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Subject: Sun.14.2.21 daily digest

Roderick

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Sun.14.3.21 Metro Twitter
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Buses replace trains city - Oakleigh until the last train of Sun 14 Mar. Buses replace trains Dandenong-Cranbourne until the last train of Wed 17 Mar (works).
Frankston line: Buses replace trains City - Moorabbin until the to last train of Sun 14 Mar (works).
Buses replace trains Macleod - Hurstbridge until the last train of Sun 14 Mar (duplication works).
Mernda/Hurstbridge lines: All trains run direct to/from Flinders St all day (maintenance works).  From loop stations, take a train from pfm 3 to Flinders St.
15.53  Major delays (an animal rescue near Craigieburn). Trains may terminate/originate at Broadmeadows.
- 15.58 clearing.
16.45 Upfield line: Major delays (a near hit of a trespasser at Batman).
- 16.45 Clearing.  Trains may terminate/originate at Batman.
- PEOPLE ARE DICKHEADS NEXT TIME IF THEY DO IT SHAME THEM ON FACEBOOK LIKE I DID.
20.06 & 20.15  Buses replace trains Broadmeadows - Craigieburn (a person hit by a train). Buses ordered, ETA 60min. Buses replace trains North Melbourne - Craigieburn from 20.40 until the last train (maintenance works).
- 20.25 Buses ETA 20min.
- Passengers for Jacana change at Glenroy for a shuttle service.
- Because of emergency roadworks in Devon Rd, replacement buses will not call at Oak Park.  Change at Glenroy for a shuttle service.

Final piece of $2 billion Frankston line level crossings puzzle put in place Benjamin Preiss and Adam Carey March 6, 2017 [standard spin/propaganda, which missed reaching the archive]
Ten level crossings will be removed between Cheltenham and Frankston on the Frankston line – two more than were originally promised – at a cost of up to $2 billion.
The bayside line, which runs through three of Victoria's most marginal state seats, will get a mix of four rail trenches, two bridges and one "hybrid" crossing in place of 10 sets of boom gates that currently hold up traffic and create danger for motorists and rail passengers.
video What will Carrum's level crossing removals look like?
An environment effects statement could be required before some of the crossings can be removed, in case the project damages the protected Edithvale-Seaford wetlands, an internationally recognised haven for bird life.
The government unveiled its solution for two more level crossings on the line on Monday, at Station Street and Eel Race Road in Carrum.
The rail bridge through Carrum will be 900 metres long.
Seven properties will be compulsorily acquired for the project, which will include the removal of a train stabling yard, construction of a 900-metre rail bridge, and the removal of an extra crossing at Mascot Avenue, which was not included in the government's original hit list of 50 crossings that it wanted to remove.
The state government promised to build a new "village" on the site of the current "ugly" train stables and level crossings.
The rail bridge will stretch out for 900 metres while a new road bridge will also be constructed over the Patterson River.
Commuters will also get a new station at Carrum.
A 'village' will be built on the site of an old and ugly rail yard.
The seven properties will be acquired further down the line at Kananook where new stabling will be built to replace the existing facility at Carrum. No homes will be acquired as part of the project.
Business and property owners were contacted about the acquisitions on Monday morning.
An artists' impression of the new Carrum station.
The Andrews government announced it would extend Station Street in Carrum over Patterson River with level crossings to be closed at Station Street, Eel Race Road and Mascot Avenue.
Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan described the project as a "massive reconfiguration" for the area, which would also include McLeod Road being extended to the Nepean Highway.
"We're providing better connections to the retail area, better connections to the bay," she said.
Work on the project is expected to start in 2018.
However, Ms Allan declined to reveal whether the total level crossing removals along the Frankston line would remain within the upper cost estimates of the project's $1 billion to $2 billion budget.
"We will make those figures available through the regular and normal budget reporting," she said.
"It's important to look at these things as an investment."
Carrum MP Sonya Kilkenny said the new village would transform the area.
She said the community had been calling for the new road bridge for years.
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/final-piece-of-2-billion-frankston-line-level-crossings-puzzle-put-in-place-20170306-gurdvn.html>

‘Our kids play school sports nearby’: Locals fear contamination from new tunnel. Andrew Taylor February 21, 2021
<www.smh.com.au/national/our-kids-play-school-sports-nearby-locals-fear-contamination-from-new-tunnel-20210219-p573xz.html>
* This is yet another dodgy tollroad/tunnel project. Still no business case! No research into post-covid travel patterns and the impact of working from home! No real consideration of a mass transport system from Dee Why to Chatswood across Roseville Bridge linking to the metro. And no solution for the environmental destruction of bushland and bays. Please, go back to the drawing board and let science be the guiding light.
* The congestion-inducing, low-capacity and massively expensive underwater road tunnels must be terminated. There are better transport alternatives which the government is urged to evaluate.
* The proposed underwater roads need to be cancelled. There are better transport options for the Sydney Harbour area and they all should be evaluated. It is illogical to not evaluate the options.
* I implore the NSW government to stop and reimagine a decentralised, human-centric, localised smarter “new normal”. A new normal which puts sensible public transport solutions first and inefficient single car journeys second. A new normal which brings the local ecology firmly into focus and slowly addresses the polluting ways of past generations. A smart new normal that uses technological insights to manage assets, resources and services efficiently not just within the community but across the entire city. There are alternate ways forward for NSW and the Northern Beaches. We can have it all

Indigenous artists strip back ‘colonial landscape’ from level crossing removals. Timna Jacks March 14, 2021
A mermaid-looking woman is painted on the wall of a new pedestrian underpass near Carrum train station. Part-sea creature, part-goddess, she is surrounded by pastel-coloured waves that swirl and crash into golden sandbanks.
She is an ancestor of the Bunurong people, says Adam Magennis, a traditional owner and lead artist behind the mural.
Indigenous artists Eamon Roberts, a Kamilaroi man (left) and Adam Magennis, a Bunurong man (right) painted murals at the Eel Race Road underpass, as part of a push to incorporate more Indigenous culture and art into the level crossing removal program. CREDIT:JUSTIN MCMANUS
Her male counterpart is painted on the other side of the Eel Race Road underpass, which opened late last year as part of the $588 million removal of four level crossings in Carrum, including the construction of a new station there.
In setting out to imprint his people’s story on the walls of the underpass, Magennis got in touch with other local Indigenous artists. Together, they imagined “stripping it back – all the historical, colonial landscape we see now,” he says.
At the height of winter last year, the team imagined a coastal lagoon. With hand warmers stuffed in gloves, they painted pink and purple rays of sunshine and shells wedged into sand. A platypus in the mural farewells a number of eels migrating north to a tropical spawning ground. “The platypus is saying ‘bugger off, on your way’,” Magennis says.
Eamon Roberts and Adam Magennis with their work.CREDIT:JUSTIN MCMANUS
Magennis is one of the artists working with Allan Murray, a Dhudhuroa-Yorta Yorta man, who is encouraging the Andrews government to build Indigenous art and culture into the very walls and pavements of its $13.3 billion program to remove 75 level crossings.
“There’s been a bad relationship between major projects and the Aboriginal community for a long time,” Murray says. “Because, as we see it, all major projects – or any projects – are taking place on traditional land.”
An ongoing stoush that has halted the government’s duplication of the Western Highway – a project that is opposed by some Djab Wurrung traditional owners due to the felling of trees they deem sacred – is the “worst case scenario,” Murray says.
“It’s what happens when traditional owners are not engaged early on”, he says. ”We need to have the conversation when the project is at its feasibility or business case end.”
The former AFL player for Port Adelaide and St Kilda has worked everywhere from the education to justice departments, to the homeless and employment sectors and even former aboriginal affairs minister Natalie Hutchins’ office to advocate for better outcomes for Indigenous people.
Now, as an adviser to design consultancy WSP, he is trying to facilitate better relationships between government and traditional owners on infrastructure projects, starting with the level crossing removal program.
He wants traditional owners to “co-design” the projects, so they can “influence some of the design with our cultural values, and stories about our Country that have been around for thousands of years”.
There are creative ways to weave Indigenous culture and stories into the station’s designs, Murray says.
For instance, what was set to be a drainage pit at Carrum station offered up an opportunity to build a yarning circle - a place where Indigenous people have for centuries gathered to share stories and pass on cultural knowledge.
Yarning circle at Carrum Station CREDIT:LEVEL CROSSING REMOVAL AUTHORITY
Large stones and boulders create the outline for the circular area, which is surrounded by Indigenous plants that can be used for bush medicine or food. The space is used by traditional owners educating school groups and locals.
In another example, concerns about graffiti at the Eel Race Road and Seaford Road underpasses were solved by inviting Magennis to paint murals, because he is considered an “elder in graffiti world” and his work goes untouched.
Level Crossing Removal Project’s chief executive Kevin Devlin says there has been an attempt to improve the agency’s relationship with traditional owners in the six years he has headed the agency. He admitted this had been a learning curve for the organisation.
“We didn’t exactly know how we were going to do that on day one,” he says.
But the enormous task of building 150-kilometres of new rail track, 30 new train stations, renewing power and signalling and building many kilometres of new pedestrian and cycling paths - what Mr Devlin describes as “urban villages” - has presented an obvious need to engage with elders, he says.
“There is an awakening about what role the government can play to sort of lead the Victorian and Australian communities in having more engagement with Indigenous communities,” he says.
The agency is writing an “urban Indigenous design guidelines” together with Indigenous advisers including Murray, which will be distributed to staff and the 4000 people working across the alliances to advise on ways of incorporating Indigenous culture into the new station precincts, he says.
Mr Devlin cites the agency’s work with the Waddawurung traditional owners on the design of the new Werribee Street level crossing removal works in Werribee, which was inspired by Murray’s work at Carrum. There, a yarning circle is being built and a track of emu footprints following the emu’s walk to the Werribee River will be imprinted across the precinct.
Murray says the city’s rail lines traverse Aboriginal songlines and it was important that transport infrastructure reflects this.
“Where you’ve got all these train lines, there are songlines and traditional stories all the way through.”
RELATED ARTICLE Grandfather Tree that is the companion of the Birthing tree or Grandmother tree.  'Like losing my son': Why trees threatened by Western Hwy are so sacred
RELATED ARTICLE An artists' impression of the new Carrum station. Final piece of $2 billion Frankston line level crossings puzzle put in place
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/indigenous-artists-strip-back-colonial-landscape-from-level-crossing-removals-20210305-p5780e.html>

‘Even little penguins will be affected’: Councils voice concerns about new harbour tunnel. Andrew Taylor March 14, 2021
<www.smh.com.au/national/even-little-penguins-will-be-affected-councils-voice-concerns-about-new-harbour-tunnel-20210310-p579jm.html>
* Not a single train line in sight. Just more of the same tied old thinking. Lot opportunity to tunnel trains.
* Sydney (20.9%) has a higher proportion of people travelling to work by public transport than Melbourne does (13.4%). 10% more people also drive to work in Melbourne than in Sydney:
- <www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyreleasedate/7DD5DC715B608612CA2581BF001F8404?OpenDocument>
- <www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydneysiders-the-nations-biggest-users-of-public-transport-for-work-commute-20171023-gz632p.html>
* All hail the motor car and it's proponents. We must drive.
* Let's build more and more motorways. We need more congestion in Sydney.

Sun.14.3.21 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' Letters:
Losing our country. WITH a great deal of anxiety and trepidation, I ponder the future for Australia, and Australians.
In the last seven years we have closed the biggest power station in South Australia, the great Hazelwood power station in Victoria, the giant Liddell power station in NSW will shut down shortly, and now Yallourn is to close in 2028.
Where will we get our power from when there are no more sources of cheap, abundant, almost unlimited, power available, for Australia?
In the last decade we have also closed seven petrol and diesel refineries, in every state, and this will give us crippling, long-lasting, or permanent, fuel shortages, in our fuel supplies, when the current situation allows Altona refinery to become a memory.
Any other country in the world would love to control our energy sources, and would have them running 24/7, as we used to.
Our dairy farmers are a dying breed, and the dairy industry is now 80 per cent controlled by overseas interests.
Anything that Australia produces well and efficiently is being allowed to be sold to overseas interests, which in a very short time jack up prices and cut staff.
Look at the 50-year leasing of all Victorian shipping ports, seven years ago. Within nine months of the signing of this lease, the price to unload a single container jumped by 700 per cent per container.
The time to reflect on what we are allowing to happen to our great country is now, so think of what we have let go.
* For years now the PA has been incorrect in many of its “next station” announcements. Embarrassing when it confuses visitors. Like many things in Melbourne, it never gets fixed.