This article was originally published in The Age on 2 July 2023. The City of Maribyrnong has abandoned its local heritage protections for interwar and postwar housing in Melbourne’s western suburbs. The decision was heralded as a win for housing supply and affordability. But there is another side to the argument – will we look back in 50 years time and rue this decision that may well allow the destruction of this unique era of our history, architecture and social fabric? It’s something we need to consider as we move forward. The multi-year conservation project failed not due to a lack of
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YIMBYs and NIMBYs unite! You can have both heritage protection and more housing
Heritage conservation has been blamed for making the housing crisis worse by standing in the way of new, higher-density housing. But protecting heritage and increasing housing should be complementary objectives.
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James Lesh and Rebecca Madgin have co-edited the book collection People-Centred Methodologies for Heritage Conservation: Exploring Emotional Attachments to Historic Urban Places.
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Review of Valuing Architecture: Heritage and the Economics of Culture, by Ashley Paine, Susan Holden and John Macarthur, eds., Amsterdam, Valiz, 2020, 288 pp. ISBN: 978-94-92095-93-0.
Read moreEVENT: James Lesh Public Lecture at the University of Sydney on Values in Cities: Urban Heritage in Twentieth-Century Australia
Join us at 6 pm on Wednesday 24 May 2023 at the University of Sydney for James Lesh speaking about his book ‘Values in Cities’.
Read moreMelbourne, Sydney, and the Population Prize
You’ve probably heard that Melbourne has overtaken Sydney as Australia’s most populous city. This demographic milestone has come about earlier than predicted due to the re-drawing of statistical boundaries, somewhat deflating the weightiness of this momentous moment. But Melbourne overtaking Sydney in population terms is still history making. Since Sydney first overtook Melbourne in population around 1901, both cities have swelled ten-fold to almost 5-million people today. These evolutions speak to enduring contests around cities and rivalries.
Read moreJaynie Anderson, Max Vodola and Shane Carmody lead two volumes on a Baroque Archbishop who shaped Melbourne’s colonial life
This book review of ‘The Invention of Melbourne: A Baroque Archbishop and a Gothic Architect’ and ‘The Architecture of Devotion: James Goold and His Legacies in Colonial Melbourne’ is published in History Australia, 2022.
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My report on “Place Name “Moreland”, prepared for the City of Moreland, in the inner north of Melbourne, has received the Victorian Community History Award, Small History Publication Project, 2022.
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Adopting new perspectives won’t only preserve our historic buildings and places by enabling us to shape them for today’s needs. It will also mean urban heritage can contribute to cities becoming more socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
Read moreEstablishing Australia’s Heritage Mafia
How was Australia’s heritage mafia established? To answer, let’s unpack urban heritage in 1990s Australia.
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