Are we at Boiling Point?

Every September, I generally do an article on bushfires to dovetail with the RFS’s Get Ready weekend in mid September. As I write this (early August), I’m torn because there are so many topics I want to cover!

There’s been the heatwave in Europe, extreme temperatures in the Andes (it hit 34 degrees midwinter) and the bushfires in, of all places, tropical Hawaii. The fires in Maui have blown my mind. To put it in perspective, the mountain peak of Puu Kukui on Maui is the 9th wettest place on Earth and yet we are now seeing bushfires on the island. As a member of the Rural Fire Service, this has me thinking I might want to swap the hose for sandwich duties this Summer!

The other topic I thought about covering was Commonwealth Bank’s record profits ($10.4 billion last financial year). What’s that got to do with architecture, you wonder. Well, when you have Mum and Dad clients being refused home loans to renovate their property, or investors who have been told they can only afford to build half their Dual Occ, all while banks are making record profits – to be honest, I feel like it’s completely “on the nose”!

Elected officials have suggested these super profits are to the benefit of all of us because it means we have a strong banking system and those with healthy super balances are benefiting due to the super funds investing in the big four. All of this means nothing to the thousands of Australians without super, affordable housing or a foothold in the property market. Really it’s indicative of the widening gap between the haves and have-nots. The Italian government has introduced a super profits tax on its banks that will be used to help mortgage holders and cut taxes. What happened to Australia’s social contract to leave no one behind!

Speaking of leaving Australians behind, there’s also the topic of the upcoming referendum for the Voice to Parliament and giving agency to Indigenous Australians in our constitution. There’s a whole world of work to be done in remote housing for our Indigenous populations. In the past, we have poured loads of money into second-rate cheap housing for these communities that’s not built for purpose. The housing becomes dilapidated quickly because it’s cheaply built, poorly designed and hasn’t gone through very little community consultation, if any. Architects in this space are few and far between. I mentioned Paul Pholeros in my last article. Sadly he’s not with us anymore but his work continues via his eponymous foundation. Voting yes for the Voice will give agency in this sector. It’s the least we can do for a baby step towards reconciliation.

Other topics that crossed my mind – Victoria’s government banning further logging in native forests as of this December which will put further pressure on timber supply; sneaky Russian-grown timber finding its way into our engineered timber supplies, heat island effects and black roofs, the proposed masterplan at Port Kembla by BIG.DK architects, the Corrimal Cokeworks redevelopment, and I really want to do an article on Donald Trump but it’s been tricky to determine a link to him and local architecture issues.

But there’s two things I want to plug. Firstly, Get Ready Weekend – with La Niña a distant memory,  this time it’s for real. Visit the Austi RFS at Austinmer Beach to learn what to do around the house to prepare for bushfire season. Bring the kids so they can climb up in the trucks and put their hands to using the hoses.

The other plug is for the Inaugural Festival of Architecture and Design on November 25. We’re putting together a humdinger of a program that will cover issues mentioned in this article.

You’ll just have to wait for those upcoming articles, but there’s two things I want to plug.

Firstly, Get Ready Weekend – with La Niña as a distant memory, this time it’s for real. Come and visit the Austi RFB at Austinmer Beach and learn about all the things you need to do around the house to prepare for the upcoming bushfire season. Bring the kids so they can climb up in the trucks and put their hands to using the hoses.

And the other plug is for the Inaugural Festival of Architecture and Design to be held on November 25th. We’re putting together a humdinger of a program that will cover a lot of the issues mentioned in this article and we’re working on getting Donald Trump to be our guest speaker, that is if he doesn’t make it to jail first. More details to come on the festival, I just hope I’m not on sandwich duties that day!