Docklands a wasted opportunity?
By Royce Millar
June 17, 2006
The "instant city" approach to redeveloping Docklands has delivered what
critics say are run-of-the-mill buildings exclusively for people with
buckets of money.
'A waterfront spectacular. An urban oasis. A modern marvel." The State
Government's new coffee table history of Melbourne's Docklands is 300
pages of hyperbole, of heroic efforts to transform 200 hectares of
derelict waterfront into the sparkling new face of the city. But, like
all official histories, it's not the full story.
Former planning minister in the Kennett government Rob Maclellan, who
had responsibility for Docklands in the late 1990s, is quoted in the
book lauding the great views. His more critical comments - including
about Docklands' finances and their drain on the public purse - were
edited out and now, he says, the tome is a "pious little history". What
is needed, he says, is a "brutal analysis" of the biggest urban
redevelopment in Australian history.
Thirty years after planners and politicians began considering what to do
with Melbourne's old docks, and almost a decade since work began on the
first major project, the Docklands Stadium, the "brutal analysis" is
beginning. Just what has been delivered for hundreds of millions in
public funding? (This, after the project was supposed to cost taxpayers
nothing.) Is it good design that has caught the world's eye, or a bland,
corporate makeover? Does it add to the rich diversity of Melbourne or
dilute it? Who lives there and why?
cont'd....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/docklands-a-wasted-opportunity/2006/06/16/1149964737944.html