Comment by Peter Duggan
As a proud resident of South Dubbo my hackles often rise when I see the words “knocking them down” and “old houses” in the same sentence (“Housing Supply Problem Needs Solution”, Dubbo Photo News, March 10-16).
This was part of the eager call to rezone South Dubbo for medium density housing as a solution for Dubbo’s housing supply crisis.
It is to be lamented that such an approach still occurs in this day and age when an appreciation of a town’s older homes and areas is already so well enmeshed in the community’s psyche. It is the charm and character of these places that so many of us seek, so why do some find it so easy to look on older homes as an impediment to progress and therefore be done away with?
Defenders and admirers of heritage need not be perceived as old cranks resistant to change. The problem arises when places are needlessly and irreversibly changed. Instead, I will put it to you that we can have our cake and eat it too, it just takes consideration and thought.
I can’t see how the supposed housing supply crisis can’t be met in the new estates rapidly going up around the edge of the city. Not wanting to be too critical of the houses in these areas but there is much scope for denser and more varied housing in these estates.
The dead space between these houses can easily be removed by constructing attached and semi-detached dwellings with a party wall between, potentially saving thousands on the build and creating denser housing in the process.
These estates also leave much to be desired in the way of communal amenities and a sense of connection for their residents. A fine-grained built environment full of interest could be created with narrower “shared-zone” streets, varied building setbacks, community gardens, playgrounds, pocket parks, corner shops and more. New estates can be a rich mix of housing and building types, including detached single-family homes, co-housing, social housing, residential flats, semi-detached housing, shop top housing, retail strips and so on.
I give you forewarning that replacing the older housing stock with villa units will quickly turn our streets into a tunnel of driveways and high brick walls. I speak from experience, having been driven away from my once beloved Central Coast which is now swamped with banal developments and gridlocked streets.
For fear of a bad idea spreading fast, I call on Council to protect the older areas of Dubbo.
Did you know that South Dubbo has been recommended to become a heritage conservation area in each of the three heritage study reviews of Dubbo over the past 30 years? Though in development-minded councils such recommendations have obviously fallen on deaf ears.
Being designated a heritage item or within a heritage conservation area does not mean one must live in a museum. Change is allowed to occur in these places but it instead needs to be appropriate and sympathetic to the existing streetscape.
Recommendations are made in the heritage reviews as to how development is best progressed in these areas, which may involve replacing those dwellings that do not contribute to the streetscape, and by retaining the contributory older homes and constructing a dual occupancy or granny flat in the large rear yard of these properties (while hopefully retaining as much tree cover as possible).
But why should our older areas even have to feel the brunt of this development?
Luckily the majority of old and new residents have appreciated and kept intact their older homes over the years with, at most, sympathetic additions carried out to the rear. We can only hope the call for medium density housing in these established areas is not taken up.
By all means address the housing supply problem, but please don’t accomplish these goals by taking away the joy of others. Our older houses and areas have provided much over the years and will continue to do so with a bit of the consideration and the respect that they deserve.
Peter Duggan is a heritage architect who has been resident in South Dubbo for the past seven years and hopefully for many more to come. He currently serves as heritage advisor to Warrumbungle and Gilgandra Shire Councils.
