Croaking about Newstead
Pleasing to see the Skyring Terrace footpath between Wyandra Street and the Gasworks has finally re-opened to pedestrians after being blocked for an eternity now that construction of Mirvac’s LIV Anura is complete.
You may have thought that LIV Anura translates as “incredibly ugly building” but you would be wrong for it refers to the anuran family of amphibians and is used to signify a connection to nature within an urban setting and no, I’m not making this up.
Glaring problems
If you are in need of a laugh, and who isn’t, then this development application for a massive 58 storey three tower development will have you falling out of your chair.
While it’s proposed for the heart of Toowong, the arrogance on display could just as easily be applied to our neighbourhood and is representative of the disdain with which some developers treat residents.
The proposal dismisses concerns about shadows the towers would cast saying these are a good thing because they would keep the area cooler while concerns that the reflected glare of the sun could blind drivers were met with a suggestion that they lower their sun visors.
The proposal flies in the face of council height limits but these are airily dismissed with the project’s urban planners, the ubiquitous Urbis, declaring that “the current City Plan no longer reflects the relevant measure of public interest or community expectations for development on the site.”
Says who? All the people who stand to make lots and lots of lovely money if it’s approved and current planning regulations designed to safeguard the interests of local residents are trashed, that’s who.
Congratulations to local LNP councillor Penny Wolff and state Greens MP Michael Berkman for opposing it.
One less tree
Live music has made a welcome return to the Saturday morning Farmers’ Markets and with the arrival of Spring, some of the roses in New Farm Park are in early bloom.
We await the first flowering of the jacarandas to add their colour to the park.
Sadly, the massive tree that shades the River Walk adjacent to the dog park has been marked for removal by the Brisbane City Council.
Any proposed tree removal ignites local passions but in this case it appears justified with the roots of the tree perilously close to the riverbank. Council has said it will replace it but the shady canopy will inevitably be lost.
X marks the spot?
Back in the mists of time I would sit with my grandmother and together we would play Find The Ball.
This was a contest run by the then Telegraph newspaper which published a photograph taken at a rugby league match the previous weekend from which the football had been airbrushed.
The aim was to mark the sport where you though the ball had been with an X and send in your entry.
Grannie and I never won but perhaps the state government could promote a similar contest, publishing an overview of Victoria Park and getting people to guess the correct location of the stadium to be built there with the winner getting a free ticket to the Olympic opening ceremony.
This, of course, presumes that someone somewhere in the ever-expanding Games bureaucracy actually knows where it’s going to be built, which, on the evidence to date, seems unlikely.
Beach privileges
Great to be back in the neighbourhood after a holiday in sunny Greece and looking forward to heading to the beach in a few months’ time without having to pay anywhere from $60 to $200 a day to rent two sun lounges and an umbrella.
