The lady or the frock?

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.”

Rosemary Sorensen | Bendigo Weekly | 19-Jan-2012

Grace Kelly exhibition ‘misses out on heart and soul of screen icon’
Bendigo Art Gallery’s celebrity opening party, which will be attended by the new Grace, Princess Charlene of Monaco, will kick off what is likely to be the gallery’s biggest, most talked about show.

Already, fashion and media celebrities such as Dannii Minogue have said yes to invitations to attend.
With the heady mix of royalty, romance and glamour, all eyes will be on Bendigo for the exclusive Australian opening of Grace Kelly: Style Icon.
Popular success is guaranteed, and in this country, where cultural criticism is almost non-existent, that will be all it takes.
In London, where there still exists a small and well-informed cultural commentariat, the show, when it opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2010, was called “frustrating”.
While it is, in essence, a fashion exhibition, some visitors hoped for more.
“The woman at the heart of this show is somehow rendered more absent than ever by the clusters of headless mannequins which are sporting her dresses,” Rhiannon Harries wrote in the Independent.
She traced the problem to the source.
“The reason so many adore Grace Kelly, the reason we might want to pore over the fabric of her clothes and inspect the minute scuffs on the Hermes handbag to which she gave her name, is that we fell in love with her physical presence on screen,” Harries wrote.
Tasmanian-born Oxford academic Peter Conrad, writing in the Observer, said the show looked, at first glance, “like the Paris morgue in the 1790s after a hard day’s guillotining.”
All the bits and pieces – the frocks and ballgowns, the bags and shoes, failed to capture, for Conrad, the woman who was “so dangerously larky and so frankly erotic”, when she made movies like High Society and Rear Window.
Grace Kelly: Style Icon is organised by the V&A and the Grimaldi Forum, which is Monaco’s culture and convention centre.
According to the V&A, it aims to show Kelly’s “spectacular wardrobe” and to “examine her glamorous Hollywood image and enduring appeal”.
“The actress had often played upperclass, even royal parts on screen, which strangely anticipated her future role,” the V&A said.
“The union of the Queen of Hollywood with a real prince (in 1956, when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco) provided a wonderful story for the media, and it attracted attention and visitors to the small principality of Monaco.”
Secured by Honorary Consul to Monaco Andrew Cannon, the Bendigo exhibition, and the visit of Princess Charlene, has the endorsement of the current Prince of Monaco, Grace Kelly’s son Albert.
“This exhibition is of great importance to my family,” he said.
“Now in the final leg of its international tour, we are delighted that Princess Charlene will be able to attend.”
It is 30 years since Princess Grace died in her car following a stroke, when she was 52.
She had not made a film since her marriage, when she was 26.
Style Icon aims to “examine her glamorous Hollywood image and enduring appeal”, and includes dresses she wore in the film High
Society.
“It also explores the evolution of her style as Princess Grace of Monaco, from her extensive wedding trousseau to her haute couture gowns of the 1960s and 1970s by her favourite couturiers Dior, Balenciaga, Givency and Yves St Laurent.”
The focus on haute couture did not impress Conrad. He described Kelly the actor who was made immortal on screen through the work, mostly of “a misogynistic director who did his best to damage her marble demeanour” – Alfred Hitchcock.
Conrad found the “relics detached from the body that wore them” a sad replacement of the flesh and blood woman.
“The V&A has the skins she shed,” he wrote.
“The best way to see Grace Kelly is to close your eyes and remember how she showed James Stewart her negligee and, making a promise that she still keeps in our fantasies, murmured, ‘Preview of coming attractions’.”

Grace Kelly: Style Icon opens at Bendigo Art Gallery on March 11.

Win a Trip to Monaco
Bendigo Art Gallery, in conjunction with the Monaco Government Tourist and Convention Authority, is running a competition in conjunction with the exhibition.
Ticket holders who fill out an entry coupon at the gallery will enter into a draw to win two return flights from Melbourne to Monaco, three nights accommodation and complimentary entry to tourist attractions, total prize value approximately $14,000.