Edgars Creek

This is Edgars Creek. Less pretty but more geologically significant photos can be found here.

The creek runs 17km from Wollert to North Coburg, where it meets up with the Merri Creek, which itself is a tributary to the Yarra River. At the Edgars/Merri junction is a 6.5 hectare tract of open space - mostly parkland, native vegetation, and a golf driving range. Previously the land had been earmarked by VicRoads for the now-obsolete F2 Freeway project.

Now obsolete?

So we've got all this space and nothing to do with it?

Let's have a party and invite the world!

Alas no. The land is retained by the State Government, which has generously offered to sell the land to Moreland Council for the princely sum of $10 million. Failure to purchase will see the land sold to developers.

Naturally the people who have been using the open space for the past 30 years are a bit annoyed. They have become rather attached to Edgars Creek.

And so have a lot of other people. The Kelvinator, the Greens, Friends of the Merri - it seems everybody loves Edgars Creek except the State Government and VicRoads.

Send State Environment Minister Gavin Jennings and VicRoads an email and tell em not to be misers - gift the land back to Moreland City Council, so it can continue as open space for public use!

Further information can be found from the Friends of Merri Creek.

The Coburg Initiative

Coburg is a place of varied characteristic: diversely populated, hills and vales, lots of kebabs and walnuts.

'Initiative' is probably not one of Coburg's better known characteristics. 'Adapting to circumstances' might be rather more accurate, if the conversion of Pentridge Prison into a luxury apartment village is anything to go by.

Hence M.Shriek was slack-jawed with amazement to learn of The Coburg Initiative. Sufficiently slack-jawed to ask: 'what is the Coburg Initiative?'

The Coburg Initiative is a plan. Not just any plan - it's an action plan. An action plan to implement a Structure Plan - the Coburg 2020 Structure Plan. It is, if Moreland City Council propaganda is anything to go by, a plan 'about new jobs, housing, services and retail' which 'will lead to improvements to the public realm', provide a focus on 'new connectivity between people and their places of work, culture, sport and leisure' and will celebrate and preserve 'the things that make today's Coburg great'.

M.Shriek hopes readers will agree that that all Sounds Great.

There are a few caveats on the execution of the Coburg Initiative. The first is that the plan will be actioned by Equiset, a Grollo Group subsidiary. The second is that the Coburg 2020 Structure Plan is based on the Melbourne 2030 Strategic Plan for sustainable growth - the same Melbourne 2030 which Premier John Brumby appears to have gone extremely cold on.

M.Shriek hopes readers will agree that that all Sounds Rather Worrying.

On the whole, M.Shriek can only conclude that one way or the other there will be a great deal of relief once the Hon.Prem.J.Brumby has actually faced the voters in the polls. Being the kind of Premier who jettisons without notice previous strategic plans and policies for sustainable living should prove much easier to pull off with some sort - any sort - of popular mandate.

Media in Moreland

As Noel Counihan well knew, the People's Republic of Moreland has a proud history of hosting good old-fashioned shitfights and blues in the name of liberty, socialism, and having good old-fashioned shitfights and blues.

But these days Moreland-specific media is relatively minimal.

The Moreland Leader is the primary media agent. It is owned by News Limited and maintains a devoted online presence in addition to its print run of 67,000.

Reportage usually covers local issues of popular concern, local political developments, or PR for schools and community groups. Like many local newspapers, the Leader has been something of a launching pad for career journalists, as few contributors stick around longer than a year or two.

Happily for The Leader, Moreland Shriek is prepared to countenance its ongoing existence.

Why? Because the 'Leader loves the City of Moreland'.

The same surely cannot be said of The Leader's rival organ, the Fairfax-owned Moreland Community News. With a circulation of just 34,500 and no online presence, the Community News' heart clearly lies somewhere other than Moreland. The good folk at Fairfax labour under the delusion that the Community News is 'respected for its comprehensive and accurate coverage of the local news and community events'. Moreland Shriek humbly submits that nothing could be further from the truth: the Moreland Community News is widely considered to be a second-rate rag primarily concerned with peddling classified advertisements.

Digital media activity in the hyperlocality of Moreland is sporadic. The Republic of Moreland was a pioneering blog, but has recently fallen silent. Now muppinstuff maintains a similar focus on sustainable lifestyles and local events, while the Newlands Community Alliance is more specifically campaign-driven.

Moreland's virtual public sphere, like its corporeal public sphere, has a certain political bent. In the coming weeks will take a closer look at these blogs and the curious beasts who run them.

Update: M.Shriek has been blessed if entirely surprised to learn that the Moreland Community News no longer exists. They should have learned to spell Gowrie right. You don't mess with the Good Folk of Gowrie Station, lest they became the Rampaging Mob of Gowrie Station.

The City of Moreland

This is the City of Moreland: People's Republic and bastard child of Jeff Kennett.

Moreland was born in 1994, a secular trinity of Brunswick, Coburg, and Broadmeadows. Today the City of Moreland is ruled by 11 moderately evil High Councillors.

M.Shriek may have more to say about them later - if they're lucky. Be it enough for now to say they are led by the great rumbling benificence of Mayor Lambros Tapinos. M.Tapinos and his comrades found power in November 2008, so they'll be around for a while.

In the meantime, 142,000 Morelanders will labour for the perpetual prosperity of the republic, and the righteous advancement of garish propaganda all around the world.