My comment was by no means directed specifically at you Tony. I'm referring
to anybody who lives within the roughly 25 km belt bounded by
Cronulla/Parramatta/Hornsby and, in any case, nobody is required to give up
their house for redevelopment but many choose to do so to capitalise on the
opportunity. I don't necessarily agree personally with the population
policy but it's quite obviously not going to disappear any time soon and,
while it's there, people have to find homes in cities and people who are
already fortunate enough to be there don't have the moral ground to deny
others the opportunity.

Sydney has had in fact a very long history (a century in fact, not counting
the initial 19th century terrace house era) of urban consolidation through
higher density. The trend to the garden house on the large block really
lasted no more than 50 years until it became unsustainable and housing
options have been returning to the apartment block and the terrace house
(townhouse) since the 1960s, as well as much smaller lot sizes for garden
houses. This has more recently extended to larger apartment blocks of about
8 storeys or more, which, again arises from the demands of the market which
wants a choice of housing options.

Robbie I don't think European cities like Prague and Vienna are models
because they've had a long history of high-density housing with garden
housing hardly being a choice at all. We have to find our own solutions
appropriate to Australia. Sydney is not the only Australian city to go
through this process. If anybody has been to Perth, they would be surprised
to find that in a state with "land, lotsa land", just about every house
seemingly has another house or two built in its backyard! The street
setbacks are tiny and they are apparently content with just a little
courtyard at the front and back of the house, the back one having an open
shelter to keep that searing WA sun off the inhabitants. It's an initial
form of urban consolidation, with apartments not having yet reached the
city in large numbers but townhouses are widespread. Extensive areas of
high rise residential of 8 stories or more can also be found in regional
cities like Gold Coast and Wollongong. People want and need somewhere to
live that is convenient to their life activities and they want a choice of
housing types. We need to supply that.

Tony P