SGP - assingement 2019 PDF

Preview

Summary

assingement 2019...

Description

Recent infrastructure in

the Bayside Community Senior School Geography

1 – Isabella Jacobson

Table of contents Statement of intent ………………………………………………………………..…….. Page 3 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………….. Page 4 Methodology ………………………………………………………………………..……. Page 8 Critical Analysis …………………………………………………………….…………….. Page 15 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………..………. Page 16 Acknowledgements ………………………………..…………………………………... Page 17 Appendences ……………………………………………..………………………….…. Page 18 Declaration ……………………………………………………………………………..... Page 25 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………...…. Page 26

2 – Isabella Jacobson

Statement of intent Proposed location of investigation – Bayside, including Pagewood and Botany areas surrounding Eastgardens Westfield. Proposed question – Identify the impact of the recent Meriton infrastructure and developments on the Bayside community and Westfield. By researching this topic, what do you hope to achieve – Through the completion of research in this topic, I intend to further my understanding of the Bayside area. In terms of traffic congestion, popularity and improvements occurring in the area. I will identify how new infrastructure is impacting individuals, the community, entrepreneurs and large businesses located in Westfield. Hypothesis - The recent Meriton developments in the Bayside area are having a positive effect on businesses in Westfield, although are causing significant traffic congestion and population issues for the community and individuals.

Methodology Primary Methodology For my primary research I collected information from various sources. To begin, I participated in an inspection of the site. I walked the perimeter of Westfield Eastgardens and the Meriton construction site, simultaneously collecting images and writing down what I observed. I also emailed Bayside council with a few questions regarding the developments. Through the production of a google forms survey, I conducted research of individuals and the community by presenting them with 10 questions related to the Meriton infrastructure and utilisation of Westfield. I completed this research on different days and changed my intended target audience each day. Secondary Methodology For my secondary research I completed research online in which allowed me to find various articles and varying opinions of the Meriton developments in Westfield and the impact that this infrastructure is having on the community and

3 – Isabella Jacobson

traffic. I also conducted research through websites of the Meriton and the Bayside council to reveal their intentions with the developments.

Introduction Area and History Bayside is the area bordering Port Botany, Maroubra and the area south of Sydney. The suburb of Bayside is inclusive of Brighton-Le-Sans, Banksmeadow, Botany, Mascot and Rockdale. Although, in my research I will more specifically be looking into the Westfield Eastgardens area, thus the Banksmeadow and Eastern Maroubra areas. The bayside area reaches about 50km in surface area and holds a population of 156,058 individuals (as found in the 2016 census). The Council was formed on 9 September 2016 from the merger of the Botany Bay and the Rockdale councils. The inaugural Mayor of Bayside Council is Bill Saravinovski, a member of the Australian Labor Party, who was elected at the first meeting of the elected council on 27 September 2017. The Bayside area originally merged as the governments of Rockdale, Botany, Banksmeadow, Mascot and Pagewood agreed that the suburbs ‘shared a common interest’, and thus it would be beneficial for them to merge. Prior to merging, the question, “Do you agree that the City of Botany Bay should merge with Rockdale City Council?”, was asked to a small selection of the public and the mayors of these areas. The final decision was for them to merge as one. Bayside area recently received a $100,000 grant from the government to improve the canopy in the area. Thus, with the funding the first stage of a significant tree planting program to increase tree canopy cover throughout the Council area with 800 trees to be planted in the suburbs of Sans Souci, Kyeemagh, Mascot and Banksmeadow. The council will also implement these trees on pavements (320) and plants in parks and reserves (480).

Vegetation and Settlement The traditional owners of the area are the Aboriginal people of the Eora nation from the Gamaygal, Gwegal, Bidgigal and Gadigal clans. Tribes were known as “water people” and the traditional owners have had an intimate spiritual and cultural connection to the land for many thousands of years. The name Bayside also translates to, “the land alongside the shore of a bay”. Prior to European settlement Rockdale and Bayside area was comprised of a distinctive combination of coastline, wetland, waterway and bushland environments which over thousands of years supplied the Eora with abundant resources to survive and develop a rich and spiritual culture. Extensive seagrass species growing in the Botany Bay were habitat for a large range of fish species including sting-rays, weedy sea-dragons and blue gropers and dense stands of mangroves, Swamp Oaks, broad mudflats and saltmarsh lined the Cooks River and its lower tributaries. A series of north-south beach sand-ridges maintaining wetlands extended one kilometre inland from Lady Robinsons Beach, and Cooks River in the north to the Georges River in the south. Further inland a ‘profusion of the native flowers of Australia’ were found on the steeper sandstone country 4 – Isabella Jacobson

after which ‘Rockdale’ was named and at the south western edges of the municipality Turpentine Ironbark Forests grew on the richer soils derived from Wianamatta shale. Bayside today is a highly urbanised area with significant industrial and commercial precincts, bordered by Sydney International Airport and served by major road, rail and bus transport connections. It has a population of greater than 100,000 which is projected to increase due in part to its proximity to the Sydney CBD, lifestyle benefits, access to transport and employment opportunities. Its community is culturally diverse with significantly higher numbers of residents who were born overseas or from a non-English speaking background compared to the rest of Sydney. Less than 3% of the original native vegetation now remains, much of the wetlands have been filled and replaced with parks and sports fields, bushland areas replaced with housing and roads, and many riverbanks and natural drainage lines are filled with concrete and other hard material. Although some of Rockdale’s natural areas remain, many of which have high conservation rates as they because they provide habitat for significant international species of birds, plants, other animals, and fish.

Infrastructure and Developments The Bayside Council area, encompassing a total land area of 55 square kilometres, is a mixed use area, with residential, industrial and commercial land use. The key employment sectors in the Bayside Council area are transport postal and warehousing, tourism, manufacturing and retail trade. The Bayside Council area holds Sydney Airport, the northern part of Port Botany and many industrial areas in the suburbs of Arncliffe, Banksmeadow, Botany, Eastgardens, Hillsdale, Kogarah, Mascot, Rockdale, Turrella and Wolli Creek. Tourism is an important industry, with the area being close to the Sydney CBD, including the Sydney Airport, and featuring various beaches, baths, golf clubs and parks. The major retail centres are Westfield Eastgardens Shopping Centre and Rockdale Plaza Shopping Centre, with smaller centres at Bayside Plaza Shopping Centre, Eastlakes Shopping Centre, Ramsgate Plaza Shopping Centre, Southpoint Shopping Centre, the Botany Road retail area 5 – Isabella Jacobson

(Mascot) and the commercial area along the Princess Highway (Rockdale). Source 1 highlights the main use of varying areas in Bayside. The land in the bayside area is utilised extremely different depending on the area. The land is also shared reasonably equally between residential, parkland, and transportation uses. This is portrayed in source 2.

The Meriton Developments The recent Meriton Developments, Pagewood Green consists of 16.5 hectares of land utilised for vegetation, and including of 10,000sqm of parklands and a dining precinct onsite. The site is placed next to the two golf courses and the Westfield Eastgardens shopping centre. The site as a whole will also consist of an outdoor cinema and terrace, indoor pool and spa, a gym, parking, gardens and BBQ areas. In regards to the infrastructure, Bayside Council has put its first ever blueprint on public exhibition, including $56 million to be spent on capital works projects. Under the plan, $10.47 million will be spent on four key projects: 1. $2 million will be spent on a makeover of Jellicoe Park Pagewood, including new public amenities, change rooms, canteen, storage areas and a fitness station. 2. The $2.2 million allocated to the Mutch Park Skatepark for a plaza-style design made to suit riders of different skill levels. 3. $1.87m has been allocated to construct a new amenities block at Booralee Park Botany 4. Eastgardens Library and Customer Service Centre will be refurbished at a cost of $4.2m. When I visited the Meriton infrastructure, I discovered that most of the apartments were already developed, although with a few structures still in the process of being built. I walked around the surrounding perimeter of the grounds and took images that encapsulated the construction taking place and found that currently most areas are roped off and are being dug up for placement of foundation to begin the building process. The areas currently are not hugely impacting the traffic around Banks Avenue and Westfield Drive as majority of the

apartments haven’t been completed yet. Although I could see increasing amounts of traffic from prior developments to the current traffic. As shown in the images below.

Westfield Eastgardens Westfield Eastgardens is an Australian shopping centre in the Sydney suburb of Bayside. The centre was the largest shopping centre in Australia when it opened 6 – Isabella Jacobson

in September 1987. The centre is owned by the Terrace Tower Group but operated and managed on a long term agreement by the Scentre Group. The centre's major tenants include supermarkets, department stores and food providers. Westfield Eastgardens was built on the site of the former Urban Transit Authority Pagewood bus depot. The depot closed in 1982 and was soon followed by the nearby Holden and WD & HO Wills factories. The closure of these two sites would result in job losses of around 1,000 people. In order to save jobs, the Government of New South Wales persuaded the Westfield Group to develop the site. The Government rezoned the site and added crown land in order to convince Westfield. In July 1982, three other commercial landlords whose own trade would be affected by the new shopping centre made a challenge to the Land & Environment Court. Following this the Government passed legislation that disallowed an appeal to be made to the Land & Environment Court. Significant public debate followed about the right of the New South Wales Government to overrule the legal process. Westfield Eastgardens opened on 23 September 1987 and was the largest shopping centre in Australia for a short period until Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne was redeveloped. When the centre opened it had two supermarkets, a department store, two discount department stores, a 6-screen Hoyts cinema as well as 180 other retailers. The centre was redeveloped in 2002, with a new supermarket, discount department store and brought the total amount of retailers to 290 with parking for 3,260 cars and the upgrade of Hoyts. When the redevelopment where finalised, Westfield Eastgardens was the first shopping centre in New South Wales to house three discount department stores, Kmart, Target and Big W. When I visited Westfield Eastgardens, I revealed that there is a significant market for the shopping and surrounding facilities. It was made clear to me that majority of the traffic was circulating due to the overcrowded Westfield and as a result of

7 – Isabella Jacobson

the nearby sporting fields (such as Heffron Park (Source 3), and Pagewood Little athletics (source 4)).

Methodology In order to research for my topic I conducted surveys in these two various ways: -

By interviewing individuals present at Westfield By placing my survey on a ‘Bayside community’ group chat and getting opinions from the locals

I completed this research in order to: -

Identify the awareness of individuals of the issue occurring Discover the response of individuals who were aware of these issues

At the conclusion of gathering my results in varying ways, I collected 72 responses. I emailed the Bayside council although did not receive an email back, thus following I made a call and still no information was recovered through this.

The Survey The results are as follows: What is your gender? – 72 responses Majority of the individuals I surveyed were female. I completed my research throughout the day on Saturday, and due to this there were more females completing shopping in Westfield rather than males. I also got more results form females in my Facebook results, I predict that this was simply due to the variety and time available of individuals in the chat and thus I didn’t find any particular trends. I asked this question to identify any trends in knowledge of specific gender although failed to identify any clear differences between the two. What is your age? – 72 responses There was a significant variety of ages in my responses which I completed intentionally with efforts to get varying responses and a vast range of opinions. Majority of the individuals were 31-50 and as a trend, showed a higher knowledge of the events occurring. There was also a significant group of people aged higher than 51, as they had more time and were more enthusiastic about the issue. I had few individuals aged under 18, who I assumed were my peers completing the survey, and in bulk I found they had minimal knowledge on the developments as most were not from 8 – Isabella Jacobson

Eastgardens area. I also had very minimal individuals aged 19-30 who had sound knowledge, although were more likely to reject completing the survey as they were very busy or not informed. I asked this question to ensure that I had collected a vast variety of information and opinions from a range of different age groups. As, I assumed that people of differing ages had different uses and opinions on the matter. How far do you live from Westfield Eastgardens/Bayside Area? – 72 responses The results portrayed that majority of the individuals I interviewed lived in either less than 2km from Eastgardens of from 2-5km away. This showed that quite obviously individuals apart of the Bayside community had a more thorough understanding of the Meriton developments and the issues surrounding it. I expected this as I placed the survey on a Bayside area group chat for the locals. Although I also expected to be few individuals from between 5-10km and more than 10km as I completed the survey on a Saturday and I assumed there would be a few individuals coming from Saturday sport at Heffron park (and who are not necessarily based in Maroubra/ Pagewood area). I asked these questions to confirm I was collecting data from individuals that had a reasonably strong experience and opinion on the matter, rather than random individuals with low insight/no opinions. How often do you utilise Westfield Eastgardens? – 72 responses A theme I discovered in my results was that majority of individuals participating in the survey visited Westfield Eastgardens multiple times a week. This was good as it revealed the people being surveyed were thus aware of the Meriton developments. The results also portrayed that regardless of visitation at Eastgardens, majority of individuals had completed the survey had a sound understanding of Eastgardens and thus had visited at least a few times. I asked this question to establish who was answering the survey and to calculate the validity of the results. As individuals with higher visitation are going to be more aware of the changes and systems taking place in and around Eastgardens area.

9 – Isabella Jacobson

What is your reason for utilising Westfield Eastgardens/Bayside Area? – 71 responses Through the surveys, it was revealed that a large majority of individuals used Westfield mainly for shopping. Although the rest of the results portrayed that individuals also used the Westfield facilities for food, transport, sport, and for meeting peers/friends. This portrayed that Westfield, being approximately 70% shopping facilities, that was the dominant use and aligns with my prediction. I asked this question to overall provide a general poll of the uses in Eastgardens. The results helped me see what the most effective element of Westfield was, and why individuals would utilise this. Are you aware of the recent developments around Eastgardens? – 71 responses There was a significant percent of individuals that completed the survey that were aware of the recent developments. This shows the impact that external sources have had on the individuals of the community. I gathered that through the increased traffic and increased media uproar, majority of individuals were aware of the infrastructure being developed. I asked this question to reveal the impact of the developments on individuals. As people are more inclined to have an opinion on matters if it’s having an impact on them. Thus, to ensure individuals care about a matter, they need to be aware of the issue and thus form their opinion. Have you noticed any increased traffic congestion since the recent developments? – 72 responses Majority of people surveyed found that there was increased traffic since the Meriton developments. The people that said there was increased traffic, as a trend were the people who visited more than a few times a month. Thus the people that were more present in the area, identified the increased traffic congestion. As people who didn’t visit as often didn’t really identify any issues or changes. I asked this question to identity any trends or correlation to the traffic present and the introduction of recent Meriton infrastructure. I used these insights to 10 – Isabella Jacobson

identify if traffic congestion was caused by the developments or if it was simply a coincidence. What is your position regarding the new infrastructure? – 70 responses In asking this question I received a vast variety of answers. Majority of individuals felt negatively against the new infrastructure, few had no comment and the remainder felt it was positive. The individuals that though the developments ere negative were usually the individuals that fit into the 19-30 years category, meaning they had more of a sound knowledge of the developments. And most of the people whom though they were good didn’t visit the premises very often (usually no more than one time a month as shown in survey). The individuals who didn’t have an opinion were the people who never visited Westfield Eastgardens and thus simply didn’t have an opinion. People though that if it was good as it: was beneficial to businesses and provides homes. People also though it was bad as it cased traffic, was unsustainable, and the infrastructure was not suitable for the area. Individuals also thought that it was good and bad, and some though it should be an opinion question rather than multiple choice. I asked this question to find out briefly, and in summarised form the opinions of individuals in the community. I gathered the main status quo of people completing the survey and received the stats of most opinions. I also gained insights as to which point people most agreed with portraying community values. Would you live in the new Meriton Developments? – 72 responses Through asking this question it was revealed that...