Flagstaff Park (Lot 5180, Town of Darwin) is the public park (zoned PS- Public Open Space) on the top of the end of Myilly Point. It has l panoramic views of the Darwin Harbour, and is of history and heritage significance. The old 'gardens' are a remnant of Flagstaff House, which was a Vice Regal home, until destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in 1974.
This park was publicly dedicated by Chief Minister Clare Martin to the people of Darwin in 2001.
The land behind McDonalds and fronting Dick Ward Drive (off Fitzer Drive) is in imminent danger and could be lost forever, we urgently need your support.
The NT Planning Commission expects that Darwin's population to double in 40-50 years. The NT Government intends to densify by infill developments in Darwin's Inner Suburbs, from Stuart Park to the Narrows. This is as well as the Darwin CBD doubling in size.
The Gardens is a small suburb almost hidden between the Botanic Gardens and the Stuart Highway. A tight nit community has chosen to live here, supposedly out of harms way. They are now literally campaigning to save their community from destruction by high rise development. On Saturday 30 August, about 100 of them rallied close to the proposed site. Lot 7820 is at the corner of Blake Street and Gardens Hill Crescent (look it up in a directory if you don't know where).
A yellow sign alerted them to a Planning Notice for the following:
To rezone Lot 7820 Town of Darwin (4 Blake Street from Zone CP(Community Purpose) to a Specific Use Zone
This means there has been an application for a lot officially zoned for a community use to be rezoned for the construction of a development. In this case, the ultimate objective is to build two nine storey apartment buildings which would be totally out of character with the suburban area. It has a mix single detached dwellings, and modest one to two storey town houses, perhaps with the odd three storey.
Full details of the proposal, and how to object, are under 'Details of Proposed Planning Scheme Amendments'.on the internet at 'NT Planning Notices', or 'One Stop Shop NT'.
The decision is to be made by the minister for Planning after a hearing by the Development Consent Authority at which all objectors can attend and speak. Local residents are objecting strongly to the prospect of Community Purposes land being taken for development, and see this as the 'thin end of the wedge' for the complete destruction of their much loved suburb and community which they have invested in, and call home.
THE GARDENS COMMUNITY would welcome more objections based focussed on the use of Community Purposes zoned land for residential densification. (See also more details below).
There is a email address for supporters to contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Please download/print out the following document:
The new Australian Fighter Aircraft will be the F35A LIGHTNING II. Details of the Environmental Impact Statement(EIS), other relevant information, and comments will be at www.f35evolution.com.au.
There will be aircraft noise during PITCH BLACK quite separately. This has a major disrupting effect on parts of Darwin, which affected people may want to minimise. People have asked at least for a timetable, and monitors at various parts of Darwin to record sound levels.
Complaints may be made to the Air Services website.
Reports about all types of air noise complaints can be found here. Very few complaints have so far come from Darwin.
The NT Planning Commission now has on exhibition a copy of the Draft Darwin Regional Land Use. This is the next stage on from the Towards a Darwin Regional land Use PLan, and is supposed to reflect the consultation on that document. The plan is the big picture future plan. The Commissioner Gary Nairn has commented that the plan does not look very different, but the noters with it contain a lot of information for consideration.
The Draft can be downloaded from: www.planningcommission.nt.gov.au
If you cannot download, contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and request a hard copy or USB.
There are big changes proposed, so please have your say, particularly Do not dam the Elizabeth River.
COMMENTS DUE BY 1 SEPTEMBER, 2014.
The Northern Territory Government, via the NT PLanning Commission, has at last put together a draft proposal about the OLD HOSPITAL SITE/MYILLY POINT/FLAGSTAFF PARK/KAHLIN.
Unfortunately it proposes that over 60% of the land would be taken up by residential development 'to pay for' making green open space available. Not really appropriate when it is all crown land which we already own, and support through out taxes. I do not know where our government's have got this concept of charging us twice for what is ours, and what has been neglected for years. (The ALP had proposed a 20% to 80% public balance, which was bad enough).
WAY BACK IN 2001, CHIEF MINISTER CLARE MARTIN PROMISED FLAGSTAFF PARK, AT THE END OF MYILLY POINT, TO THE COMMUNITY, BUT IT WAS NEVER IMPLEMENTED.
More useful details for members who want to express an opinion to the NTG by the cut off date 11 June, 2014, will find more detailed information at Territory Planning Commission
Feel free to make your own posted submission if you want to say more than the online response seems to allow. Your opinion is important.
Consultation continues on the CBD Masterplan project to be finalised by the end of 2013.
See further information contained in attached pdf, or on the City of Darwin website, participate, and make a submission.
Lord Mayor Katrina Fong Lim made it quite clear on ABC TV News (25.3.2013) that those who are totally against any such building here on the foreshore headland, that is who are for the 'status quo', can say so now, in the consultation process.
The attachment below from the C of D website provides an outline of the situation.
Nightcliff ForeshoreCafe/Restaurant
There is additional information on the C of D website which you can find by searching 'Nightcliff Foreshore Consultation'.
Council's online survey has great detail about preferring one of the two optional buildings, but there is nowhere you can state you are against any buildings at all in this location.
The consultation will close at 5pm on 6 May, 2013.
IF, LIKE ALL MEMBERS OF THE PLAN COMMITTEE, YOU WISH TO VOTE FOR NO NEW BUILDINGS ON THE NIGHTCLIFF FORESHORE AT THIS LOCATION, WE SUGGEST YOU SIMPLY EMAIL THE REFERENCE OFFICER LISTED AT THE END OF THE SURVEY AS FOLLOWS AND SAY SO:
For further information please contact the City of Darwin, Anna Malgorzewicz, Senior Community Engagement Officer on (08) 8930 0404 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
CORRECTION
After two people searched unsuccessfully to find within the 'consultation survey, a place to vote for the 'status quo' , that is, NO CAFE/RESTAURANT, a call was made to Council.
Council advised that THE PLACE IS WITHIN QUESTION 6. SO PLEASE USE IT IF THAT IS YOUR WISH.
Just check carefully, as the rest of the 'consultation survey' is about the two built options.
Please note that this survey is for anyone who cares, not just the residents of Nightcliff.
The consultation survey is on the main City of Darwin website. Just wait for the Nightcliff Foreshore feature as it roll around onto the screen.
LOCAL PROPOSED MASTERPLAN FOR ENHANCING THE NIGHTCIFF FORESHORE HEADLAND WITHOUT A RESTAURANT
This proposal has been put together by a group of Nightcliff residents calling themselves Friends of Nightcliff. The group includes Simon Scally an architect and Marisa Fontes a landscape architect and other community members.
Like many of us, they do not want a restaurant, but love the Nightcliff foreshore for relaxation. They see this time of focus as the occasion to improve the Nightcliff Headland for the enjoyment of all residents and ratepayers. The greatest urge seems to be for a cafe/coffee shop, rather than a restaurant.
The main suggestion is to improve safety and landscaping on the area and improving the pool infrastructure, modernising it, and tucking a cafe into the end of the refurbished pool building. There would be no 250sm+ $1.5 million+ restaurant on the headland, on the eroding cliffs.. Other costs would need more carefully managed.
A major feature would be the re-routing of the walking/running circuit around to the sea side of the pool, away from Casuarina Drive, and the car parks. This would eliminate clashes between cars and pedestrians.
Here is the Masterplan, with key references shown below on the map. PLan suggests you may wish to vote NO at question 6, on the Council Survey, and instead support some of these ideas for improving the precinct. for everyone. Voting NO leaves the options open.
Nightcliff Pool Precinct Masterplan
Margaret Clinch
Convener Plan
The coloured draft masterplan brochure is NOW on display at www.palmerston.nt.gov.au
The link is on the main website page, and all pages can be opened and viewed.
Details are given about the consultation process.
Largely as a result of having attracted INPEX LNG Plant here, the Northern Territory Government (NTG) expects Darwin to grow at an exponential rate. We have already been experiencing housing shortages, with unaffordable rents and home prices. However, this is not the answer Darwin residents need, or can tolerate.
Our old Darwin Town Plan set the minimum size for the single dwelling (SD) house lot in Darwin at 800 square metres for tropical living.
The NTPS also lists this as a minimum size lot for a house. This size was a step down from earlier minimums of 1000 square metres and 1200 square metres still much sought appreciated in suburbs like Nightcliff.
Most of Darwin was planned in the days of the Commonwealth administration, up to 1978.
The Northern Territory Planning Scheme (NTPS) was introduced in 2007, supposedly to have Territory wide uniform effect. Since that time, it has been amended over 200 times. Its greatest impact has been through through special conditions (SU's) for suburban developers.
New housing in Palmerston was on much smaller lots. than in Darwin. The NTG had become dependent on developers for new suburbs, IT agreed to smaller lots for projects oh more than 50 homes. That later spread to Lyons and now Muirhead.
Planning means planning for appropriate uses in appropriate places and relationships. Needed are areas for various types of residential, commercial, industrial, community uses, such as schools, tertiary education, aged care, hospitals, libraries, museums, community centres, child care centres, youth drop ins, etc., and parks for sport and recreation, and environmental conservation. Infrastructure is essential, and planning must respect land capability constrains such as water supplies and storm surge.
Darwin suburbs each have their own character. People choose the amenity of the place where they purchase or live.
The Henderson Greater Darwin Plan brings home the insecurity thrust this year on rural dwellers, to your own suburb.
We have already seen a series of spot rezonings for multiple dwellings and apartment blocks. Now we face dual occupancy before its ramifications have been thought out.
Your way of life would be destroyed if two or three neighbours go for dual occupancies for profit in this plan, or if there is a deceased estate. Trees and gardens are at risk, as is tropical design, as houses closer together will need airconditioning.
We have already seen rezonings of Community Purposes land for residential projects, as by Charles Darwin University at Palmerston. Exceptional Development Permit (EDP) applications have become the rage, In Conigrave Street, Fannie Bay, the NTG has already approved an EDP for two four bedroom houses side by side on one lot, despite objections.
Strange that Department of Planning staff assert that such changes based on policy, some of which predate actual amendments to the NTPS, will not increase density, nor affect the amenity of particular suburbs, precincts or neighbourhoods.
This is not good planning.
THE COMMUNITY MUST HAVE ITS SAY ON THIS THREAT TO OUR WAY OF DARWIN'S UNIQUE TROPICAL WAY OF LIFE.
For more information, visit our Shop 23 in the Rapid Creek Business Village in Trower Road, Rapid Creek.
We are open Tuesdays and Thursdays 1-5 pm. In addition, we will also be open on Sunday, March 4 and 11 12noon-3pm to discuss these issues.
IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN HELPING ORGANISE A PUBLIC MEETING IN THEIR AREA, PLEASE CONTACT US, ASAP.
The idea is to amend the rules so t that the Development Consent Authority (DCA) could consent to two houses on any single lot zoned for a SD(Single Dwelling). That is if it is at least 1000 square metres in area. This, it seems, could be ANYWHERE in an ordinary residential suburb. There goes choice and certainty. THIS WOULD BE IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT THE MINIMUM LOT SIZE FOR AN SD LOT IS 800 SQUARE METRES. THIS WOULD MAKE A NONESENSE OF THE NTPS.
Some may welcome the opportunity. However, the impact on the community and its tropical lifestyle could be greatly negative. This is densification of our tropical lifestyle by stealth.
The attachment below contains the details of the proposal - and I feel sure this is a real planning amendment, not a review. HOWEVER YOU ARE INVITED TO COMMENT. THE QUICKEST WAY IS TO SUBMIT A COMMENT IS BY EMAIL (via 'This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.')
Address it to: Strategic Planning, Department of Planning.
Identify ' Planning Amendment 2011/0935' DUAL OCCUPANCY'
Provide your name, address and contact, and list of your reasons against having two houses in each of your neighbour's back yards.
These might include perhaps loss of privacy, loss of gardens, noise, smells,cutting off of shade and breezes, more traffic, and strained infrastructure services.
Then there is possible loss of house values, and perhaps higher council rates because of your lot's new development potential.
Your home ownership may be at risk in the future if you’re the owner of a strata titled unit. See the Unit titles Scheme.
A scheme may be terminated if:
The Property Council would like to reduce that to 75%. Read more
The CLP supports a transport hub on the corner of Smith & Daly Streets – link to file attached called State of the Union Takeouts CLP Nov 2011.pdf
Find out what is happening with your roads here:
A Strategic Planning Commission is proposed by the CLP. It will be the creative thinker. The DCA will become the enforcer – read more
Here is a handy website to stay on top of what is happening in your area – just put your address in and it will alert you to any planning or development notices within a 2 km radius of your address – http://www.planningalerts.org.au/
A lot of hard work has gone into setting up our new Information Centre at Shop 26/16, Charlton Court, Woolner, opposite Middys Lighting. This is down the hill from Le Cornu's.
There is environmental and planning information in books, magazines, and maps, on our databases, photographs and displays.
We open on Thursdays from noon to 6pm, and can usually be available at other times, given some notice. If you feel you need to call us, or come in at different times, phone 8927 1999, and we will see what we can do, either at the shop, or on your site. This is office is now where our committee meetings are held.
We are all volunteers, as there are no paid staff. If you want to be a volunteer on Thursdays, in the shop, please let us know. We can soon bring you up to speed.
The shop is pleasant, air conditioned, has access to toilets, and has plenty of tea, coffee and biscuits.
Be prepared! Residents need to be aware of how planning changes can affect their own way of life, quite suddenly.
Be alerted to what development or planning applications are being made in your immediate area by this handy website – just type in your address and you will receive an email alerting you to any application made within a 2 km radius of your address.
The NT Government's new current policy of densification for Darwin and Greater Darwin, increases the chance of such unwelcome changes. People need to be ready to respond, having the right knowledge to react positively. They need a better understanding of the planning system.
Too often, pink and yellow notices seen on site are ignored. Then it is too late to be involved. If you see these notices, there is little time to act. We can usually help.
PLan aims to provide people with a better understanding of the NT Planning Scheme, and the planning system. Major sources of NT planning information are found at http://www.nt.gov.au/lands, and on from there.
Residents should not be shy about phoning the Department of Planning, through the NT Government switch (89995511), or contacting their local electorate office (see our website for the list), writing to the NT News, or contacting other media. These actions are part of our democratic right in the NT.
Yesterday, I attended a residents' meeting at Leanyer. There people are working with the two local members- Paul Henderson and Peter Styles to save a fine section of eucalypt vegetation environment between their homes and the new suburb of Muirhead. People are passionate in these situations, and should not be afraid to act.
Suburban Darwin residents are seriously in danger of losing green open spaces to 'infill' development, or having new four storey buildings overlooking them. In Greater Darwin, residents' rural lifestyles are under threat, by denser settlement.
There will be large cumulative effects. Heritage will once more be threatened. There is strength in group action.
Industrial development is threatening the environment in which we live. Without a 'best practice' transparent executive EPA, and minus a strong and independent Darwin Harbour Management Committee, the land and sea environment of Darwin will continue to be destroyed. We need to tell governments, or all persuasions, that this approach is not sustainable.
Development needs to be independently managed, and a safe balance kept in our living environment.
It is November now, with our AGM coming up again in early December.
Please review your membership now to carry through 2012. Our subscription fee is modest, but donations are always welcome.
A membership form is attached for printing off, completing and sending it with the money, to:
The Treasurer,
PLan: the Planning Action Network,
PO Box 2513,
Darwin, NT 0801
The government too readily believes developers' claims their development will be affordable & sustainable only on the basis they can have their own private set of rules for their development & can ignore the Planning Scheme. This is planning by the developers. They contradict the NT Planning Scheme and ignore community aspirations.
Worldwide planning for community is now essentially recognised. It is makes for feelings of well-being, community spirit, and cohesion, instead of alienation and despair. Time and again our health and policing costs are affected by poor community planning.
Planning is much more than approving single buildings, although this is important too. It requires provision and maintenance of parks, public facilities, effective transport, and strong effective infrastructure, as well as residential, commercial and industrial development; and having a sustainable environment.
The recognition and appreciation of home and place, and the maintenance of local character, are important to the human psyche.
Freedom to enjoy our own lifestyle in the Northern Territory is so dear to us, that it is an almost perpetual topic of conversation. However, the essence of our lifestyle cannot be bought and sold by marketers and spin doctors. Residents rights deserve real respect.
Each us has a strong link with the natural environment which surrounding us here. We must honour its features and systems in the way we plan. We must not allow our environment, including the magnificent Darwin Harbour, to be trashed by impulsive and excessive over exploitation. Our people must not be adversely affected by the crowding and pollution many came here to avoid.
World populations and agencies have a new focus on the earth's sustainability. Climate, renewable energy, air quality, water resources, rising sea levels, world food and species conservation are topics of the day. They must all be considered in planning the human environment.
Consultation with the community is the key to successful planning. Governments have got out of the way of timely, appropriate, consultation which allows the people to address the issues, be heard, and responded. It takes more than a 'One Stop Shop ' geared to developers for good planning.
This new website will help us let you know quickly and independently what is going on in planning. We will be less dependent on media opportunities to get news out. We are working hard to make the website interactive, but our first task is to provide basic information and contacts.
At present Shop 23 is open Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1-5pm. It is a good idea to double check on 0466997023, if you intend to visit.
We have no paid staff. Volunteers are urgently needed to extend the opening hours, and give key volunteers a break. There are three rooms. There are many current publications available for reference too. (Tea, coffee and biscuits always available to friends.)
If anyone could donate some pre-loved ( or even new) suspension files it would help our work.
If you are thinking of joining, it is just $20 per year (Copy a Membership Form, and post it in.) Donations always welcome.
Best Wishes,
M A CLINCH
Convener -PLan: the Planning Action Network, Inc.
16.10.2011
This is her response...
Our valued volunteers man the office Thursday afternoon between 1pm and 5.30pm. We are located at 26B/16 Charlton Crt, Woolner.
Post: GPO Box 2513, Darwin, NT, 0801
Phone: 08 8927 1999
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
