22 December 2005

Work begins on Molonglo Valley?

| johnboy
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Maelinar has sent in a picture which he thinks shows work has already begun on the new suburbs in the Molonglo Valley.

Molonglo Valley earthworks

So, when did that consultation period end again? Does this rush have anything to do with getting blocks ready for sale this financial year to bail out a dodgy budget?

(For the record I think this development is pretty smart for the city in the long term, as long as it’s done right)

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ancientartifact12:34 pm 01 Jan 06

I don’t have any in-depth knowlege of any information regarding this particular issue. But the more development in Canberra the better.

PS: Isn’t it “Natasha Slop Deployer” ?

When asking one of the developers at Royalla about that estate possibly turning into a gated community, he told me that as soon as you do that and deny access to the public, the private community becomes responsible for funding upkeep of roads, infrastructure, garbage collection etc. Apparently it works out a lot dearer than paying standard rates to the government and letting them take care of it.

VB, apart from having a moniker that tastes like cat’s piss, this entire thread has been about finding out information, which has been kindly provided by ssanta and big al.

My point was that whatever is going in here isn’t shown on the molongolo valley developments chart, which has come out after these works have been announced, budgeted for etc etc.

So is this a case of one hand not talking to the other ?

I’m not putting this forward as a conspiracy theory, however since you mention it, it does indicate to me that a few people are trying to pull the wool over our eyes with the molongolo valley developments, especially given they haven’t bothered to put the current works on their map, even though they knew it was going ahead.

I am not, as usual, wrong, but I am now more informed about something that is going on in Canberra, and is something that is pertinent to me as I drive past that area at least 10 times a week.

Now that my curiosity is sated, as I have been informed what is going on, I’ll get back to plugging Deb Foskey and the abundance of Atlas Cedars in the Canberra locale, of which my stance is, in your opinion, wrong.

Vic Bitterman5:38 pm 22 Dec 05

maeliner, as usual, is wrong.

The other sensible readers have got it in one.

Conspiracy theory anyone? Got spare tinfoil hats too?

Now there’s an idea! Imagine the potential – no more hawkers, religious freaks, tourists … ahh, it’ll never happen.

My experience of gated communities is limited to a one off – nearly two years living at Soverign Island on the Gold Coast (don’t ask). We paid some pretty steep body corporate type costs to employ a guy to sit in little box at the bridge – but the reality was that all he did was waive to all and sundry as they came and went – places still got burgled, sticky-beaks and rubber-necking tourists still came to gaup and bloody Mormons and evangelicals still pressed the fipping buzzer on the intercom – at least we were allowed to have a decent front fence so dismissing these scumbag peddlers of religion was as easy as flipping them the bird from the window…

Any chance we’ll see ‘gated communities’ in the new suburbs?

Growling Ferret2:42 pm 22 Dec 05

Ahh, the memories. Deeks Drive and that Stromlo Forest area was an integral part of Year 12 Carpark Studies at Stirling College.

Many a Datsun, Mazda, etc gained a dent or two (or never came back) from a 17 year olds excursion into the forest at lunch trying to emulate Neal Bates and Possum Bourne…

Back to the point – it will be nice and central land for new homes – which I reckon will make the outlying suburbs cheaper for first home owners as housing becomes marginally more affordable and people in Gungahlin/Tuggers/Dunlop look to move closer to work/the city. Cna’t be a bad thing if properly managed (and not hocked off to developers to make postage stamp sized blocks and 2/3 scale roads…)

Ssanta nails it again. This work was announced in this years budget. The RFT for bulk earthworks was advertised at the end of October and the contract let some three weeks later. The works will eventuallyinclude a cycling track, running/walking tracks and an equestrian trail. Further up the slopes of Mt Stromlo there will be a mountain bike course. The whole lot will be replanted with whatever the experts think they can get to grow there (given that there’s been a couple of softwood rotations through there already. The works were originally flagged in the Shaping Our Territory report followinmg the 2003 fires and are a response to community wishes to re-instate the recreational facilities that were available at Deeks Forest before the fires.

As to the old Deeks Forest – you can pretty much bet that it will become a couple of thousand blocks of suburban bliss.

Deek’s park was always part of the Molonglo float. The graders and doing a massive amount of landscaping, then the landcare gimps will be going mad with their punnets of plants I’d say.

Yeah, but since when have you required bulldozers to plant trees ?

And just who are going to go to this muti-sport recreation park ? – Mt Stromlo isn’t exactly in the middle of suburbia (yet)

Or is this preliminary work to provide facilities to the future inhabitants of Molongolo Valley ?

What I can tell you is that this development is within the construction boundaries of the plan that’s being hammered about town for future development.

Ssanta has it right – the earthworks in this shot are part of the Deeks Forest project. This is some re-shaping thats beeing done as part of the development of a multi-sport recreation park – running, cycling and equestrian facilities will eventually grace this bit of the eastern side Mount Stromlo – its sort of a formal or more planned version of the pre-fire Deeks Forest.

This is a photo of Deeks Park.

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