Urban Planning & Design

Working on the project we have come to believe that the natural beauty of Merewether Beach should be complemented by a more attractive built environment.

We first raised this issue in two newspaper articles:

Title of steel hardly rings true any more (April 2006)

Our gem by the sea could shine much brighter (September 2006)

For Council harmony, move beyond blame (May 2007)

 

In common with other Australian cities, Newcastle suffers from incoherent urban planning and design. We have discussed various aspects of this problem in  a series of newspaper articles. (May 2007)

Voters need to know where the city needs to go (December 2008)

From Iraq to Nobbys discussion is needed (May 2008)

Getting Newcastle moving (December 2010)

Until the early 21st Century Merewether's streetscape was an orderly patten of modest weatherboard houses and brick bungalows. Large houses like this are increasingly being built in Merewether.

Gardner Browne, who co-wrote some of these newspaper articles, had been a consultant town planner and town-planning academic. He introduced his co-writer Griff Foley to the urban design and planning literature.  Griff subsequently developed a short adult education course, Making a More Liveable City.  Here are the papers from this course:

Newcastle's Urban History
This paper provides an overview of Newcastle’s history. It surveys five periods in the city’s history: Indigenous, Colonial, Industrial, Suburban, Planned

Urban Planning and Design: Key Ideas & Debates
Drawing on the work of seminal urbanists (Lewis Mumford,  Ebenezer Howard, Jane Jacobs, David Harvey, Daniel Solomon) this paper identifies three eras of urban development in Australia & similar countries.  It pays particular attention to the origins, development & effects of suburbia and alternatives to it (the sustainable city, new urbanism)

Glenrock, Growth & Gaia: The significance of Newcastle's green spaces
This paper discusses the significance of Newcastle’s many green spaces by examining two examples—the 500ha Glenrock conservation area and Newcastle University’s bush campus.  The paper concludes that the green spaces that make cities more liveable are threatened by the global commitment to uncontrolled economic growth.

Newcastle Futures
This paper traces connections between economic and urban organization. It argues that Newcastle must choose between building on its distinctive character and being swallowed up by the sprawling Sydney mega-city.

Empire Park Bar Beach April 2008. Since this photo was taken improvements have been made to the park, but not to this section, which reamains barren. Plantings of native trees and shrubs would improve the outlook, without detractng from residents' ocean views. Looking south from Memorial Drive Bar Beach, April 2008. The natural beauty of the coast is marred by the treeless streetscape and the infestation of the noxious weed Bitou Bush on the seaward side. Thoughtful street-tree planting and retention of large eucalypts soften this Rankin Park streetscape The Baths picnic area in June 2006. Coastal Banksias we planted in Spring 2004 were stunted by wind and salt. So from Spring 2005 we concentrated on planting low lying native shrubs like Coastal Rosemary (Westringia fruticosa) and White Correa (Correa alba) These flourished, and protected the Banksias, which then grew taller.