Larvatus Prodeo

10 Responses to “Picture this”

1. 1 TimT
   Jul 6th, 2008 at 10:56 am

   Love it. The community housing play area behind the high fencing is a bit of a worry, though.

2. 2 Paul Burns
   Jul 6th, 2008 at 11:37 am

   Like the bird.

3. 3 Darlene
   Jul 6th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

   Yes, the play area is a bit depressing. It’s not meant to be the most up-beat series of photos, I guess.

   There’s always something fun about seeing all these statues of important historical figures with birds on their noggins. This one’s a statue of a famous explorer/Australian mythological legend and he’s got a bird on his nut. I saw some Japanese tourists having a right old laugh at a statue experiencing the same predicament the other day.

4. 4 Shingle
   Jul 6th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

   I think the second one should be titled ‘Give me a home among the gum trees’.

   A burst of nostalgia as I used to walk past these places regularly in a previous life.

   Anyone see the photo essay in the last Griffith Review featuring the flats in Flemington (similar housing commish) incorporating a community garden with a pretty sweet scarecrow in pink hijab - and the last photo in the essay reminded me of the Geoffrey Smart painting ‘Expressway’…

5. 5 nasking
   Jul 6th, 2008 at 1:04 pm

   That apartment building is downright ugly. I’d rather see medium-density eco housing/flats built &/or suburbs w/ compact, energy/water-saving homes w/ bird attracting/drought resistant plants. No McMansions. Even caravan parks can be made pleasant.

   I’ve seen too many apartment buildings become rundown, criminal producing, morale zapping, poverty traps over the years.

   However, existing apartments & rundown areas can be improved, greened up:

   http://www.bgci.org/wellbeing/bronx_green-up/

   Interesting photos Darlene.

6. 6 Darlene
   Jul 6th, 2008 at 1:14 pm

   Thanks, Shingle. Interesting about the photos in the Griffith Review and about the scarecrow attired in the hijab. Says a lot about the changing population of the commish flats. Riding my bike through the flats at Carlton a couple weeks ago, I was greeted by some girls decked out in the most glorious looking hijabs. Such colour. Presumably, in years gone by the flats mostly housed the Anglo working poor.

   Thanks, nasking. The Green-up program is a great initiative. Medium density would absolutely be preferable. Those flats stick out into the sky like some ugly apparition, which is no comment on the people who live there. The neighbourhood also contains some of the most ridiculously over-priced real estate. The sort of homes that used to belong to the working poor.

7. 7 David Rubie
   Jul 6th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

   INVISIBLE ARK

8. 8 TimT
   Jul 6th, 2008 at 4:52 pm

   I recognise the pics - Nasking, the flats are the community housing developments that appear in a couple of Melbourne suburbs, quite in contrast with the rest of Melbourne’s (typically) one/two/three story developments. I generally like big buildings, but not when they are clearly out of character with the rest of the area.

   I seem to recall that there are community housing developments in Sydney that look exactly the same, so maybe it was a Federal Government initiative from the 70s, or something.

   There are a number of attractive or at least interesting multi-story developments in Melbourne south of the Yarra, in the rich St Kilda/South Melbourne/Port Melbourne area.

   That bird is pretty cool!

9. 9 TimT
   Jul 6th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

   Oh, forgot to add, just on this point

   The neighbourhood also contains some of the most ridiculously over-priced real estate. The sort of homes that used to belong to the working poor.

   There’s a book out which deals with this subject - Renovation Nation. According to a review in The Weekend Oz, it argues that Australian’s are obsessed with homes, at the expense of the city at large. “Australia’s homes glisten while the cities crumble” is the summary of the reviewer. (I don’t think the link’s online.)

10. 10 Shingle
    Jul 6th, 2008 at 6:55 pm

    “I seem to recall that there are community housing developments in Sydney that look exactly the same, so maybe it was a Federal Government initiative from the 70s, or something.”

    It’s funny isn’t it that there was that vision to take the poor out of the slums of Carlton and other inner areas (now gentrified, expensive real estate) and place them in a modern, highrise, ‘clean’ environment…

    But then, even with the bleakness of those apartments, I wonder if it may have been a better time for public housing policy than now. I worry that there’s probably a huge need now for public housing with the affordability issues, yet wouldn’t the cost of setting up new public housing be prohibitive now with the land values etc…? Sorry - don’t really know what I’m talking about but it does concern me).

    I’ve a friend in the UK who is really involved in public housing and it sounds very different over there - much bigger investments made etc (though I haven’t talked to him about it for a while).

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