Pick of the week: Chasing Odysseus
BENDIGO’S residential Strategy will be reviewed because of greater than expected growth.
The State Government has announced a grant of $50,000 to carry out the review.
The review is needed because, according to the State Government, 40 per cent of the forecast growth between 2006 and 2031 had already been realised.
Regional Development Parliamentary Secretary Damian Drum made the announcement this morning.
Mr Drum said the Bendigo Residential Strategy Review would deliver greater community and investor certainty, helping the region grow.
“The Bendigo Residential Development Strategy was adopted in 2004 and is currently being audited because of the faster than anticipated growth that has occurred in Bendigo in recent years,” he said.
“Strong residential growth has many flow-on economic benefits and having a clear framework for future development will position Greater Bendigo City Council to undertake more detailed, place-based planning in the future.”
Deputy Premier Peter Ryan said about 40 per cent of the forecast growth between 2006 and 2031 had already been realised.
The Residential Strategy impacts directly on where and how property developments use “infill” parcels of land, range of housing styles and also on housing affordability.
“This project will review the strategy, assess current and estimated land supply and demand and consider various legislative and policy changes,” Mr Ryan said,
“It will also consider the latest demographic data and establish a new strategic framework to guide the long-term residential growth of Greater Bendigo.
“The project will result in a revised residential strategy that will give developers, the community and service providers greater surety and confidence about where land can be developed for residential purposes, and that sufficient land is available to accommodate the City of Greater Bendigo’s future growth.”
Mr Ryan said a contemporary strategic planning framework was essential to the economic development of a large regional centre like Bendigo.
“Clearly identifying future growth options and supporting infrastructure needs will enable the Greater Bendigo City Council and other infrastructure providers to plan their capital works programs well in advance,” he said.
“Identifying long-term growth areas will enable the council and other service authorities to start planning for the delivery of services, thereby minimising the lag time between when residential development occurs and when the services need to be in place.”
| Bendigo Weekly | 08-Apr-2011 3.31
Chasing Odysseus
S.D. Gentill
Pantera Press, $19.95
“So much depends on which side of the wall you stand,” S.D. Gentill (aka Sulari Gentill) says about her first young adult novel, Chasing Odysseus.
It’s a slightly different take on the idea of “point of view”. History used to be told from the point of view of the victors or the main players. Now, writers can choose to imagine what it was like for the vanquished, or, most intriguingly, from the viewpoint of those who were watching on, or whose role in events has been underestimated or even ignored.
Chasing Odysseus is the story of the Trojan war told from the perspective of goat-herders.
Fossicking into the Greek myth, Gentill has chosen to focus on the Herdsmen who made it possible for the people of Troy to survive the ten-year siege of the city, by bringing in food through tunnels under the walls.
When the Greeks finally sack the city using a wooden horse in which they smuggle their army, suspicion falls on the Herdsmen who are accused of betraying the Trojans. A group of young Herdsmen, including a girl called Hero, set out to chase Odysseus, so he can make public the manner in which the city was seized.
Many adventures, much bravery, monsters, treachery, kindness, loyalty: this is all still weighted down with a kind of reality, more interested in the relationships between the young people and their friends and enemies, than in the big mythic elements.
Win a copy of our Pick of the Week
Join up by emailing to bookclub@bendigoweekly.com.au and we will send the first five received a copy of this week’s featured book, S. D. Gentill’s Chasing Odysseus.
Sulari Gentill has been a laywer and corporate advisor. She now lives in the Snowy Mountaains, where she and her husband have establsihed a truffle farm. In 2007, she began writing: her historical crime novel, A Few Right Thinking Men, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Chasing Odysseus is her first novel for young adult readers.
– Rosemary Sorensen
BENDIGO’S residential Strategy will be reviewed because of greater than expected growth.
The State Government has announced a grant of $50,000 to carry out the review.
The review is needed because, according to the State Government, 40 per cent of the forecast growth between 2006 and 2031 had already been realised.
Regional Development Parliamentary Secretary Damian Drum made the announcement this morning.
Mr Drum said the Bendigo Residential Strategy Review would deliver greater community and investor certainty, helping the region grow.
“The Bendigo Residential Development Strategy was adopted in 2004 and is currently being audited because of the faster than anticipated growth that has occurred in Bendigo in recent years,” he said.
“Strong residential growth has many flow-on economic benefits and having a clear framework for future development will position Greater Bendigo City Council to undertake more detailed, place-based planning in the future.”
Deputy Premier Peter Ryan said about 40 per cent of the forecast growth between 2006 and 2031 had already been realised.
The Residential Strategy impacts directly on where and how property developments use “infill” parcels of land, range of housing styles and also on housing affordability.
“This project will review the strategy, assess current and estimated land supply and demand and consider various legislative and policy changes,” Mr Ryan said,
“It will also consider the latest demographic data and establish a new strategic framework to guide the long-term residential growth of Greater Bendigo.
“The project will result in a revised residential strategy that will give developers, the community and service providers greater surety and confidence about where land can be developed for residential purposes, and that sufficient land is available to accommodate the City of Greater Bendigo’s future growth.”
Mr Ryan said a contemporary strategic planning framework was essential to the economic development of a large regional centre like Bendigo.
“Clearly identifying future growth options and supporting infrastructure needs will enable the Greater Bendigo City Council and other infrastructure providers to plan their capital works programs well in advance,” he said.
“Identifying long-term growth areas will enable the council and other service authorities to start planning for the delivery of services, thereby minimising the lag time between when residential development occurs and when the services need to be in place.”
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