Canberra Sprawl

Australia is on the pointy end of global warming. Many Australian cities are experiencing long spells of exceptionally hot weather, diasterous bush fires have been raging and fresh water is in short supply, with many dams and reservoirs at historically low levels. In a continent that is already very dry the long term direction of the weather is alarming.

Given the potential impact on Australia of global warming, it is particularly depressing to read that Canberra has decided to continue sprawling out and build some 15 more suburbs. Although I don't agree, the reasoning behind the development is not hard to understand. House prices in Canberra are ridiculously high and there is ample land on which to build new houses relatively cheaply. Moreover, there is probably extremely strong demand for more housing stock, and most likely strong demand for the typical Australian home: the three bedroom, wood framed, brick veneer bungalow in the suburbs.

I understand why these new suburbs are being built. Nonetheless, I find the fact that Canberra has simply decided to follow existing practice and build hundreds or thousands of new, single family homes to be depressing. Every new house built will require one or two cars to move the inhabitants from home to work and back again. The folks living there will have to drive to their local supermarket, drive to schools near and far to drop off and pick up their children, and drive to the doctor and dentist. Every house will have its own relatively inefficient heating and air conditioning system that will ultimately come at the cost of burning coal for power.

Are there no other models that Canberra could adopt? The Dutch and Germans seem to be able to organize compact, high-density cities and towns where a very large percentage of the population can, and do, commute by bike and public transport. I live in Germany, don't own a car, ride a bicycle to drop off my children at daycare and walk to pick up my groceries. It is actually very pleasant, although I do miss driving and enjoy the odd times that I get to rent a car. Moreover, the measures that Germany is implementing to reduce CO2 emissions are quite impressive, ranging from substantial fuel taxes and energy taxes through to aggressive implementation of wind power across the country.

So what is going on in Australia? Australia is certainly rich enough to effect change and is already feeling the affects of global warming. If nothing else, I would have thought the fact that one of Australia's leading exports is coal, invariably destined to be burnt in Chinese power plants, would have induced a certain amount of chagrin and concern for doing the right thing as far as possible domestically. So, do Australians think that the Canberra development model is just fine? The Australian dream of a separate house, backyard and multiple cars certainly seems alive and well. The problem however, is that even if every inhabitant of these new suburbs eats organically, grows their own vegetables, cycles to work once or twice a week, carpools or uses park and drive stations, Australia is not going to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted per person.

That Canberra is continuing to follow the standard Australian model of development in late 2009, over a decade after Kyoto, is utterly depressing. It strikes me as an almost wilful failure to acknowledge reality and a profound failure of imagination and will. Can Canberrans only conceive of brand new suburbs as the way to house a growing population? Is this how Australia is going to rise to the challenge of global warming? I would have liked to have thought of Canberra, and Australia generally, as a place of innovation, of being concerned with the challenges of the 21st Century and having the guts to deal with them. But I guess I was mistaken about the Australian character: "she'll be right" seems to have considerable precedence over honesty and guts, even if it is going to hurt our own grandchildren.