Conservation and heritage expert Max Bourke: all praise to ‘Not in my backyard’. Photo: Australian Garden History Society.
Canberra should thank its much-derided NIMBYs for holding the line against the government and developers intent on building on the city’s vital greenspaces, according to a veteran conservation and heritage expert.
The inaugural Director of the Australian Heritage Commission, Max Bourke, delivered the ACT National Trust’s inaugural ACT Heritage Oration at Albert Hall as part of the ACT Heritage Festival.
ACT Heritage Minister and Greens MLA Rebecca Vassarotti was in the audience so Mr Bourke’s comments at the business end of his speech had particular currency for the government as it presses on with its contentious planning reforms and infill policies.
Mr Bourke said his strongest hope was for the ongoing struggle of NIMBYs, who were often derided, but citizen action and grievance such as theirs were major motivating forces in protecting the environment.
“If the aim of a group of rational people is to protect their environment, then all praise to ‘Not in my backyard’,” he said.
He said concerned citizens were the true keepers of the environment.
“Government agencies can easily fall into the rhythms of the government of the day and legislation to protect can be so cumbersome and often ignored that it is the role of the small and large forces of citizen action that is the only hope of, for the most part, slowing, not inhibiting, the steady loss of the things we want to keep,” Mr Bourke said.
Citizen groups faced an exhausting prospect of endless so-called government ‘consultations’ against a background of clearly conflicting government positions.
“Recently, I have observed and participated in a local example where the government is relentlessly increasing density, while we know full well the effects of tree loss and heat islands, which sets the background to pointless government inquiries into ‘nature in the city’,” Mr Bourke said.
“But we continue to make submissions and sit in Assembly consultations where local members look at their phones while trying to think of questions to ask. But it must be done!”
Mr Bourke said a recent visit to Adelaide provided lessons for Canberra on the importance of retaining the city’s parklands in the face of developers wanting to nibble away at them.
“Just like Lake Burley Griffin here in Canberra, they require, and get from concerned citizens, continual watchful struggle as developers, private and public, always have a good use for ‘just a few hundred square metres here or a strip just a ‘hundred metres there’ for some good purpose,” he said.
He warned of instances where action to conserve heritage spaces had been nullified by planning decisions allowing development nearby or actually within the site.
While there were some wonderfully preserved precincts, others had suffered at the hands of these decisions.
“Some of the most stupid excesses where 20-plus storey buildings have been allowed on either side of a three-storey building with some historic significance, so that the sense of place is totally smashed; of facades in some places a metre or so thick retained while a new building which is oh so obvious is inserted into the structure and towers above it for 20 storeys,” Mr Bourke said.
He said he was still excited by the ongoing role of community-driven groups, from the tiny ones, such as the Lake Burley Griffin Guardians, to the older established ones, such as the National Trusts, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australian Garden History Society.
“Long may they thrive,” he said.
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