President Ranald welcomed members and introduced the guests for the evening – speaker Dr Shane Geha, Mike Fisher & Brian Fine from RC of Rose Bay, Penny Lye, Marillyn Stewart, Maree Rennie, Jackson Ling, Spiro Constantinou, Clare Martin, Bill Drakapoulos, Simon Coffey, Olive Coffey Grisewood, Nathali Scipioni, Elizabeth Pearce and Shane Rowlands.
Toast
Geoff Duggin gave a toast to the RC of Lae Huon Gulf in Papua New Guinea. Chartered in 1959, the club meets every Tuesday, and supports the usual major Rotary projects like End Polio Now, as well as Pride of Workmanship Awards, Sports & Vocational Mentoring, school scholarship programs and provides medical equipment for Lae’s Angau Hospital.
Announcements
Mike Fisher from the Rotary Club of Rose Bay gave us an update on the activities of their 25 member club, including an annual movie night which raised $10,000.
President Ranald reported on Willoughby Council’s Australia Day ceremony which he attended with his wife Marillyn, Peter McNair, Derek Matz and Karin Eurell. He commented that it was a very uplifting ceremony.
Andrew Rennie invited all members to a Charity Art Auction to be held at Gallery 307 from 2-17 February, all the proceeds from which will be donated to Neuroblastoma Australia - https://www.gallery307artschool.com.au/exhibitions .
Sergeant's Session
Due to time constraints, was no Sergeant's Session this week.
Guest Speaker - Dr Shane Geha - Urban Planning
Fay Petrou introduced guest speaker Dr. Shane Geha. Shane’s credentials include a degree in Civil Engineering, Post Graduate degree in Land Economics, Planning & Zoning, is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers and lectures at universities both in Australia and overseas.
The focus of Dr Geha’s talk was the re-zoning and planning of large cities and the things he considers necessary to build a bigger city with the aim of giving people a better life. He talked about the renewal of Paris in the 1800s by Baron von Hausmann who was tasked by Napoleon III to make Paris into a healthier, less congested and grander city. This he did over a period of 17 years between 1853 & 1870 by tearing down old buildings (at the same time displacing 350,000 people), planning, re-building and building 80 km of wide avenues, parks and squares to make Paris into the city it still is today.
Over the past 10 years Sydney has undergone a period of immense urban renewal with the planning and building of new housing, hospitals, schools, two new rail lines, the West Connex, light rail and a proposed new airport, all of which is to cater for the increase in the population of Sydney. Shane believes the density of Sydney needs to increase to cope with the population growth necessary for Australia to continue to progress. New York has nearly 11,000 people per square kilometre compared to Sydney’s 407 people per square kilometre.
Shane also said that Sydney has the most complicated planning rules in the world with a lot of red tape and the average time for a development application to be granted is 18 months. He talked about re-zoning and gave us various examples of problems he has encountered in having land re-zoned and new constructions built. He believes the rules need to be simplified to serve the people.
Chris Switzer thanked Dr Geha for his mesmerising talk which gave us food for thought about the current and future planning of Sydney.
