Michael Green

Writer and producer

They all want to change the world

In Community development, Environment, Social justice, The Age on

First published in The Age

Over the past 21 years, one Melbourne building has housed all manner of groups, all with one thing in common: the will to build a better place, as Michael Green reports.

ON FLINDERS Lane, next to the City Library, stands an office building like no other in Melbourne. Behind the front desk, a pink wall is cluttered with posters promoting an array of social causes. A patchwork of flyers waits on a table. The lift walls are coloured with calls to action.

Beneath its gargoyles and giant bay windows, Ross House’s tenants are a rainbow of community groups and causes. Whether the Stroke Association, the Darfur Australia Network, the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation or the Tree Project, the common thread is that all the groups housed here want a more just or environmentally friendly world.

Next week the Ross House Association will celebrate its 21st birthday. Not surprisingly the celebrations will include an indigenous welcome to country as well as music and comedy; the food is being provided by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. But after the festivities talk will turn to the association’s big plans for the future.

Ross House is currently owned by the ANZ Trustees but, all going well, the association will take over ownership of its home next year. “We’re getting the keys, basically, so it’s a great time for us,” says Rick Barry, the Ross House Association CEO, describing the move as a “coming of age”.

In its 21 years the five-storey 1890s building has been an incubator for hundreds of community groups, giving them space, facilities and the kick-start that comes with a city address. They come and go, growing bigger or smaller as their funding and needs change. The association charges below market rent, depending on the organisation’s size and capacity to pay. The smallest space leases at about $130 per month.

Committee member Sue Healy has been involved since community groups first moved in. She has the anecdotes befitting such length of service and tells them at pace. “At end-of-year parties in the old days, you started the champagne at breakfast and then you went on to lunch and tea.”

“There’s been conflict too,” she says, like the initial almighty row between the trustees and the tenants, who wanted to manage the building themselves.

The seeds of Ross House were sown in the 1970s when many small self-advocacy groups began to spring up around Melbourne. At a meeting in 1980, a collection of the groups told the Victorian Council of Social Service they needed help to find cheap, secure office space.

A heritage-listed, 1898 building that was originally a warehouse for wholesale importers Sargood, Butler, Nichol & Ewan Ltd was found, and bought with money donated by the R. E. Ross Trust, the state government and others.

Ross House finally opened in 1987 with the goal of supporting self-advocacy groups and thereby helping disadvantaged people take control over their lives. The association has always encouraged groups run by members of the community they serve, and taking control of the building through self-management was an extension of that principle.

Illustrious former tenants include the Wilderness Society and Channel 31, which, according to Healy, began from “a single desk in a cupboard”. One of her most fond memories is of a Slavic women’s group: “They used to come in for a lunch, all athletic ladies. Large, they were.” Among the current tenants, she marvels at the Handknitters Guild on level three. “They’re hand knitters for social justice! They make things and then they donate the money.”

The Blind Citizens of Australia have recently moved in, also on level three, and they are already enjoying the benefits of reduced costs and a greater profile, says executive officer Robyn McKenzie.

“Our members are either totally blind or have a severe vision impairment. Being in the CBD, we’ve been able to increase our volunteer corps because people can actually get to us with ease,” McKenzie says. Another big plus has been the extra networking with other disability organisations in the building.

That collaborative atmosphere has also rubbed off on Matt Bell from Reconciliation Victoria, on level four. “It’s inspiring to come into a building where you’ve got so many great organisations,” he says. “There’s a huge amount of social change and advocacy done from here to strengthen our community. There’s a sense that this is where it’s all happening.”

Youth literary-arts group Express Media has been a tenant on level two since 2006. Tom Rigby, editor of its Voiceworks magazine, says it is a stimulating place to work. “The water-cooler conversations are a lot deeper. They’re more relevant and interesting than you would get in most offices because when people come into the building, they’re switched on. There’s a great spirit around here.”

Taking over ownership of a multimillion-dollar heritage-listed building is a big responsibility, and the committee of management knows it will have to fund-raise extensively to pay for the upkeep of facilities. Barry says they have developed a 20-year maintenance plan to ensure they are ready. The association is also planning an energy audit and retrofit to make the building cleaner and greener. They hope to make it one of the most sustainable office blocks in the city.

Healy has coined her own adjective to describe the ethos of the building — “Ross Housey” — and it peppers her conversation. For example: “The trouble was, they really didn’t run their group in a Ross Housey way.” There was nothing for it. That group had to go.

But exactly what is Ross Housey? “Well, it’s about people having the right to be involved and consulted. To treat everybody with respect, and to respect their opinions if they’re different from yours,” she says, then grins, whispering, “except, of course, if they’re very far right”.

When good neighbours become green

In Community development, Environment, The Age on

First published in The Age

In a new take on reducing emissions, it seems carbon trading, like charity, begins at home.

Neesh Wray and Shaun Murray have just one low-energy light switched on in their Yarraville weatherboard home. It’s illuminating the cosy living room, where a small band of locals are drinking tea and talking about catastrophic climate change.

A meeting of the Westside Carbon Rationing Action Group has just begun. “We see it as an emergency,” says Murray, discussing new evidence of melting Arctic sea ice. But that’s enough talk of gloom and doom for the 32-year-old music teacher. “That’s the climate rave done,” he says. “Now, moving on, we’re here to do something about it.”

In Canberra, the Federal Government is absorbing Professor Ross Garnaut’s final advice on an emissions trading scheme for big business polluters. In Melbourne, neighbours are taking carbon cutting into their own hands and homes.

Carbon rationing action groups, or CRAGs, were first formed in Britain. There, after one year, a survey of seven groups showed that members had reduced their footprints by almost a third.

Here’s how it works: friends or neighbours gather and calculate their carbon emissions – usually covering electricity and gas, as well as car use and flights. CRAG members then set individual reduction targets and meet monthly, sharing tips, stories and progress reports. Some groups even fix fines for exceeding cap, to be paid to an eco charity.

The Westside CRAG has not been so strict. It has met half a dozen times, chatting about how to cut gas and power use, and about the embodied energy in red meat and dairy products.

Murray and Wray have slashed their own carbon pollution and plan to keep improving their habits and their house. “A huge amount of our emissions are the actions of individuals in the way we consume,” Murray says. “I think in order not to be a hypocrite it’s important that your own life reflects the change that you want to see in society.”

Tonight, Steve, a Footscray postman and new member of the group, has brought along a stack of bills. He hands them to Murray, who keys the numbers into an online emissions calculator. As he taps away, conversation simmers over the best brands of green power, the high electricity use of kettles and the efficiency of laptops compared to desktop computers.

Wray explains how she and Murray have cut their electricity consumption to less than a 10th of the national average. A gizmo called a “power mate” helped them work out which appliances use the most power. Another CRAG member, Terry, has done the same in his home and was shocked at the guzzling by electrical goods set to standby. “Fourteen per cent of my power usage was standby power. I was amazed,” he says.

Westside isn’t the only group of its kind in Melbourne. Across town, the Manningham Council has its own CRAG. Once a month, about 50 residents occupy the council chambers and learn how to make their homes more efficient. Conservation officer Bill Pemberton organises meetings on issues from insulation and double-glazing to green power and carbon offsetting. The council has already facilitated a bulk discount purchase of solar power systems for CRAG members and is doing the same for solar hot water.

The attendees’ carbon footprints vary, from well above average to very low. Pemberton says he has seen people “switch on” to the issues, and is sure their next results will be lower. “One of the major benefits of CRAGs is sharing of knowledge,” he says, and the sharing spreads beyond the group. “There are people who have gone to their church and now they are setting up audits of their church facilities.”

In central Victoria, the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group – boasting about 700 eco-minded residents – is also about to start a CRAG. Committee member Felicity Faris believes CRAGs are the perfect approach for local climate change action. “It’s really a good model for community participation because it’s supportive and it’s self-regulating, and people are working towards something within a group that makes them feel valued.”

She is planning cash penalties for CRAG members who do not meet their pledge. The money will go to retrofitting efficient technologies at low-income households in the shire. “We’re aiming for a 20% (emission) reduction for each person or household,” she says. “We hope there won’t be any defaults so, hopefully, at the end we’ll be scratching around for some money for the retrofitting anyway.”

Back in Yarraville, Steve’s calculation is almost in. He sounds a little nervous. “How good am I? Or should that be how bad am I?” he asks. Taking green power into account, which cuts electricity off his scorecard, he registers 4.6 tonnes of carbon emissions in the past year. That’s about half the Australian average under this model of calculation, which excludes food and other purchases of goods and services.

Still, Steve is sure he can do better. The group offer suggestions, from adding extra insulation and sealing draughts, to buying a thermometer so he knows how hot his living room is. “I’ve been overusing my gas heater,” Steve says. “I’ll have to cut back on that.”

A key to the CRAG model is the calculation stage, which is often the first time people understand the link between their habits and their emissions. It can be otherwise hard to connect a decision to leave extra lights switched on with the electricity bill that comes months later.

Yet for the CRAG members the benefit of their new knowledge goes not only to the atmosphere, but also to the back pocket. Wray and Murray now spend more on their electricity connection fee than on consumption.

“For a lot of people it’s possible to make massive reductions in emissions,” Murray says. “If our household can reduce our emissions by 95% in two years, then why can’t government do something about it?”

On Cue

In Community development, The Big Issue on

In the boozy heart of Aussie pub culture, Michael Green finds a sober, tactical sport and community of rising pool stars.

Saturday

The game begins with an ear-splitting ca-raack. Players burst through the shot like policemen shouldering a door. The balls scatter. Twenty-two pool tables are aligned in a hall in suburban south-east Melbourne and at 10:30am, the frames begin. Competitors bend over their shots. Chins on cues, eyes hooded in shadow. We’ve entered the Whitehorse Club open singles eight ball championships. There’s $10,000 at stake.

Alec ‘Ace’ Evreniadis is here to win. The captain of the Australian pool team hasn’t flown from Adelaide just to make up the numbers. Steve Tran hopes to win too, but he’s not so bold as to say it out loud. Last weekend, Steve won the Melbourne Metropolitan Pool League ‘champion of champions’ trophy. Kolbe Poole, the aptly named three-time Victorian female champion, is here from Ballarat and aiming for the top 16.

Pool, or eight ball, is Australia’s pub game. Snooker and billiards are too complex. We choose reds or yellows, bigs or littles, stripes or solids. You know it: the beer-stained distraction in your local bar, where the balls drift sideways, the cues curve like bananas and nobody agrees on one shot or two.

Today, sure, they’re playing pool, but not like we do. Here, the best manoeuvre the balls with surgical precision. Every week, more 10,000 Australians play competitive eight ball. Each state and territory has teams, clubs, divisions, leagues and associations that make up a peak body. The Australian Eight Ball Federation runs annual national titles. This year they’ll be held in Launceston at the end of October. It’s a global game too. Our national over-50s team recently won the world crown.

The Whitehorse is an Italian social club set back from a six-lane suburban artery. Inside, behind pink curtains, players deliberate among the rows of green felt and low yellow lights. The playing floor is stocked with both wooden and denim-clad legs. It’s early but the bar and the greasy bain-marie are already running hot.

Today, 180 entrants – from teenage to old age – will play all day in a round robin on their allocated table. They’ll be cut to 128 for tomorrow’s knockout for the cash. Steve and Kolbe drew the same group, on table eight. Ace is around the corner on table one, the big game table, set apart from the rest. The crew from Pool TV, a Friday night prime-time show on Melbourne’s community Channel 31, has set up their gear and bright lights.

Kolbe is pool by name and by passion. Her partner, Jamie Stevens, is also a state player. She’s five-and-a-half months pregnant and bustles around the table without discomfort. The 29-year-old wears big hoop earrings and does her hair in a high, sporty ponytail. “I’m extremely competitive,” she says. “I hate to lose.”

Her first two frames go poorly, but she’s optimistic. “Hopefully those are my losses and that will be it.” She sips a can of cola through a straw and says her opponents so far, one of them Steve, are the best in the group.

Entrants and hangers-on cuss and banter while they watch. Clanking stubbies and clicking balls add to the din. The organisers call instructions from their desk: “Greg Daffy, table three. The Daff, to table three.” Bottles pile up on benches.

It’s a man’s game. One player tells me that although all types play, “you don’t really get a full cultural mix”. The stereotypical player is “a white, suburban male who’s into having a good car and a job. A conventional, wholesome, white dude.” And with that, comes booze. It’s an occupational hazard for a game held only in licensed venues. Mid-afternoon, a red-eyed man kicks over three chairs after a loss.

For Kolbe, breaking the mould is a blessing and a curse. “A lot of guys don’t rate women in pool,” she says. They get careless, and that helps her pick up a few frames she might otherwise lose. “But then, I don’t do as much practice as I should do. You get to a certain level and you don’t need to put in as much work. Whereas, with the guys, if they drop off for half a second then they’re not going to be making their state side anymore.”

Fresh from a comfortable win, she is playing a young man from Albury with glam-rock hair and tattoos up his arms. Six balls down, she methodically pots them all. To win, she has an easy black over the corner pocket. And misses. Ashen-faced, she concedes, shakes hands and paces away from the table.

Meanwhile, Ace and Steve calmly dispatch their opponents. Frames roll rhythmically on: the click of the cue on the ball; the clack of ball on ball; and the thud of the ball in the pocket.

The best players barely miss. Like chess, they plan tactics well in advance and lay traps for adversaries. They strike the ball crisply and it courses straight and true. Between each shot they chalk their cues meditatively, without paying attention to their hands.

Eight ball, despite the booze, is a logical and rational domain. With a measure of skill, strategy and application, problems can be solved. Each player, while they take their shot, controls their own destiny. In the end, it’s all about black and white.

But today is not Kolbe’s day. She wins her final frame, but after two more losses, it’s not enough to qualify. “I got myself intimidated after I missed the black over the pocket. It hasn’t been the same since.”

Sunday

Competitors carry their cues in long, thin cases. Ace, wearing black dress pants and polished black shoes, is the slickest in the room. “I’m feeling good,” he says. Yesterday, he was tense from the flight and a long practice session.

There’s a hold-up while the organisers clash with their old computer. Tough-guy banter continues to flare around the hall, even though no one is boozing this morning. Ace, also known as Ice Man, secures a position in quiet corner, slips his headphones over his smooth, bald head and waits.

Steve Tran strolls in late. He’s a small, laconic man who has arranged his life around eight ball, and he knew there’d be a delay. The 34-year-old lives with his mother and works the early morning shift in Australia Post’s mail sorting room. Each night, he drives to competition or knockout tournaments around the city. “I’m single. If you’ve got a partner or you’re married it would be pretty hard to play full-on pool five nights a week.”

Each round is a best-of-five-frames knockout. First up, Steve draws Tracy Givvons. “She’s all right,” he says, chuckling. “But she plays with a different set of balls.”

“Go Trace,” a woman calls from the other side of the room. Trace wins the toss and stands up to break. “Watch me tear him a new arsehole!” she declares, to general mirth, and then doesn’t pot a ball. She shoulders Steve he passes. “If you can’t beat ’em, beat ’em up.”

Steve rests one hand in his front pocket and chews gum as he weighs up the winning shots. “I reckon his cue’s bigger than him,” Trace says, drinking a stubby of Carlton. “Before I started playing big tournaments, I’d always go watch Steve play. My favourite person to watch.”

Nobody kids with Ace. Called to table three, he places his two cues – a thicker tip for the powerful break and delicate tip for general play – with a water bottle and hand towel on a chair nearby. Serious and scrupulously fair, he brushes the table down before play, and then comfortably accounts for his opponent. He doesn’t lose a frame through the first three rounds. Click, clack, thud, they keep rolling in.

The 40-year-old owns two poolrooms in Adelaide. “It’s what I do, basically. That’s what I’m here for.” He has big dreams for eight ball – maybe it could even turn pro. “We all believe it’s a sport that could get on mainstream TV, you know. Some people think ‘oh well it’s just a game, you put the balls in the hole with a stick’, but there’s others that just love it. The challenge of it all.”

On table two, Steve has struck trouble. He stands back from the table, arms folded, and watches the final black roll in. A floppy-haired long-shot has beaten him in three straight frames. Later, he debriefs with a friend, Joe. “I didn’t have the run of the balls. At all.” On a spare table, they recreate the exact specifications of his bad luck. Joe commiserates. “It wasn’t your day mate, that’s all. It wasn’t mine either,” he shakes his head.

As the rounds go on, the crowd thins. Steve stays to watch and mingle. That’s the reason he plays, he says. It’s his scene. “I just go to have some fun, meet some people, catch up with friends.”

Kolbe is still here too. She’s playing in the ‘blonks comp’, for non-qualifiers and first round losers. “They’re really good weekends. It is a bit of a community; we’ve got our own little ‘families’ here and there.” Pool is a low-tech pastime, a hand-written letter among the spam of video games and poker machines. Another night, in an inner-city club, a history student tells me the pool hall is his ‘third place’. We pass our lives in our homes and at our workplaces, he says, but need somewhere else to give us a sense of community.

The sun is setting and Ace is still in the race. In the fourth round, he wins 3–2 with cool, clutch shot-making. “Next round now,” he says with a shake of the head. “Only two to win to get into the final.”

The last eight players draw their opponents in front of the Pool TV camera. Ace draws Terry Bond. It will be best-of-seven on table six. Bond has short, white hair and a barrel stomach that hangs well over his belt.

The national captain goes two frames down. In both, he had a shot on the black. Small crowds now hush around each of the quarter-finals. Some Italians from the club are watching, impressed. Ace is looking tired, but then wins the third briskly. It’s only 7:30pm but feels like midnight.

From the break, Ace sends the white ball rocketing off the table. With a two-shot penalty, Bond pots out. Next frame, tension builds. Ace sighs and peers at the angles as his opponent rolls the balls in. That’s it. The black goes. Losing hurts. “He played well. He didn’t give me any second chances,” Ace says, flat. He puts on his jacket, buys a bourbon and calls his wife in Adelaide.

Most frames end quietly, contrasting the riot of the break. Few balls are left on the table and the black rolls in softly, inevitably. It’s over now for Ace, Steve and Kolbe. In the final, Robbo beats Scary 5–4. He wins the money. It’s 1:00am by the time the Pool TV crew clear off. “If you lose, you lose,” Steve says. “Until next time.”

photography by Michael Green

Mixed passages: how public-private housing is shaping up in Melbourne

In Architecture and building, Social justice, The Age on

Private owners are moving into remodelled housing estates, alongside public tenants. Is it a magic potion or a bitter brew?

A white picket fence guards the Kensington Management Company’s office. But the modest, brick building on Derby Street isn’t a symbol of conservative suburbia. Inside, CEO George Housakos and his team are carrying out a bold change in our public housing system.

At nine o’clock, the office begins to bustle. The company’s twelve staff attend to the needs of over a thousand public and private residents. The not-for-profit company is a body corporate and rental business, as well as a service provider for public tenants. “We’re the first model of its kind in Australia,” Mr Housakos says.

On the Kensington site, the state government and Becton Property Group are redeveloping an old public estate.

It’s the first sod turned in a revamped housing strategy: the era of public-only housing will soon meet the wreckers’ ball. Policy-makers are now plotting developments with a blend of owner-occupiers, renters and social tenants.

New Becton CEO Matthew Chun says the company is pleased with the results at Kensington. The renewal project began in 2002, and is now about two-thirds complete and, so far, fully occupied. When it’s finished, there will be 455 private and 435 public dwellings.

Mr Chun believes the mishmash of residents and the design of the buildings work well. “The intent is that you can’t tell the difference between houses occupied by public housing tenants and those owned by the private sector.”

Victorian Minister for Housing Richard Wynne is keen to replicate that model elsewhere. The government has already announced similar makeovers in Carlton and Westmeadows, and will next tackle the Richmond towers. “My goal with all of these developments is to achieve a good public–private mix and to ensure that we don’t get a net loss of public and social housing,” he says.

According to housing expert Professor Bill Randolph, public–private redevelopments have become both a national and an international trend. “It’s happening in North America, it’s happening in England and parts of Europe,” he says. “There’s an international consensus that the old model of building big concentrations of public housing has failed.”

Professor Randolph, Deputy Director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) at the University of New South Wales, says that cycles of hardship emerge when there are a lot of people with disadvantages in a small area.

“The majority of public housing tenants are elderly, or they’re people with disabilities, or can’t work, or they’re carers,” he says. “They’re disconnected from the mainstream society and then they get preyed upon by the drug dealer who thinks he can set up shop in these sorts of areas.”

Minister Wynne is most concerned about high unemployment rates on the old estates. “When public housing was constructed in the 60s, it was worker housing. That is no longer the case,” he says. “So in any of the large public housing high-rises, due to the very tight targeting of public housing, the vast majority of people there do not work anymore. And we think that’s unhealthy.”

The overwhelming benefit of mixed residential estates is that they polish the tainted image of public housing. Professor Randolph says that AHURI research on the ground supports this theory. “There’s no doubt that renewing the estates by putting in new homes and a range of people reduces the stigma.”

But the policy may also have some drawbacks. Professor Randolph notes that governments are “chasing the holy grail of renewing these areas without significant amounts of public subsidy”. That means that public land, often in high-value inner-city areas, must be sold to fund the projects. It’s a one-off policy option. Next time the estates need refitting, the government won’t have the land to leverage with the developers. “I think it would be better if we recognised that there is a real genuine need for affordable housing that should be subsidised from the public purse to some extent.”

Another risk is that the private sector is wary of buying in, still put off by their perceptions of public housing. While the Kensington project has attracted many investors and renters, it has a low rate of owner-occupation.

The same goes for the Inkerman Oasis, a mixed-tenure development in St Kilda. The Port Phillip Council has transformed its old depot site into an award-winning 245-unit estate comprising both private and community housing.

Although the final stage of construction has yet to begin, the Port Phillip Housing Association’s 28 community units, as well as most of the private apartments, are already complete. The association favours applications from long-term locals. Its tenants, like Sue Nikora and her son, pay low rental rates (set at about 25 to 30 percent of the tenant’s income).

Ms Nikora left her last community townhouse because she had “neighbours from hell”. Here, in St Kilda, despite having some concerns about vandalism in the block, the 52-year-old says arriving home from work is a joy.

“When you are living in a mixed place like this, I think the ones that do tend to play up behave themselves a bit more.” Ms Nikora supports the tenancy blend. “We’re all people. You can’t just keep them apart. People have to learn to live together. It’s as simple as that.”

But some of her neighbours aren’t so happy. Robert Blair is a private owner and also the building manager of the complex. He says that while most of the housing association tenants are good neighbours, the younger ones cause trouble. “They put graffiti on the walls. They cause havoc,” he says. “We don’t want them here. Why they would put kids in a place like this is a bit of a mystery to me.”

Another resident, who asked not to be named, shares his concerns. She is disappointed by the lack of connection among neighbours. “There isn’t a real sense of community with the Port Phillip tenants. In theory, I love the idea of the mix. I’m a bit embarrassed to say, a couple of years in, I’m not a fan of it in my backyard.”

But both the council and the housing association say they haven’t received any complaints from private residents. “The mix works well because people are people,” says City of Port Phillip Mayor, Janet Cribbes. “How much money you have to allocate to housing doesn’t affect who you are as a person or what you are like as a neighbour.”

St Kilda real estate agent Simon Saint-John says the perception that private buyers are nervous is way off the mark. He says property values and rents are consistent with the local average. “From our perspective, it’s made no difference at all. There’s huge demand to get into that complex.”

Across town, Mr Housakos makes a cup of tea and readies himself for another busy day. He believes that a vibrant neighbourhood is a must if the Kensington redevelopment to succeed. “The bit that we think is critical is… the whole series of ways that we get the community to engage, from local jobs through to activities that improve health and wellbeing.”

The estate has a community development action plan and committee made up of a mix of residents that meet every month. There are also regular newsletters, a new common veggie patch and training sessions on nutrition. “We get both private and public tenants turning up,” says Mr Housakos.

Last year he undertook a brief study tour of England, Scotland and the Netherlands to learn from similar projects. “You can’t just build a new set of buildings. You’ve actually got to think about what happens to the people inside.”

Melbourne’s combo-constructions

Kensington

A joint partnership between the state government and Becton Property Group, the redevelopment of almost 900 units is two-thirds complete. Half will be private and half public, including the refurbishment of two existing towers. Construction will finish by 2013.

Carlton

Thirteen blocks of walk-up flats have been demolished across Carlton sites to make way for a new mixed estate. About 550 private, and 250 public apartments are on the drawing board. The state government will announce the developer later this year.

Westmeadows

This July, Premier John Brumby announced a redevelopment plan for The Mews public housing estate in the city’s north-west. The project aims to add over 400 new public and private homes by 2014.

Inkerman Oasis

On the site of the old council depot on Inkerman Street, the Oasis eco-friendly development comprises 217 private, and 28 community apartments. The final two blocks of private units are yet to be built. 

Beyond the stars: the rise and rise of domestic power use

In Architecture and building, Environment, The Age on

Power prices are to rocket and new houses are breaking barriers in a quest for efficiency.

Last month, the federal government predicted an energy price hike. The Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, forecast that electricity prices could rise by 16% and gas prices by 9% when the government’s carbon trading scheme comes into force.

Surging power bills will have a big impact where the heart is: one third of the state’s energy is used in the home. With so much at stake, how will our new houses trim their expanding wastes?

In 2004, Victoria led the other states by phasing in 5 Star efficiency regulations for new homes. In May this year, the 5 Star rules were extended to cover renovations and alterations.

Yet even with the 5 Star regulations, residential power use is growing. Last year, consultants George Wilkenfeld and Associates concluded that the energy-related emissions from new Victorian houses were about 6% higher than in existing ones.

The Wilkenfeld Report blamed the extra emissions on our appetite for super-sized abodes. It estimated that 5 Star dwellings were almost one third larger than homes built before the regulations came into effect. A bigger house needs more lighting, heating and cooling, no matter how well insulated it is.

State building commissioner Tony Arnel agrees that hulking houses are still a major problem. “You have to insulate more and do things to deliver better thermal efficiency… but house sizes have actually grown substantially and household occupancy has fallen. It’s rather ironical,” he says.

Although McMansions normally take the blame, architect-designed houses are also at fault. Architect and sustainability consultant Chris Barnett, from Third Skin, says that they are often the biggest and most power-hungry of all. “As an individual design, they will only be better if you put it in your brief and you pay for it.”

Mr Arnel, who also chairs the Green Building Council, thinks that change is on the way. “Electricity prices have increased over the last couple of years and that is driving demand for energy efficiency in housing.” He predicts that further rates rises will fuel a downsizing trend. “I would expect a market correction as developers start to offer more energy-efficient and appropriately designed houses,” he says.

VicUrban, the state sustainable urban development agency, is heading the market correction. The agency is a commercial operation, albeit one that aims to be an eco-leader in residential construction. David Young, general manager of project planning and design at VicUrban, thinks that sustainability will soon be front-of-mind, via the hip pocket, as energy bills absorb more of people’s disposable income.

That’s where low-energy housing comes in. Aurora, VicUrban’s eco-development in Epping North, boasts only six-star homes. “At the moment, we estimate that six star can save residents up to $1700 a year compared to the standard 5 Star on the market,” Mr Young says.

As well as better insulation and passive solar design [see box], houses at Aurora are fitted with only high-efficiency appliances and lighting. According to Mr Young, they are also slightly smaller than average developments.

VicUrban is not the only developer building houses greener than the government demands. Every design in Henley Homes’ new range meets the six-star level. Managing Director Peter Hayes says Henley, Melbourne’s biggest builder, is working on making all its designs more efficient than 5 Star. “We expect the energy rate to keep on ratcheting up. We think that it’s quite reasonable for six stars to become standard.”

Mr Hayes says that the efficiency extras add about 1% to building costs for their smallest designs and up to 2.5% for double-storey homes. But he expects the benefits will extend to resale value. “A house that costs less to run is going to be worth more.”

Burbank also has a range of six star homes. Associate Director Paul Puhar estimates that about one in every three clients now chooses the more efficient design. “It’s an emerging sector for us and it’s a fast growing one.” He believes that while environmental awareness is improving, many people still don’t consider sustainability when they buy their house.

Mr Puhar supports education more than regulation to cut household resource use. “We build five-star homes, but the one-star family can annihilate that if their attitude and behaviour is not right. Culture-shifting is absolutely imperative.”

Internationally, governments are opting for more stringent regulations. In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has committed all new homes to be carbon neutral by 2016. Many other European countries also impose standards beyond ours, as do some US states, including California.

Victoria’s 5 Star regulations relate only to the building materials. They don’t demand low-energy lighting, heating, cooling or appliances. According to eco-consultant Mr Barnett, that’s like asking ‘how good is the eski?’

“Energy ratings only consider the thickness of the foam in your eski walls and the size of the glass holes punched through them. We need to look at the whole issue. What’s the overall resource use and environmental impact of the home? What services are going into it?” he asks.

Mr Barnett believes the state government should introduce a more comprehensive building sustainability index like BASIX, used in NSW, or STEPS, used by some Victorian councils. Both tools assess the eco-impact of dwellings based on information like site location and fittings, as well as building materials.

A spokesperson for the Victorian Government says it is “committed to improving the environmental efficiency of new homes”, but would not comment on the prospect of stricter regulations. Mr Arnel, the state building commissioner, believes tighter rules are inevitable. The timing is uncertain, he says, “but the high jump bar will rise, there’s no doubt about that.”

How to manage the meter

From next year, electricity companies will begin to install smart meters in Victorian homes and businesses. The meters, which will be fully rolled out within five years, allow energy retail suppliers to read your meter remotely and vary prices during the day. But that’s not all.

According to Peter Clements, from the state Department of Primary Industries, smart meters will tell us a lot more about our power consumption. If you choose, an in-home screen will show your real-time electricity costs. Knowing your budget bottom-line is a big incentive to switch off the air conditioning – energy use has fallen by up to 4% in other places with similar technology.

“It turns the world of energy usage on its head,” Mr Clements says. “It’s a tool that helps you better manage the inevitable energy cost increases due to climate change.”

Powering down: golden rules

The smaller the better

Big houses use more of everything, including electricity.

Face north

Plan living areas for the north side of the house, to make the most of winter sun.

Reflect on your windows

Go for double-glazing to cut down heat loss. North-facing windows are best, but you should shade them in summer with wide eaves and deciduous trees. Keep east- and west-facing windows small—the lower sun is tricky to shade. Minimise windows on the sunless south.

Insulate

Good insulation can cut heat loss by up to 70%. Put it in ceilings, walls and floors. Internal and external blinds act as extra insulation for your windows.

Ventilate

Cross-ventilation is power-free cooling for summer nights. Open windows and let fresh breeze blow in from the south and out from the north. Fans are also a cheap way to chill.

Thermal mass

Heavy building materials like concrete, brick and stone absorb and store heat, curbing the extremes of winter and summer. A concrete slab floor is a good way to go.

Close the gaps

Be sure to seal all external doors, windows and exhausts.

Use efficient appliances and lights

Choosing one extra star rating on appliances and fittings can mean savings of 10–30% on running costs. Buy low-energy globes and avoid power-hungry halogens. 

Block busters: why apartment owners are seeing green

In Architecture and building, Environment, The Age on

As the five-star energy ratings take root, how will residents of exiting apartment blocks negotiate green changes?

Chris Palethorpe looks on with satisfaction as his new external blind hums downward over the balcony, slowly sheltering all his west-facing windows.

Last year, the 30-year-old photographer and his fiancé, Emma Fulu, moved into a fourth-floor apartment in Footscray. They delight in the view across the western suburbs, but during summer their floor-to-ceiling windows had a stifling drawback. “It was probably 10 degrees hotter in here than it was outside, even on a 40 degree day,” Mr Palethorpe says.

The couple have just invested about $8000 on internal and external blinds to improve the flat’s natural heating and cooling. Now, in mid-winter, they rarely need heating. “It wasn’t cheap, but we did it to be more comfortable here,” Mr Palethorpe says.

Efficient housing makeovers like this have become standard dinner party talk. Yet even though one-in-ten Melbourne households lives in a flat, unit or apartment, high-density dwellings are often left out of the debate. Strata title ownership, complicated by common spaces and facilities, can leave wannabe-green residents confused about what changes they are allowed to make.

Recent changes to state legislation mean that a building’s body corporate is now known as its ‘owners corporation’. Unfortunately, the name change hasn’t made group decision-making any easier. “You can count on one hand the number of properties that have ever achieved a unanimous resolution,” laughs Julie McLean, from Owners Corporations Victoria (OCV, formerly Institute of Body Corporate Managers Victoria). OCV represents owners corporation managers, the businesses that implement residents’ instructions.

According to Ms McLean, retrofitting residential apartment blocks to make them more sustainable “is the next big thing to tackle. The reason why it wasn’t tackled is because it’s been too hard.”

Any change to the outward appearance of an apartment building needs the approval of the owners corporation, but that’s not the only complication. Exactly who owns the water collected from a common roof? To get the solar panel rebate, how do you means test an owners corporation?

Despite the difficulties, Ms McLean says that apartment owners want to make their properties more efficient. “People are starting to say to me, ‘What can we do?’” She argues that like everyone else, high-rise residents need information and incentives to invest in sustainable retrofitting. She would like government departments to develop an information kit setting out the do’s and don’ts, including the likely costs and savings and the resolutions needed for specific changes.

Roger Kluske, Manager of Built Environments at Sustainability Victoria, agrees that strata title often clouds residents’ motivation to make sustainable changes. But he also sees owners corporation meetings as a possible driver for change. “I think body corporates need to get together and talk about these issues.”

“People who live in apartments just tend to take one bag of rubbish downstairs and chuck it in any bin that’s empty,” Mr Kluske says. Owners corporations could help solve this problem by educating residents. “Maybe the body corporate needs to have some sort of sustainability commitment, or people could sign agreements to do the right thing?”

He says an agreement could help with simple changes like sorting rubbish, allowing washing to dry on balconies (instead of using the dryer), or putting efficient lighting in public areas.

Four city apartment blocks have already begun to change their habits. The Melbourne City Council has just finished its Sustainable Living in the City (SLIC) program, which aimed to cut waste, water and energy use at Madison Apartments, Southbank Towers, Spring Street Towers and The Sovereign, in Southbank.

First, each building was audited, including interviews with residents, to work out how best to cut its carbon footprint. People then fitted efficient showerheads and light globes and some also added energy-smart gadgets like remote-controlled switches (to cut stand-by power use) and ‘Cent-a-meters’ (to show residents the cost of their electricity use at any time).

In common spaces, each building reduced lighting energy by swapping to lower wattage globes, removing unnecessary lights and installing timers where possible. They also put in rainwater tanks to care for shared gardens.

In the buildings with centralised hot water systems, plumbers added insulation and rebalanced the pressure system in the pipes – to dramatic effect. In some cases, householders had been waiting as long as ten minutes for hot water, all the while wasting cold water down the drain. After the maintenance, their hot water arrived almost instantaneously, leading to significant water and gas savings.

Dorothy LeClaire, manager of the owners corporation department at MCIM Property, says that while the full results of the trial haven’t yet come out, she expects big efficiency gains. MCIM manages three of the four buildings in the council trial.

In relation to lighting changes alone, “according to what the electricians say, it should eventually mean savings of anywhere to 30 per cent,” she says. At the Spring Street Towers, lighting savings are expected to save up to $13 000 per year, and retrofitting costs will be paid back in less than 14 months.

Lord Mayor John So is pleased with results of the SLIC program and hopes that it will continue under the new council to be elected in November. “We know that it was quite successful. The four buildings that were involved in this program reported significant decreases in energy and water consumption,” he says. “There is a lot of interest and support at the moment for rolling these programs further.”

The scheme has already rolled into other MCIM buildings, according to Ms LeClaire. Last year, the company held an energy forum for its properties based on the SLIC trial and is promoting audits for each block. “I would say all of our buildings are now participating in some way with sustainability,” she says.

But despite enthusiasm at council and management level, a sustainable retrofit hasn’t yet translated to higher property values. Dannie Corr, director of St Kilda real estate agents Whiting and Co, says that when it comes to old apartment buildings, buyers don’t ask about sustainability. “It doesn’t seem to be top of mind at all.”

Matthew Morley, Sales Manager at Morleys Real Estate in Elwood, agrees that eco-features are not yet impacting on sale prices. But he does believe that they attract buyer interest. When a flat comes with green benefits “people get pretty excited, which is a good sign that people do want those things,” he says. “I think that right through the bayside area it will become a very important factor when selling.”

In his Footscray flat, Mr Palethorpe wasn’t motivated by the prospect of better real estate returns. As well as expensive purchases like their indoor and outdoor blinds, the couple have spruced up their apartment with an assortment of simple eco-friendly measures. They’ve put in a water-saving showerhead, compact fluorescent globes and a Bokashi Bucket composting system.

Every six weeks or so, Mr Palethorpe takes his compost to a community garden in Braybrook and a local gardener has begun rewarding his effort. “The guy now gives us food in return for our waste; he gives us cauliflower or whatever he’s got.”

“It’s up to the individual to put some time and effort into it,” he says. “Maybe these things are saving us money down the track, I don’t know. But it’s helping the environment.”

Five easy ways to green up your apartment and save energy and money

Efficient fittings

Change to low-flow showerheads and tap fittings, dual-flush toilets and low-energy lighting. If you have halogen downlights, you can switch from 50-watt to 20-watt globes.

Efficient appliances

If your fridge, dishwasher or washing machine dies, choose high-efficiency replacements. Dry your clothes on your balcony, if you have one.

Be wise about waste

Remember to recycle, even if the bins are far away in the basement. Flat-friendly compost systems, like the Bokashi Bucket, are also available.

Insulation

Add external blinds to block the hot summer sun on west-facing windows, and internal blinds to trap heat inside during winter. If you renovate, put in double-glazed windows and extra insulation.

Common spaces

Why not use your owners corporation to make an eco-agreement with your neighbours? A building audit can help you cut your carbon footprint. You can make common light fittings more efficient. If you have centralised hot water (ring mains), get a plumber to make sure the system is balanced – it could save water and gas.

Always remember that any changes to the common space or external appearance of your building need owners corporation (body corporate) approval. Ask your owners corporation manager if you aren’t sure about something. 

High five: why the new renovation rating is all about smart design

In Architecture and building, Environment, The Age on

Meeting the state’s new five-star energy rating costs renovators very little but saves the environment heaps.

Owning an old house is no longer an excuse for inefficient design. Extensions, like new houses, must now comply with the 5 Star energy standard.

The new regulations, introduced by the state government on 1 May this year, bring Victoria into line with the national standard in the Building Code of Australia. With about 40 000 Victorian homes done up every year, the changes could make a big difference to our greenhouse gas emissions.

Research by the state building regulator, the Building Commission, shows that in new homes the efficiency requirements already in place cut heating and cooling energy bills in half. “That’s likely to be achieved as well, in relation to alterations and additions,” says Victoria’s Building Commissioner, Tony Arnel.

He says that meeting the efficiency standard is mainly about smart design. “It is really careful use of materials and making sure that you get good orientation. People can actually achieve the 5 Star standard without any significant increase in cost.” In any case, he believes that reduced bills will quickly outweigh any higher outlays.

The 5 Star regulations apply only to work that requires a building permit and they vary depending on the size of your extension. For larger additions the whole house must comply, while for smaller changes only the new construction must adhere to the rules [see box]. Arnel doesn’t believe the requirements are onerous. “It’s a minimum standard… people can go a long way further if they want to,” he says.

The Building Commission, in conjunction with a number of state departments, has just launched the ‘Make Your Home Green’ website. It gives information on how to increase energy efficiency at home in every way, including detailed explanations of the new renovation rules. The site is proving very popular: in its first month, it received over 400 000 hits. “People want to do the right thing by the environment. They want to get the answers,” Arnel says.

On building sites though, not everything is running smoothly. Robert Ring, owner of Melbourne Extensions and Designs, agrees that the new regulations will be successful in the long run. For now though, his business is battling complications brought on by the rules. “We are trying to come to grips with the [software] package that’s been put out to calculate the ratings,” he says. “At the present it’s probably taking three or four hours to work out the figures.”

Ring has found that for his clients living in older, solid brick homes around Camberwell and Glen Iris, it can be hard to meet the energy standard. “You’ve got to design with the existing house in mind so it’s not as easy to get your ratings as people think,” he says. Under the regulations, building surveyors have discretion to allow only partial compliance if it would be too costly or technically difficult to reach the stars. With the rules just in, Ring isn’t sure how often these exemptions will be granted.

He estimates that on average, the regulations will only increase costs by about 1%. Often though, he finds that clients decide to spend even more and green up their home beyond the requirements by putting double-glazed windows throughout their house.

According to Enzo Raimondo, CEO of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV), the extra outlay is not only worthy, but also financially worthwhile. “It’s going to cost a little more to begin with but if the cost of energy and water keeps going up, then a 5 Star energy rating is going to be a wise investment,” he says.

In a survey conducted by REIV last year, 93% of people said that water and energy efficiency were important for them when buying a home. Raimondo believes that investing in a 5 Star renovation will add value to a property and appeal for potential buyers. “Economically it makes sense and for resale it makes sense.”

So what is the best way to bring home the stars and boost your property value? Mark Sanders, Director of Geelong firm Third Ecology Architects, says that passive solar design is the key. “If people are thinking about doing a renovation, they should try to make sure their living area is facing north and allow the sun to come in during winter and exclude it in summer.” Cross ventilation and thermal mass, like concrete floors, also help even out the temperature in hot and cold weather.

Sanders recommends you find out how your home performs as it stands. “People will need to do an energy rating of their existing home before the renovation.”

In the old part of your house, he says insulating walls and ceilings is the best way to improve efficiency. “In my own home, we had to replace some plasterboard… so that gave us the opportunity to insulate. Likewise, if you had to replace weatherboards you could insulate the external walls.”

Adding carpet or insulation under floors also cuts heat loss, as does sealing draughts under doors, windows, chimneys and exhaust fans. “Most front doors in older houses tend to have big gaps under the front of them,” he says. “So put in simple draught excluders.”

Simple steps to harness the elements

Barbara and Graeme Davidson are sitting in the new, bright back room of their 1930s Surrey Hills home. It is a cold, grey day but the room is light and comfortable, without artificial lighting or heating. They are thrilled with the environmental performance of their north-facing extension. “I just find every morning I come in here and it’s a delight. It’s airy, it’s spacious,” Graeme says, leaning back on the couch in satisfaction.

The Davidsons finished their revamp almost two years ago. Now, renovations like theirs are set to become the norm. On 1 May, the state government introduced new regulations forcing additions and alterations, like new homes, to comply with the 5 Star energy standard.

The couple’s contemporary-styled extension added both a study and a large open room, with a kitchen, lounge and informal dining space. They also installed solar hot water and a rainwater tank that collects from the roof of their new garage.

Andrew Wilson, the architect on the Surrey Hills home, is pleased with the results. He called his clients during a long summer hot spell and found, to his satisfaction, that they had barely used their air-conditioner.

According to Wilson, environmental efficiency is just about good design. “This is not rocket science, at all,” he says, leaning forward keenly. “The sun is higher in summer and lower in winter. It’s as basic as that.”

In the hotter months, wide eaves shade the large north-facing windows. Between each pane of glass, thick supports jut out to protect against the westerly afternoon sun. “In mid-summer you get no direct light into the building,” Graeme confirms. But in mid-winter, he says, the sun stretches right across the room.

Other eco-touches in the renovation include insulation beyond the 5 Star requirements and effective cross ventilation – airflow through the house to help natural cooling. Equally, in winter, the warm lounge room can be shut off from the rest of the home to keep the heat in. The garden too, has a role to play. The Davidsons planted deciduous trees that will offer summer shade and allow winter sun.

The renovation may be finished, but Barbara’s plans continue. Keen to make the house even more efficient, she wants to put in a grey water system and solar panels. “I just feel we come from the generation that have used the resources, and I include myself in that,” she says. “I’ve got grandchildren and I’m worried about what sort of world I’m going to leave them.”

The new rules at a glance

The 5 Star energy rating now applies to home additions, alterations and relocations, as well as new homes. The rules are flexible, depending on the size of the job.

If your renovation is more than 50% of your house’s original volume, the whole building should be converted to 5 Star.

If your extension is between 25 and 50% of your floor area, the only the new space must stick to the eco-standard.

If your alteration is less than 25% of your floor area, the new space should meet the rules but in some cases, your building surveyor can ok only partial compliance. According to Building Commissioner Tony Arnel, this applies “in the very few instances where it’s not feasible to get to 5 Star.”

More information

The lambs in winter

In Environment, The Big Issue on

All the focus recently has been on drought, but winter can bring the cruelest months for people on the land.

Bill Allen is closing the gate as I arrive. He’d driven out to collect the mail. Tall and strong but bowed and stiffened by the years, the old farmer shuffles over to shake my hand. “You’re the university lad are you?” he asks. I’m here from the city, on a break from crowds, concrete and cars.

We stand on the bridge over Salt Creek and Bill, now 87, proudly explains how his son David built it to replace the rickety wooden one. The thick concrete slabs and steel girders dwarf the skinny creek below.

Boorook is a family-run property in Woorndoo, near Mortlake in Western Victoria. The Allens arrived in 1906. Their grand old farmhouse reclines on the low hill above the paddocks and gullies.

Puddles line the dirt road. Bill tells me there was half an inch of rain overnight. They desperately needed rain to break the drought, he says, but it came at the worst time. The shearing is on and shearers won’t work with wet sheep; the damp wool gives them dermatitis. If it rains again, they’ll have to call off the rest of the week’s work. All that can be shorn today are sheep that were undercover last night.

Bill leads me to the woolshed and introduces me to David, who runs the farm. David is tall and solid, with thick, strong hands. His navy woollen jumper is flecked with newly shorn fluff. The shearers are working, their machines buzzing and whirring. They are hunched over, backs supported by braces on springs from the roof, bare arms moving in long and short blows over sheep pinned between their knees. After each sheep is done, the shearer pushes it through the gate to join his tally, eases his back up straight and drags the next one from the pen.

A few years ago the Allens collected interviews and compiled family trees for Boorook’s centenary celebrations. They made a book that tells of tennis tournaments, days spent rabbit hunting and eight children taking lessons at home, of two world wars and one employee who rode into town to get the mail each day. The Allens employed many workers in decades gone by, but now there is just one, Gary. He is leaving soon and will be difficult to replace. Farm labourers are hard to come by while mining money is oozing out of the West.

The woolshed, with rusting corrugated iron roof and walls, is even older than the farmhouse. David thinks it was built around 1860. Inside, the walls are adorned with fading airline posters. The floorboards and rails are worn smooth and sticky with wool fat. Little has changed here over the years; shearing technology has been much the same since the introduction of machine shears in the late 19th century.

I watch as two female rouseabouts stride back and forth along the row of five shearers, their hard brooms clacking on the floorboards, pushing the loose wool into small piles. The rousies stoop to gather the full fleeces from the shearers’ feet then throw them evenly over the wrought iron bench, as if spreading a blanket over a bed.

Outside, the sky darkens.

Not long after smoko they run out of dry sheep. A mob of waterlogged ewes, with long thick fleeces, was next to be shorn but now they slosh through a wet paddock. There’s no way to hasten the drying; they need sun, wind and time in the paddock. The shearers must wait with no work.

Wild weather is forecast overnight, so we herd the thousand newly shorn, bleach-white lambs back into the shed. David and I drive in the ute, his son Nick rides the motorbike and their sheepdog, Bella, scurries in wide arcs. David whistles instructions, “Wayback Bella, wayback. Wayback Bella wayback.”

Winter shearing intrigues me. We put our woollies on, I think to myself as we follow behind the dog, and take theirs off. But David says they rarely lose sheep to the weather. “We lost more when we sheared during summer. Summer frosts catch them when they aren’t prepared for the cold.” A battalion of sheep runs up the hill as another mob comes charging down and it reminds me of an epic movie battle scene. “It’s like a moving snowstorm,” David says.

Just before dawn I wake to the sound of wind and rain against the windows. The bureau forecasts that the rain will blow over in the afternoon, so David and Nick decide to let the sheep out of the shed and move them to a distant paddock, where there is good grass to eat. It is a difficult decision: the sheep will suffer from the cold, but they need food in their bellies. There is no room for feeding in the shed.

We herd them in the heavy rain and I am glad to chug along in the fogged-up ute while David and Nick are drenched on their motorbikes. The lambs are only ten months old. They have been hand-fed through the drought and look small and feeble without their wool.

The rain doesn’t blow over. By afternoon the hills are streaming with water. Drains are overflowing, dams are filling and the creek is rushing under the big bridge. Two months ago the farm was hard and dry. The dams were almost empty. We take a tea break in the old farmhouse; the rain dominates conversation. Dorothy, David’s mother, brings us cheese on toast and fruitcake. Bill says it’s been ten years since they had rain like this.

The Allens have seen the weather change over the decades. Their forebears stripped the land for grazing, but now they are taking action to look after the farm and the local environment. David has planted thousands of new trees and fenced off Salt Creek to keep the cattle out and save wildlife and water flows. He has built more dams and begun construction of a wetland bird sanctuary on the farm. More trees mean more shade for the animals, and more dams mean more water.

After the tea break, Nick and I dig out a drain to let water flow into the dam near the mailbox. We are driving back when he gets a call from David. Earlier that morning, worried about the cold, David and Gary had guided the sheep into a cluster of trees by a dam for protection. They had left a trail of barley to encourage them to eat. Nick puts down his phone. “There are dead sheep everywhere,” Nick says, looking straight ahead.

We drive out and over the crest of the hill and see the lines of sodden grain still yellow against the muddy grass. Then dozens of lambs lying dead. They’d been too cold to eat the food they needed.

The farmers, stern-faced, confer in low tones. I stand by awkwardly in my borrowed gumboots, not knowing what to do. Stunned, Nick says he’s never seen anything like it. The living sheep shiver; some huddle around the ute, desperately seeking the warmth of the engine. Still it rains. The night is forecast to be cold and wet again and the surviving lambs – too many and too far away – are too weak to make the journey back to shelter. We must leave them behind.

That evening, the family is quiet around the dinner table, knowing the worst is yet to come. David sighs and stares at his food, ruing the decision to move the sheep out of the woolshed.

In the morning we find the shocks of dead white among the green trees, many more than expected. Others are in the dam, blobs of pale flotsam from the storm: hand-fed, drought-surviving lambs, wasted in the rain.

With his tractor, David digs two large pits close by and then begins scooping drowned lambs out of the water. Gary gathers the stray dead, dragging them two at a time by rope from his motorbike. Nick and I work among the trees.

At first, I place the lambs gently on the back of the ute, avoiding their glassy, grey eyes. Cold water squelches down my sleeves from their stiff legs. Then through weight of numbers I grow tougher and begin to drag and throw them roughly on the pile. Yellow bile drips from their open mouths and the tangle of bodies wobbles like jelly as the ute rolls away.

We work together in silence. I look away at the mud while Nick slits the throats of the ones soon to die. Then we push them all into the pit-graves. The count reaches three hundred, almost a third of the lambs shorn two days ago. It is still drizzling and the forecast shows more rain on the way.

I leave the next morning. Bill and Dorothy see me off with extra food, concerned I’d seen only the worst of Boorook. This downpour runs into dams, catchments and reservoirs. Back in the city I track the water levels rising, on the corner of my newspaper. I know that David is planting his wetland, watching the weather, wondering what it will bring next.

***

A year on, I call again. David Allen still shudders at the memory of the lambs’ deaths. “It was a miserable bloody day,” he says. “I made a bad decision to let them out of the shed,” he says. Since then, the Allens have planted 2500 trees on their property and have ordered 700 more. The lambs and the land will be better protected. “People always laugh at farmers talking about the weather, but we do it for a good reason,” he says. “It’s often a life and death situation.”

Healthy spring lambing brought his mob’s numbers back up, and the summer was mild. Two shearings have passed as normal, with no hitches. There has been little rain.

Photography by Michael Green

Global cooling

In Community development, Environment, Social justice, The Age on

A new project is turning our old white fridges green.

At the Phoenix Fridges warehouse in East Brunswick, two long rows of fridges face-off like football teams before a big game. On the left, a refurbished line-up is clean, efficient and ready to run. On the right, the dusty, sticker-covered new recruits will soon face their ultimate test.

But unlike a footy game, this eco-friendly scheme always returns a win-win result.

Phoenix Fridges, co-run by the Brotherhood of St Lawrence and Moreland Energy Foundation Limited, aims to curb the appetite of our power-hungry refrigerators. To do it, they collect unwanted appliances and retrofit them to improve efficiency. Then, the recycled goods are resold in the Brotherhood’s opshops.

The scheme is not only a plus for the environment, but also lends a helping hand in the community. Last year, while learning how to fix the whitegoods on the job, three refugees completed six-month traineeships and TAFE certificates in electrotechnology services. This year, the number of traineeships is set to double. The program’s other important social benefit is that low-income families gain access to cheap second-hand fridges with lower running costs.

Bruce Thompson, Business Program Coordinator at MEFL, says Phoenix Fridges offers a strong practical step for cutting electricity use. The fridge devours more energy than any other appliance. “It is responsible for about ten or 15 per cent of a household’s greenhouse emissions,” he says.

Thompson encourages people to buy a new fridge if they can afford it. “From a greenhouse policy perspective, it is really good to buy a new one. They are about 70 per cent more efficient than a fridge you would buy 15 years ago.” But there’s a catch. Over a third of Victorian homes have a second fridge: people tend to put their old unit in the garage and use it to store drinks. “So instead of saving 70 per cent, they’ve increased their energy consumption,” he says.

That’s where Phoenix Fridges comes in. The project has been in full swing for over a year. In that time, it has collected more than 5000 old refrigerators – almost one hundred per week – across metropolitan Melbourne. The free pick-up zone now stretches as far as Mt Eliza.

When the chunky donations arrive at the workshop, electrical engineer Noe Cuellar and his trainees assess the efficiency and quality of each one. They send approximately half the machines to be scrapped.

According to Thompson, this is a crucial part of the process. “We want to manage the project so that we are returning good fridges back into circulation to make them affordable for low-income households,” he says. “But we don’t want to send the energy hungry ones back,” he says.

Before the cast-offs are sent for metal recycling, their dangerous refrigerant gas is captured from the pipes. “A kilogram of the old CFCs in a fridge… is equivalent to 8000 kilograms of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in terms of its global warming equivalent,” Thompson says. If you put your old fridge out for hard rubbish collection, he says, the pipes are likely to break along the way and release the harmful gas.

For those fridges that make the cut, where necessary, Cuellar and his team replace seals, thermostats, filters and compressors, and add insulation. He says that, on average, they cut energy use by between five and ten per cent.

Each unit is fitted with a sticker listing the appliance’s energy consumption, carbon emissions and running cost per year. Cuellar says that customers appreciate this extra information, as well as the improved performance. “We’ve found that people love the fridges,” he says. “They find them really cost effective.”

Thompson acknowledges that Phoenix Fridges doesn’t create five-star efficiency in the old units. “We can’t do that,” he says. “But we are improving them or rejecting all of the bad fridges that are in that second-hand market.”

With climate change upon us, and so many energy-gobbling fridges still clogging our homes, we all need to get in on the action. It’s a perfect match.

To organise a donation and collection, call 1300 366 283. 

Building a bridge with your tradie

In Architecture and building, The Age on

Building troubles are a homeowner’s worst nightmare. Michael Green goes on site to unearth the problems and find out how to make sure they don’t happen to you.

Just before 7.30am, Jack Crawford arrives on the job in Clayton. “On a cold morning it would be nice to just stay in bed,” he says, with the easy grin of an old surfer. “But it’s just about throwing that leg out first.”

Today, the 48-year-old builder is working on a pergola and outdoor dining area. Wearing his faded red cap, as always, he unloads his tools and his dog Ned, from the ute. Mr Crawford is a sole trader and he’s been in the industry for 31 years. “I just love being the carpenter and I want to be personal with the clients,” he says. “That’s where I get my satisfaction.”

Building or renewing your home is exciting. It can be like signing a new lease on life. If you see eye-to-eye with your tradie, even the dusty process can be fun. But what happens if your new square bathroom goes pear-shaped?

Tales of crooked tradies are standard fare at dinner parties and the dodgy workman has become a cliché of current affairs television. But it’s more than an urban myth. Building gripes account for about one-in-ten complaints made to the state consumer watchdog, Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV). In this industry, the dollar values are high so complaints can be serious, both financially and emotionally.

CAV has researched the plight of Victorian consumers across all kinds of products. “We survey the nature of problems they experience in buying goods and services and assess the level of detriment involved,” says Dr David Cousins, CAV’s Executive Director. “More than 30 per cent of that comes out to be detriment associated with building.”

According to Dr Cousins, complaints normally relate to quality and to contracts. “Those are not unrelated at times because often people haven’t got in place a good enough contract to enable them to deal with issues that arise of poor quality,” he says.

Dr Cousins says his organisation has had a focus on shonky construction cases. In the last financial year, CAV prosecuted 34 builders. All up, the tradespeople were fined more than $400 000 and forced to pay nearly $190 000 in costs and compensation.

In one recent case, the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court convicted Wantirna South man Saroush Saeedi for lying to a McKinnon pensioner that he was a registered builder. Mr Saeedi charged almost $70 000 for work that an independent expert later valued to be worth no more than $1700.

Dr Cousins says the case is “not an atypical example” of the complaints received by his organisation. “We have dealt with lots of situations where elderly people have been taken advantage of by sometimes itinerant tradespeople,” he says. But the CAV chief is quick to note that when thinking about the number of complaints, we should keep in mind the high level of construction work on the go.

Mr Tony Arnel, the state Building Commissioner agrees. “For the most part, consumer satisfaction is really high in Victoria. The quality of building is high and the number of disputes is low.”

“Our focus is on making sure the building industry does operate at a high level,” Mr Arnel says. The Building Commission is an independent authority charged with overseeing the building control system. It conducts regular surveys on industry performance and its latest results show that nine out of ten people have high confidence in their builder, a slight improvement from the last set of figures.

Back on the job in Clayton, Mr Crawford and his apprentice Joel have spent the morning digging out the earth below the pergola and getting ready for concreting. The builder says he gets a thrill from jobs that go well. “If you get customers at the end who are really excited about what you’ve done, then that’s more than the payment you need. It’s almost like, ‘Well don’t worry about paying me’.”

To get the best results, Mr Crawford believes clients should try to take pleasure in the building process and not worry too much at the untidy early stages. “The eggs have to be broken,” he says. “There’s going to be a bit of dirt, there’s going to be a bit of mess, but if they enjoy that then we all feel more comfortable and more excited about turning up to work.”

He understands that clients can feel frustrated if a project drags on and tradespeople aren’t available. “Often what clients don’t realise is that their job is not the only job we’re doing…and that’s where a bit of angst comes in,” he says. “In an ideal world we would love to start and finish a job for one person then start the next, but the continuity of other tradesmen doesn’t allow you to do that.”

For people beginning new work, Mr Crawford’s main advice is to do your homework before choosing a builder. “Even if you do select someone out of the paper you can still say ‘Give us a list of your clients, and we’re going to go around and chat to them.’”

Mr Robert Harding, the Housing Industry Association’s (HIA) Acting Chief Executive for Victoria, agrees. “If you’re searching for a tradie from scratch then it can be a good idea to get a few quotes for greater piece of mind and to ask lots of questions about the process.”

He advises that clients get a written quote before agreeing to anything and also make sure that their tradesperson has the required licences or registration to do the work (only registered builders are allowed to do jobs worth more than $5000).

If something does go wrong, the first step is to talk about it directly to your tradesperson. “As with all things in life, sometimes work goes to plan, but sometimes it won’t,” Mr Harding says. “Always communicate: if you think something is going wrong say so, rather than letting it fester and blow up at the end of the job when it is possibly too late.

CAV advises straight talking too. “That’s best for both parties,” Dr Cousins says. “We find that often where disputes arise, communication breaks down and they become more intractable.”

If discussions fail, Dr Cousins says, your next stop is to contact the builder’s association (like HIA or the Master Builders Association Victoria), because if problems crop up the association’s reputation is at stake too.

Another option is to call Building Advice and Conciliation Victoria (BACV). Jointly run by CAV and the Building Commission, BACV offers free advice and help to resolve disputes. Where quality issues come up, it can organise for a technical inspection of the work.

“If we still can’t get a resolution of those issues then what we suggest to people is that they can take their matter to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal,” Dr Cousins says.

In the afternoon, Mr Crawford and his apprentice pour the concrete and then prepare for paving. He organises for delivery of new sand and cement and sets out levels for the next morning’s work. Finally, he arrives home at 5:30pm and then heads out again for Ned’s nightly hour-long walk.

By 9:00pm he’s at his desk plugging away at bookwork and quotes for upcoming work. Except for a few bad apples, Mr Crawford is sure that tradies do try to do their best for their clients. As for the secret to a smooth job, “it’s all about communication isn’t it?” he says. “That’s the key thing.”

Tips for trouble-free building

Shop around

Invest time and effort at the start to save money and trouble if things go wrong. Check out your builder’s work record by contacting Building Advice and Conciliation Victoria, or the Building Practitioners Board. Talk to previous clients. Remember, if a quote seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Choose a registered builder

For work worth more than $5000, your tradesperson must be registered with the Building Practitioners Board. For work worth more than $12 000 your tradesperson must take out builders warranty insurance.

Don’t sign until you’re ready

Know what you are getting yourself into. Your building contract should list all costs, including fixtures and fittings. Make sure you understand the exact details of your plans and your contract. Avoid agreements that lock you in with a builder before plans and specifications are finished.

Ask independent experts

Before signing any contract – including the standard contracts developed by industry associations – get independent legal advice. Hire an independent building surveyor to check that the project will satisfy the regulations and your standards.

Don’t pay until a stage is done

Pay on time, but before each stage payment make sure the work has passed the surveyor’s inspection and all contractual requirements have been met.

Act immediately if things go wrong

If you think something isn’t right, talk to your tradie about it. Take photos of the problem and take notes of the conversation. Confirm any new agreements in writing and be sure to keep a copy of the letter. If you need help to resolve a dispute, call Building Advice and Conciliation Victoria on 1300 55 75 59.

Have fun

Take an interest in the job and in the skill of the tradespeople. Everyone enjoys positive feedback, so compliment a job well done. And remember: a nice cup of tea or a glass of water can do wonders for your tradie’s enthusiasm.

Tips adapted from Consumer Affairs Victoria, Building and Renovating Quick Tips.