hasten infrastructure development.

Interestingly Lord Mayor Robert Doyle will debate the rate of population growth head-to-head with Kelvin Thomson Federal MP on Monday October 13 at Deakin Edge Building Federation Square commencing 6pm. It’s an open forum.

The Owners Corporation Network Victoria (OCNV) will hold its first committee meeting on November 6. A priority task will be to develop membership.

If any reader would like to become a member of the DCA or has any suggestions they wish to put forward regarding activities or issues, they are welcome to contact us on [email protected]  If you would like to talk to me about any aspect of becoming a committee member you are welcome to call me on 0412 097 706.  You can also keep up with things on our website http://www.docklandscommunityassociation.com

Regards to all
Roger Gardner
President DCA