Monday, December 12, 2011 NEWCASTLE HERALD 11

OPINION&ANALYSIS

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ONLINE poll

VOTE NOW

TODAY’S QUESTION

Is Lake Macquarie council

justifi ed in suggesting

an 18-year-old house be

demolished because it’s

“out of character” with

surrounding buildings?

YESTERDAY’S RESULT

Do NSW teachers deserve

a pay rise?

YES, their WA colleagues have

been offered 12% over three

years. 10.2%YES, they’re responsible for

our children and deserve more.

36.6%NO, they have short days and get

extra holidays to compensate.

53.2%

TOTAL VOTES 333

Poised to rip railTHE state government is poisedto make one of the biggestpolitical statements in theHunter’s history by ripping upthe inner-city rail line betweenHamilton and Newcastle. Atleast that’s been the talk of thetown lately and now the talk ofthe Newcastle Herald’s websitetoo.

There is understandable emotionfrom many of us who remember avibrant Hunter Street commercialprecinct. However, removing the railwill not bring this back. Forcesinvolved in CBD decline are nothingto do with the rail line. Sadly, I havethe sinking feeling that if the line wasto be removed, the promised lightrail alternative will not eventuate. Iinvite the Premier to deliver an iron-clad guarantee.

Craig

Wow, now that would be afantastic Christmas present for thedilapidated Hunter Street andCBD-mall areas. Maybe theO’Farrell government has finallymade the history-creating decisionthat would go a long way tosecuring a modern, progressivefuture for the inner-city region.

Novocastrian

What a fact-less story. There is justno way light rail can do the job of theheavy rail with its exceptionally goodrise in patronage over the past fewyears.

Bigfeller

How exciting, we really need thisto bring our city into the future.Hoping that the government followthrough with it. And to all thosesaying why weren’t we asked orconsulted? That is why we electgovernments. Did we get asked ifwe wanted a carbon tax? No, sowhen the government does thingswe don’t like we reward them byvoting them out.

SG

Who removes a functioning publictransport corridor in this day andage, to replace it with a ‘‘greencorridor’’ and maybe light rail?Removing rail lines has been triedin Sydney and now they want tospend billions to restore it.

stumeister

Think outside the boxbefore we’re boxed in

CONTAINED GROWTH: Some see housing or hotels, some see markets or sheds, but others see sheer waste.

Professor Phillip O’Neill is thedirector of the Urban ResearchCentre, University of Western Sydney.

PhillipO’Neill

OURson’s localfootball field,whenhewasachild,wasstandardHunterValleyfare:aflatenoughtrack,patchygrass, twosetsofroughlyverticalgoalposts,andacouncil-builtamenitiesblockwithtwochangerooms,nohotwater, toiletsandacanteen.

Itwasall thatwasneededexceptforonething.OnSaturdaymornings,early, theclubsecretarywouldunlockashippingcontainerwhichsatbytheroadsoasmallgroupofloyalhelperscouldaccesslinemarkers,nets,cornerposts,bagsof footballs,witches’hats,andsoon,suchthatby9amaskinny-leggedrefereecouldblowlifeintoanothergreatday.

Louts, robbers, arsonists; nonecould violate the shippingcontainer’s 20 feet of treasure.

I often wondered with a smile howthe thing had got there, but darednot ask. Fell off the back of a truck,I’d have been told, a small part of abigger tale that only blokes withnames like Dave could tell.

Creative re-use of shippingcontainers has become a world-widephenomenon and the internet tellsextraordinary tales like of the16,000 vendors in Ukraine in a70-hectare market place selling fromaisles of old containers. And of aWest London hotel that has beenbuilt entirely from stacked shippingcontainers pre-fitted in China withfixtures, furniture and windows.And of architects winning awardsfor colourful stacks of containers forcheap student housing, art galleriesand beach getaways.

In Australia, any number ofportside agents will sell you a 20-footcontainer in good condition forabout $2000. Other firms advertisefit-outs including vents, shelving,doors, windows, electricity,plumbing, even airconditioning.

For a standard salty dirty box,though, you can pay less than $1000.And that’s the problem. It costs morethan this to return an emptycontainer to China.

At the moment, Australia’simports arrive in containers and ourexports leave in bulk ore carriers.

ThelatestmonthlyshippingreportsshowSydney’sPortBotanyreceived88,562 containersinSeptember,split

justaboutequallybetweenthetwostandardsizes: the20-footboxandthe40-footbox.Butonly31,256emptycontainerswereshippedout.

Now, if you happen to be browsingthe minutes of the October meetingof the Sydney Ports CargoFacilitation Committee, Appendix 6,you’ll notice that Sydney’s 11 officialempty container storage sitescurrently hold 43,206 containers,and are close to full. Evidently thisstash of boxed air causedconsiderable alarm at the meeting.

A search was commissioned tolook for new storage sites, includingon an island on Sydney harbour, andthe shipping industry was advisedthat older boxes may need to beburied even if this meant forgoingunpaid storage charges.

It couldall be quitefunny really,were itnot for the stateof theAustralian economy andthe massivetonnages of mineralswe export, andthe gluttonousway we suckin cheapAsian manufactured goodswith anover-priced Aussiedollar.

The AustralianBureau ofInfrastructure, Transportand

Regional Economics saysthat freightmovements in Australiawill grow bymore than 50 per centby 2020 andprobably will triplebetween nowand 2050.The growth will bein allcategories –commodities, freshproduce andcontainers.

Our urban road systems and ourinterstate corridors will all bear theburden. The places hardest hit willbe the areas where populationgrowth is highest, like along our partof the continent. Already we seesigns of the future. Trucks nowdetermine driving conditions downto Sydney along the F3 Freeway.Then between the F3 and the M2Motorway, the road surface isshoulder-to-shoulder trucks.

By 2020, Australia’s biggest freightgrowth will be along the Sydney-Brisbane corridor. There, freighttonnages will rise by more than70 per cent by 2020, and by150 per cent by 2030.

Just about every truck going northfrom Sydney goes through the lowerHunter, as does nearly every truckgoing south from Brisbane. That’swhy the federal government

announced last week that it wouldspend $1 billion upgrading thenorthern rail line to Sydney as analternative to trucking thesealarming freight volumes.

More than 85 per cent ofcontainers unloaded at Port Botanyare unpacked in warehouses within40 kilometres.

Then smaller trucks cart cordlessdrills, electronic toys, women’s bags,golf clubs, televisions and runningshoes to shopping malls across anever-growing conurbation stretchingfrom Port Stephens in the north toLake Illawarra in the south.

Imaginethreetimesourcurrentfreightmovementsby2050. Imaginethewarehousing, thesuper-sizedhardwareoutlets, thenext-sizedshoppingmalls. Imagineall thoseemptyshippingcontainers.Andimagineall thosemineralswewillneedtodigandexport topayforitall.

Hope is the present for the forever future

Adele Nash is a member of thecommunication department of theSeventh-day Adventist Church inNorthern NSW. Article submitted bythe Churches Media Association.

Santa Claus is sweet, buthe’s a concept, writesAdele Nash.

AS asmall child, Iwas alwayssceptical about theexistence ofSanta Claus. Allof the ones I’dmet inshopping centreshad fake beards– Iknew becauseI’d pulled on afew ofthem – andpresents always camefrom parentsand grandparents.

And realistically, how wouldSanta – a fat, jolly man – fit down thechimney to the fireplace in ourlounge room?

But one Christmas Eve when I wasabout five or six, I had retired to bedin my room, which was next to thelounge room, and was reading abook when I heard a scrabblingnoise in the chimney.

Could it be? Was it he? Was Santareal?

To cuta long story short,no, itwasn’t Santa. It was apossum thathad decided toexplore the chimney.This ledto some adventuresin tryingto catchand release it,which shouldhave been accompaniedby BennyHill Yakety Saxmusic. And thepossum didn’t evenbring presents.Well, notones you wanted,at least.

It did makeChristmas memorable,however, and memoriesare usuallythe things thatpeople speak aboutmost in relationto Christmas.They’re not usuallymemories ofpresents, but ofspending time withfamily and friends,sharing food,having fun, singingcarols, going toChristmas parties andservices, andspending time withpeople you onlyget tosee occasionally.

It’s a time of year when we want tobe with those we love, and those wholove us. For many, that’s moreimportant than gifts, especially ifthose gifts are more socks and jocks.

However,Christmascanbeatimeofbitterdisappointment: fromnotreceivingthepresentyouwanted, tonotgettingalongwiththoseyouspendthefestiveseasonwith, tothepainofafirstChristmaswithoutalovedone,tothesadnessofnotbeingabletoaffordpresentsforyourchildren.

It can also be a time of stress, toomuch food, and a growingresentment towards hearing songsabout ‘‘dashing through the snow’’ inevery shop you go to when it’s30 degrees or more outside.

But when everythingis strippedback to thesimple elements,Christmas isabout hope – orit shouldbe. Thehope is Jesus, whosebirth isthe reason forthe celebration ofChristmas. Although theconcept ofSanta Clausgrew out of the 4th-century Greek Christianbishop SaintNicholas of Myra,picking upfolkloric and moderninfluences onthe way,he remains that:a concept.

Jesus, however, was a realhistorical figure (whether or not youchoose to believe in His divinity).His time on earth was spent sharinglove, help and hope with those Heencountered. The greatest elementto His offer of hope was salvationand eternal life (1 Peter 1:3 in theBible explores this).

ThehopethatJesusoffersisn’tthereforjustonedayoftheyear,either,butallyearround.ThisissomethingthatshouldencourageusthisChristmas–whetherwe’reChristianornot–toprovidelove,helpandhopetothosearoundusthroughouttheyeartoo.