Manly Wharf - Depriving the Public of Access?

There are attempts to grab some of the public pedestrian space by private enterprise on Manly Wharf.
The wharf is in the middle of Manly Cove, which is framed by green National parks with the odd whale or dolphins visiting Sydney Harbour. It is also the gateway for people arriving in Manly by public transport. Some 6 million commuters pass through this point for work of leisure. The options are to walk through the enclosed middle in the inside, which is crowded and full of cooking fumes. Alternative paths are walks to the right and left on the open air, along pubs and eateries on one side and a natural habitat on the other. The actual Cove and the infrastructure under the wharf are a dense biotope for local wildlife. Unique Manly Little Penguins (Eudyptula minor) have their habitat in various locations. Walking along the wharf the lucky resident or visitor can catch a glimpse of what makes Manly unique.The plan to privatise some of the Wharf's walking paths on the West Esplanade side to monetize the "spectacular waterfront positions" for a few paying customers is myopic. Bursting suburbia is thirsty for public spaces, which are fast disappearing in Manly. Visitors come to be "seven miles from Sydney, and a thousand miles from care" and not to be 'in it' again. Encroaching with intensified commercial operations would not be beneficial for the wildlife.

The human footprint seeking constantly to enlarge in delicate environments, can trample an area. Already there are signs of visible pollution in the Cove water: dumped bikes, chucked shopping trolleys etc. With intensification the noise pollution would negatively impact on human and wildlife habitat.

Boat parking is proliferating and also a danger to swimmers and wildlife. Some just come to 'get tanked' in private racing boats, unload their dogs, have some alcohol, clutter up the cove and then race off again. A trend to be encouraged?Do not deprive the public of access to the Manly Wharf walkways
Do not accelerate rapid development and hence human disturbance to penguins and other wildlife.
Do not forget why people come here to live or visit

"Sprawling from land right out into the ocean as we clamber for more of its resources" Ocean Sprawl on Planet Green 0809

Update:
- Manly penguin wardens "will protest against what they say is the possible encroachment on penguin habitats by Hugo’s restaurant." Penguins already have lost habitat to the School of Artillery at North Head and "People living near the beach want to build pools on top of penguin nests". There will be a protest on September 13 via Manly Daily 180809

- Little Penguins, climate change, ongoing coastal development and habitat degradation. PDF

Image: 1 and 3 Google Maps

Buy Nothing Day - Give the Earth a Break

Buy Nothing Day
is a halt from converting the earth into a junkspace, whilst eyeing for spare planets to exploit. Unravelling our own biosphere on Earth and replacing it with artifacts sprawling over the globe: human biomes. The anthropocene, a geological age of our own making might engineer us out of a place hospitable to life - as we know it. The ecological destruction and the mass consumption of Homo consumes is threatening the survival of all humans and life. Meanwhile other species are being pushed off the planet, as 'we' already consume beyond the capacity of this planet. The externalities are generously socialised for all to come.

Homo consumens' habitat
The corner store is eaten by shopping streets, they are in turn swallowed by 'towns', shopping towns are gobbled up by malls. The storage space in Mc Mansions' Bland-burbia is never enough. The combustion vehicles bloat in size to transport the cargo. Mega-cities burst at the seams. "The world in which we were trapped is in fact a shopping mall..." The privatised artificial buyo-sphere controls 'appropriate behaviour' via CCTV, 'advertising' (unsolicited messaging), security personnel and urban 'design'. Space for citizens and human beings shrinks rapidly. Niches get occupied by commercialised 'recreational activities'. "In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop".

"If space-junk is the human debris that litters the universe, junk-space is the residue (hu) mankind leaves on the planet’ The virus ascribed to junkspace is in fact the virus of shopping itself; which, like Disneyfication, gradually spreads like a toxic moss across the known universe. "

'Shop till you drop' - Having or living?
Having outsourced self-management and creativity to infotainment and traditional culture, it's an easy ride. Just follow the 'must have', 'must do', 'must go', 'must eat' etc track like a zombie. Benchmark 'identity' via consumption patterns. Become an array of designer labels and body hacks. Jump start the casino machinery. The pathological addiction to shopping, is usually accompanied by other forms of addictive consumption.
Wasting one's life, 'killing time' leaves a void amongst all the stuff. "There is a certain sickness in this drive for ever-increasing consumption and the danger is that, by being filled with a need for consumption, the person does not really solve the problem of inner passivity, of inner vacuity, of anxiety, of being depressed -- because life in some way doesn't make sense."

Give the earth and yourself a rest – Buy Nothing!

Immerse yourself in Life!

Links
Fredric Jameson, Future City, New Left Review 21, May-June 2003
Rem Koolhaas, Junkspace, OMA
Erich Fromm , On Being Human- Homo Consumens, 1997
The photographic art of Chris Jordan depicts Grand Canyons of our rubbish on this planet.

Buy Nothing Day, UK
Video, Manufactured Landscapes
Video, Piggy consumes the earth
Affluenza and downshifting in Australia, Wikipedia
The Story of STUFF, Free Range Studios, a teaser:

Little Penguins, Electrocuted Birds, Mauling Dogs, Bogong Moths, Spilled Oil and Artistic Inspiration

A visit to the the Manly Art Gallery, where the current exhibition is by Bruce Goold. The designer/printmaker displays woodcuts/linocuts of iconic Australian objects. Nautical themes and Aussie flora and fauna get mingled with sub-urban culture jamming. The fragipani, banana and (unfortunately) bamboo convey that coastal holiday feeling.

Some thoughts on the following themes seen there, which are relevant for the northern beaches:

'Telegraph crows' 1995 depicts Australian Crows getting electrocuted in power lines. Think about it every time you flick on that convenient switch, how many birds and other fauna get killed and crippled by this underdeveloped landscape feature bringing power to you.

The design with Bogong moths was very timely as they will start their annual migration next month. This gets too messy for tidy-town then.

Eora Rock engraving of Little Penguin, close to Lion Island

'Lion Island' depicts a Sydney nature reserve. On its beach is a Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) and a large poodle looking very canine. This ever-same theme of irresponsible people bringing their mostly degenerated canines into protected wildlife refuges that are of great biodiversity is unfortunately repeating. Maybe Lion Island will no longer have the 'largest penguin colony' in Sydney if the boat & dog community continue to defy the law.
The few remaining little penguins in Manly get regularly mauled by off-the-leash dogs. One of their 'habitats' at the Manly Cove is a busy human infrastructure with fireworks, bands and other mass events. The little bird needs to live in a partial marine and partial terrestial territory. This is the space where human impact in Manly is most noticeable.

Habitat for Manly's endangered Little Penguin population (pdf) , Manly Cove. More than a webcam needed here.

'Pasha Bulka' 2008 visualises the stranding of a huge cargo ship beached on a Newcastle surfing beach in 2007. 'Heavy fuel oil ' ran into the Pacific Ocean. Such scenarios are not unthinkable for the Manly region. For now, we get the sulphur particle emission from ships that are near Manly.

Outside the Art Gallery there were numerous very large motor bikes parked on the “pedestrian and bicycle path only”. Aerial garbage is a new thing here: Plastic kites in Manly Beach pines, a very long nylon fishing line dangling from a tall palm in front of the gallery, waiting for that next bird to entangle. Aqua-parking as far as the eye could see in Manly Cove, right along the penguin's feeding grouds. Wharf construction set the acoustic ambience.
See also Bogong migration incompatible with humans

Links:
- Endangered Population of Little Penguins (Eudyptula minor) at Manly, NP, pdf
- Caution: Electrocution! Suggested Practices for Bird Protection on Power Lines, BUND, pdf
Update: 0709 The slaughter of 11 Little Penguins by a dog/s in their last mainland habitat on mainland NSW.

Manly's Bandicoot & Wildlife Code

Replacing the unique with the ever-same
The unique Manly treasures, such as bandicoots (little penguins etc) and the sprawl of human urbanisation make for a predictable outcome. Wildlife habitat and sprawling sub-urbia are incompatible. Attempts to limit the negative impacts by "best practice" recommendations and "awareness education" are dubious. We are assured that the owners of the St Patrick's Estate townhouses were given their bandicoot awareness education. "The houses themselves also had to be bandicoot-friendly.."
Manly's surging dog (cat etc) population is making a practical statement to replace the unique Australian biodiversity with a monoculture of foreign animals. The interface between wildlife refuge and human infrastructure and their destructive packs is the killer-zone.

Effective protection of threatened Australian wildlife
Manly’s North Head developments are said to be contingent on " keeping their dog in at night and never letting their cat outdoors unless it is in a sealed cat run." But there are dogs ON the beach (illegally) every morning and night, sometimes even defecating ON the beach on a busy Sunday. They are un-leashed most of the time, hunting little penguins or hunting bandicoots at night in Shelly Beach bushland. With a lack of enforcement and a population wanting to expand the ever-same, the diverse uniqueness of the Manly ecology is sacrificed.
via Pets curfew in building code, Manly Daily 100908

See also:
Bandicoot Habitat I
More on Bandicoots in MNLY
Images: 0808 all via Google Maps
1. - 3. National Park, St Patrick's Estate townhouses developments
4. End of Osborne Rd
5. Montpelier Pl./ Bower St. development

Dog-walking in Bushland Degrades Biodiversity

“Operation suburban storm”
Australia's growing population sprawls into 'nature', not because they like the 'bush', but it is a cost-effective way 'to get away from it all'. They take their unsustainable cultural luggage with them to not miss out on that sub-urban feeling. The unpacking happens, but on a bigger scale. First they create tabula rasa in the 'wide open spaces'. After that, the packages of McMansions, hummers, pets and lawn monoculture gets unrolled. 'Operation suburban storm' is the annihilation of Australian animals and plants. Should any creature survive this invasion, then the next growing together of the frontier settlements would run them out of a home. In no time the human settlements take up all the land-scape and resources. Destroying what is unique about Australia
The refuges for wildlife are fast disappearing in Australia. But even the 'protected' areas are being conquered and annexed for suburbia with a vengeance. From Manly to Byron Bay to all-over the wildland-urban interface is a battle zone where Australian wildlife is eradicated. One main cause for the ecological vandalism is the anti-social behaviour of dog owners, walking their foreign animals in the last reserves for Australian creatures. There is an abundance of signs, but very little enforcement is taking place all over NSW. It seems to be tolerated that the suburbs just annex 'their bush' as their dog loo.

Vested bestial Interests
Being one of the largest pet owning communities per capita with substantial commercial interests backing it, this is a veracious force. Americans spend $41 billion p.a. on their pets, “ more than the gross domestic product of all but 64 countries in the world.” One could only guess, that Australia is not far behind. Locals consuming their 'annexed' “wilderness” hits a 'blind spot' with its guardians.

Some consume all the land-scape
Dog owners consume and degrade parks & reserves and deprive others of their enjoyment. It would be interesting to quantify the economics of this 'local consumption only' and compare it to the loss of the eco-tourism industry, even locals and visitors who would also like to immerse themselves in a green space, rich in bio-diversity. The canine community lobbies to not be 'restricted' from areas, where in fact it is them that deny the existence of wildlife or of visitors enjoying what they came for - wildlife.The loss of biodiversity is price-less (so far).
Study: Dog walkers degrade Australian Bush

New research has found that “Dog-walking in bushland significantly reduces bird diversity and abundance...We show that dog walking in woodland leads to a 35% reduction in bird diversity and 41% reduction in abundance, both in areas where dog walking is common and where dogs are prohibited...The effect occurs even in areas where dog-walking is common and where they are prohibited, indicating that birds don’t become accustomed to continued disturbance by dogs. This evidence clearly supports the long-term prohibition of dog-walking from sensitive conservation areas...Ground-dwellings birds appeared most affected: 50 percent of bird species observed in control sites were absent in dog-walked sites. The effect of dog-walking was most pronounced in the area immediately adjacent to the site where dogs were walked...There were 76 fewer birds within 10 metres of the trail when dog-walking occurred compared to control sites, suggesting birds were seeking refuge away from the immediate vicinity of threat." (Peter Banks and Jessica Bryant, Four-legged friend or foe? Dog walking displaces native birds from natural areas.)

Unchecked dog epidemic in Manly threatens rich biodiversity
The overabundance of dogs in Manly and the anti-social behaviour of their owners degrades the refuges of native animals (and plants), but also robs bushwalkers of their rights to experience these places unhassled. Some of Manly's unique residents such as the Little Penguin, ground dwelling and flight-less, the Bandicoot and many others are too often killed by dogs.

Let's keep Manly special and unique, and effectively protect our rich green areas from irresponsible vandals.

Previous:
On the Annexation of National Parks on the Cheap
Extinction and a world full of poodles
Leave some of Manly as Penguin habitat
ASBO,Dogs allowed to savage
When Rangers knock off...
Links:
More interesting reading on Manly ecology by Dr. Banks et al
Do Australian small mammals respond to native and introduced predator odours? BENJAMIN G. RUSSELL, PETER B. BANKS (2007)
"Introduced predators such as foxes and cats are twice as deadly as native predators to Australia’s unique native animals."

Fire, the Mythical Wand to create more Habitat for Humans

Global Warming on the Dry Continent
The destructive nature of wildfires will be amplified through global warming. In the Dry Continent, Australia 'the fire weather' is ubiquitous in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). At the moment fires rage in various National Parks, especially near human settlements such as Bundeena, The Basin and 'scrubland' near Newcastle. Two houses were burnt in in “fairly rugged bushland “.

Urbanisation of bushland areas
With the human sprawl over 'bush-land' and coasts, choosing to settle in 'getting away-from-it-all” leafy locations increases the costs and health hazards. The 'non-developed' green spaces such as National Parks and Reserves adjacent to urban areas have to be regularly burnt-off.
Many private landholders incinerate their land in the good old slash & burn method. Cheaply cleared land still fetches higher prices.

Incinerating protected forests & making a killing
The recent inferno in Greece destroyed 2 % of the land of which some where Europe's richest nature reserves. 67 people were killed. Many species of animals and plants are gone or have lost their refuge. Fire, as the magic wand to create more habitat for human populations, seems to have done its trailblazing for fresh real estate. The Peloponnese, untouched by mass tourism and '10 miles of virgin coastline' are now cleansed of 'protected forests' and ready to be monetarised.

Evolving Technology
Our hominid relatives, Homo erectus or Homo ergaster used fire 790,000 ago. Homo sapiens refined the tool further for the use of slash & burn 'agriculture', and for causing violence against each other and the Earth: Firebombing, Napalm, Firestorms etc.Pandora's Box
Some mythology has it, that fire was stolen by Prometheus from the gods and given, along with meat to the humans he had created. The outwitted god Zeus went into a rage and had him chained on a rock and his liver picked daily by an eagle. The punishment for humanity was to create the first woman, Pandora, bearing a box/jar out of which all evil for human-kind could come foreward.

Boxed into her Oikos, then and now s/he is obsessed by (re) possessions, that are in smaller boxes. 'Unboxing ceremonies' are highlights of possessed consumer culture now, running out of private warehouses/boxes to store all the boxes which they fetch with their box-like internal-combustion tanks from the boxed in mall. Fire might enlarge the territory for MORE McMansions/boxes. In the end they all exit in boxes back into the fire.

In the meantime Pandora's Box is wide open...

Links:
Fire, the Magic Wand to create more Habitat for Humans, Pt I
World Fire Atlas, ESA
Prometheus, Lord Byron

Update, 021007 The Cost of Sprawl

• Do check out the MSM images for 'sheds and houses' IN the bush (in bushfire-prone areas).
• The BIG DRY HEAT made in Australia is "inevitable". "Australia could be 5 degrees Celsius hotter and 40 to 80 per cent drier by 2070"
• Arson was involved when "..fires described as suspicious tore through 250 hectares and gutted a house on the state's North Coast."
• "...Bushfires destroyed a house and several sheds " on the North Coast, now they are working hard on the "asset protection zone".
• Interesting image here, Q.: How much bush has to be burnt down (contained) before a house is safe?

Image 1: Part of Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin by Peter Eisenman

Populating the coasts

All of the coast - one mega-town: A trip along the coast after years revealed the continuous coastal megacity from Cairns to Eden. The ever-sameness stretching, clinging to the ocean and smashing huge arteries though forests. In the absence of images, here is a great panorama (to scroll through) and some excellent images of suburbian sprawl in California. Future visions of building mega-temples & golf courses are also being realised in a National Park on the east coast of Spain. The Greenpeace pdf is in Spanish but the images are self-explanatory.
(Image:'Costa Iberica' by MVRDV)