“Shorter journey time is key to patronage take up. Light rail 2b will take longer, especially if it is routed through the Barton dog leg – a turn off for patrons who don’t want to waste time sitting in a tram,” says letter writer RUSS MORRISON.
The ACT Government’s EIS is tunnel-vision biased. It fails to take into account other modes of travel, such as Bus Rapid Transit, at half the price of light rail.
With similar carrying capacity, we could buy two systems for the price of one. Neither business cases for stage 1 and stage 2a stack up financially.
BRT uses existing roads – no expensive tracks. In the event of a crash or other incident, the route is not blocked as BRT can go around any such incidents on existing road infrastructure, with no tunnels or bridges needing to be installed.
BRT, like light rail, has low entry-exit points but BRT has more seating than LR making the journey more comfortable.
Shorter journey time is key to patronage take up. Light rail 2b will take longer, especially if it is routed through the Barton dog leg – a turn off for patrons who don’t want to waste time sitting in a tram.
Under my two-for-one argument, and looking at a number of trunk routes – Tuggeranong to Belconnen, Tuggeranong to Gungahlin – currently go through Civic, not direct. Using the Tuggeranong Parkway with BRT will be faster and encourage patronage take up.
Fewer cars on the road, faster travel – what a system! A patronage winner! Emissions? What emissions?
Want a system? Then BRT is the answer NOW!
Russ Morrison, via email
Arboretum is truly a living treasure
With more than 44,000 rare and endangered trees across a 250-hectare site, what better place than the National Arboretum for the launch of Robert Macklin’s book on Charles Weston, The Man Who Planted Canberra (“The man of Canberra trees, three million of them”, CN September 11)?
The Arboretum is a living treasure in the true sense of the label and something all Australians can be proud of.
With development, deforestation and climate change, our trees are under more threat than ever before, so protecting and planting them needs greater priority.
The 3-30-300 rule is a metric for urban planning, proposing that every citizen should have access to nature by being able to see at least three trees from their home, live in a neighbourhood with at least 30 per cent tree canopy cover, and be within a 300-metre walk of a high-quality green space.
Introduced by Cecil Konijnendijk in 2021, the rule serves as a global benchmark for urban forestry, aiming to improve public health, well-being, and city resilience against climate change.
While many parts of Canberra satisfy this rule, they tend to be in the older suburbs. The ACT government’s Urban Forest Strategy gives Canberra residents an opportunity to request trees by visiting yoursayconversations.act.gov.au/trees-act/tree-planting-across-cbr (tinyurl.com/CBRTrees). An investment in the future.
Anne O’Hara, Wanniassa
Invaluable contribution to the history of Canberra
In a number of recent articles in CityNews, columnist Robert Macklin has justly celebrated, as central to the creation of Canberra, Charles Weston, first officer in charge of afforestation and director of City Parks & Gardens (1913-26), while detracting from the roles of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin.
Arts editor Helen Musa followed suit in CityNews (September 11), contrasting Weston’s “much lauded contemporaries” and selecting the Cork Oak Plantation as a case of “disastrous direction” from Griffin.
At the launch of his biography of Weston (The Man Who Planted Canberra) at the National Arboretum on September 12, before a packed, interested Canberra audience, Macklin began his presentation with an astonishing declaration: “The creation of the national capital was too much for Griffin. He walked away from his position as Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction.”
This is historically wrong and misleading. Griffin departed from the capital project in 1921, after consolidating his City Plan but succumbing to the politics of the same bureaucrats who were to frustrate Weston. He and Marion maintained their devotion to the “ideal city”.
In his book, Macklin provides, in Chapter Five, American Dreamers, a fair representation of Griffin’s background and personality and Marion’s renderings of the landscape and buildings of the capital.
Parts II and III of the book portray the collaboration between the town planner/landscape architect and the arborist/horticulturalist mostly as conflicts over species selection, with occasional “disasters” (Pialligo Redwoods and the Cork Oak plantation) with Griffin giving Weston a hard time, rather than highlighting the creative, mutual, successful outcomes, linking Griffin’s plan, soil conservation, arboreal and beautification elements.
There are fascinating narratives about the implementation of Griffin’s “painted” inner-city hills, the planting of Mt Pleasant, location of Gen Bridge’s Grave, and the planning of Griffin’s Continental Arboretum and “green hills” afforestation, which put their relationship to the test.
A National Library publication, the book and graphics, biographical details and acknowledgement of Dr John Gray’s earlier treatise are impressive, an invaluable contribution to the history of Canberra, although warranting much more contextual information and appreciation of the Griffins’ vision, achievement and legacy.
Brett Odgers, Swinger Hill
Pocock deserves a seat at the table
Soon after ANU Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell resigned, our four federal Labor representatives announced that they would be meeting with Chancellor Julie Bishop about “the next steps” in what the ANU website still calls the “Renew ANU Journey”.
They indicated they had received many constituent concerns about the paths ANU is now tripping down.
No mention was made of Labor asking Senator David Pocock to join their contingent, a move which would have created a strong nonpartisan approach from the ACT on the troubling and deepening fiasco surrounding ANU and its education provision responsibilities and management.
For a long period of time now Senator Pocock has been an active community-based advocate, communicator, and responder inside and outside parliament about the many concerns that he too has received about the scope and impacts of Renew ANU.
He has liaised effectively and consistently with the campus community, and the broader public, which includes ANU alumni, donors and potential students.
He has queried and spoken out against the ongoing redundancies and ANU’s plans to shut down the School of Music and other well established and well recognised arts and humanities entities.
Hopefully Senator Pocock will be afforded the same opportunity to meet with specific members of the university’s leadership team, should he wish to do so in addition to his relevant involvements to date in various parliamentary processes that have sought key pieces of information and answers from the ANU chancellery .
Sue Dyer, Downer
When whale oil and coal were used for heating
It seems that the climate warriors like Amy Blaine and Anne O’Hara et al would have us return to the period prior to the Industrial Revolution.
Then, whale oil and coal were used for heating and modern pharmaceuticals weren’t available to protect the population from rampant diseases.
I am a realist. Until when – and only then – a stable form of baseload power is available to allow more than 8.5 billion people to live comfortably and efficiently, coal and gas are the answer.
Of course, nuclear power is that source, but most Australians didn’t favour that solution at the last election. Meanwhile, India has 25 nuclear reactors with 11 more under construction. Hence, a lower overall greenhouse gas figure than us nasty Australians.
Dave Jeffrey, Farrer
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