Hornsby

Aligning Design and Policy in Sydney, Australia

Creating favourable infrastructure comprises one of the key issues of many megapolises and cities regardless to the level of countrys economic development. The urbanisation and high density of population require distinct measures of the government to establish different cooperation programs. Moreover, public welfare and landscape design remain to be an important matter. Certainly, different climatic and ecological conditions of many cities can create an obstacle to striving to make the cities and the countries look attractive and become environmentally friendly place to live.

Australia belongs to the countries with special climatic conditions different from Southern Africa, Europe or Asia. The country and the mainland at the same time have unique species of animals living in the deserts inside the continent. The availability of six climatic zones of Australia and Oceania makes the landscape of the country attractive for numerous tourists. In spite of ecological problems, many cities managed to hold profound environmental policies. A place of interest is Hornsby Quarry site in Sydneys northern suburb of Hornsby ( Real Estate 2016). Being a suburban area, the city and the region retain high indices of life expectancy and employment compared to Sydney. Alongside with Melbourne (Jones, Jones, Symons & Young 2015), West Menai in Sydney (Ridge & Menai 2012) and Harrington (Hankin 2013), the zone remains suitable for creating infrastructure by introducing sustainable environmental policy and holding the landscape design projects. Restricting measurements of the local government is the important factor, the consequence of which determines relatively indistinct distribution of industries. The usage of land resources is peculiar, as it is available for limited agricultural purposes. Hornsby Quarry Site in Sydney comprises preferable possibilities for developing landscape design projects based on its land resources, favourable legislation directed at sustainable stabilisation of economic and ecological controversies, and extended possibilities of the workforce in the region. The reason is that Australian political measures concentrate both on public welfare and environmental protection.

Geographic Context of Hornsby Area

Being located in the northwest direction from Sydney, Hornsby is the suburb area lying 25 km from the city . Its relatively close location to the business centre makes the city favourable place for residential purposes. Most of the lands find its application in residential buildings and business spheres.

The local government issues the juridical permissions to apply the lands according to the purposes without consent. As a rural area, Hornsby government plans a number of extended applications of primary production. The rural landscape and low density of population of 168,614 residents in 2014 (Hornsby Shire Estimated Resident Population 2014) is the reason of supportive policies of residential application of land resources. The stable demographic growth during 2007-2010 and 2012-2014 is relatively insufficient in percentage to overcrowd the region. The approximate size of the area comprises 46,230 hectares (462 km2) (Hornsby Shire Council Community 2016). The density of 3.65 persons per hectare implies rather low indices. The dynamics is peculiar for less industrialised areas, which have favourable conditions for ecological and environmental improvement.

Business structures are widely available in the city. Hornsby is an administrative centre of Hornsby Shire. The place is a local governmental area of the Northern region of Sydney (Hornsby Shire Council Community 2016). The local Government Area of Hornsby covers 19 regions (See Map 2) stretching from Lower Mac Donald to Delistone East from the north to the south and the Cowan area towards the east. The land area of Hornsby city covers 840 hectares.

The population of Hornsby consists of the citizens born in Australia. As per the 2011 census, the inhabitants comprised of approximately 51% females and 49% males. The official language of the region is English spoken by more than a half of inhabitants (Australian Bureau of Statistics Quick Stats2016). The secondary languages spoken in the region comprise the Philippine, the Mandarin and others. The abundance of the languages in the location causes the conflict of mentalities. The lack of legislation concerning foreign citizens requires further investigation as the point can be influential in the development of urbanisation measurements.

The local people work in different spheres. About 30% are professionals, while 20% are the clerical workers. Other employed citizens constitute managers, service sphere workers, and other professions. The major fields of work developed in Hornsby include healthcare, professional scientific sphere, retail trade, and technical services. The median individual income is $674 per week and the median household income is $1436 per week (Hornsby Demographics (NSW) Local Stats 2016). The abundance of professionals at the site makes the city attractive for creating more workplaces.

The region has high life expectancy compared to European countries of more than 70 years. The aspect makes Hornsby the region applicable for further introduction of moderate measurements for economic and ecological development. The expected growth of population till 2021 creates a positive perspective in the city and the region for creating more workplaces. Thus, it can motivate the rapid growth of economics in the sphere of business, trade, and tourism. The flow chart in the appendix demonstrates that the rates of employment in 2011 in Hornsby Shire were larger than that of Sydney. All the occupations, including managers, professionals and technical workers have more possibilities in the suburban area (Hornsby Demographics (NSW) Local Stats 2016; Bureau of Transport Statistics 2016; & Hornsby Shire Council Community 2016). In 2004-2010 the unemployment rate reached almost 3000 people (Australian Bureau of Statistics Quick Stats2016), which remains to be the problem because the area has not acquired the exact preference of the industrial development.

Compared to higher population density in Sydney, Melbourne or other Australian cities, Hornsby is peculiar for availability of human resource. The local area managed to create jobs and high living standards. Being the centre of local administration, Hornsby lands have different ownership types. Private property areas, for instance, belong to Mount Wilga Private Hospital (General Hospital), Hornsby, which is under local government jurisdiction. Real estate agencies remain abundant in the region of Hornsby (Hornsby Demographics (NSW) Local Stats 2016).

Residential zones and business purpose lands remain numerous in the region. Taking into account the landscape peculiarities and relatively close location to the water resources, the number of estate agencies remains substantial. The availability of human resources with different qualifications and few ways to apply their knowledge denote Hornsby as industrially not investigated region. On the other hand, it extends the possibilities for developing recreation infrastructure appropriate for tourists. However, rapidly growing infrastructure can harm the nature and create the danger of overpopulation. Therefore, considerate and levelled policy is peculiar for both federal Australian and local Hornsby governments.

Policies and Legislation in Australia and Hornsby

The government laws restrict the industrial growth of the region and the land sources, giving preference to promoting agricultural, residential, and small business owners. The regional cooperation with Sydney can unite the efforts of business and government as the data demonstrate restrictions in ecological spheres. The introduction of landscape designing could become a new perspective for the development of Hornsby (Hornsby Council Local Environment Plan 2013).

According to the data of 2013, the usage of Hornsby area lands and their application in ecological and environmental projects were rather unsubstantial (Hornsby Council Local Environment Plan 2013). The spheres of application usually include agriculture. Particularly bee keeping and pastry-based diary usage received the permission without consent from the government. Residential areas yet remain the area, in which most landowners operate the buildings, particularly business establishments and housing.

Forbidding the division of land by Environmental Planning and Assessment Act of 1979 remained unchangeable in many cases, particularly in the situation of dividing the land resources (Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 No 203. 2016). Thus, lands having the certain purpose cannot be reconsidered in its usage. The strict strategy is applicable in the case of Hornsby because the deep land resources, the amount of minerals remain the issues to consider by the state government. Certainly, although the mining of minerals and oil could be profitable, the Australian nature and its fauna continue to exist due to the intrusion of international environment organisations. Therefore, both the local and federal government pertain effective limiting legislative norms. The field helps to develop urbanisation and draw the attention to the region, which aims for landscape designing and creating environmental sustainability. The local plan of 2013 in Hornsby prohibits environmental conservation on waterways and permits with consent using lands for the tourists (LEP 2016).

Threatening endangered species in Australia and in Hornsby in particular comprises distinct measurements at the federal level. The Section 5A (Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 No 203. 2016) provides detailed description of the factors showing the adverse effect resulting in disappearing of the rare animals. The governmental responsibility includes registering the harmful habitat for the animals and further taking measurements for the person, who uses the land sources inappropriately.

The preferable side of the Act demonstrates the strivings to preserve few representatives of rare species that managed to survive. The consideration of animal extinction belongs to the issues of primary importance. Frequent catastrophes, including forest fires, have served the lesson for Australian authorities to think critically in many emergencies. Therefore, their urgent position remains to keep the local nature intact. Many tourists yet visit the country. They travel by cars to see the landscapes due to the absence of air pollution.

The same situation is peculiar for Sydney (Ridge& Menai 2012). Yet, its strategy succeeded in creating Georges River National Park and Heathcote National Park in the north and the south respectively. They proved to be helpful in the measurements to preserve endangered species, like grey-headed flying-fox and spotted-tailed quoll (p. 78). The Heathcote Road remains a low value region, as it is incompatible habitat because of erosion and sedimentation. Consequently, rethinking the strategies to manage land should receive deeper attention of both local and federal institutions and their representatives.

Greater Parramatta (A Plan for Growing Sydney 2016) counts the potential of 20 000 jobs. Westmead, Parramatta North, Rydalmere and Camellia comprise the strategic interest for the government. Therefore, creating jobs for Hornsby representatives can resolve the problem of unemployment, raise living standard, and redistribute additional capital costs necessary for public welfare.

The unfavourable side of the governmental act represents severe limitations for supporting urbanisation and creating infrastructure conducive for business development. The lucrative spheres are tourism and recreation with mild density of buildings, which can lead to the growth of estate agencies or their transformation to local tourism. Creating nature parks comprises relatively new perspective for the local government of Sydney as well as Hornsby.

Local Planning Policies and Land-Use Designations

When considering Hornsby environmental policies on the local level, it is necessary to distinguish the Amendment of 2013, particularly the developmental control (DCP) (Hornsby Council Development Control Plan 2016) and local environment plans (LEP) (Hornsby Council Local Environment Plan 2013). The Amendments of 2013 represented rather narrowed scale of the areas of application of the environmental measurements.

Large percentage of English-speaking population of Hornsby creates positive perspective for education sphere. The closeness of the region to Sydney, the possibility to travel around the country and introduce new reforms can help enrol more international students and create competitive higher education establishments. The local basis of creating business school can be efficient due to well-developed estate market and the extended presence of lands for commercial use. The introduction of the subjects connected to environmental issues and sustainable support of education could form the basis for solving the acute environmental problems. The welfare system in education belongs to undeveloped and forgotten perspectives, but it can be a phenomenon for the government to rethink the ways of protecting their countrys nature.

Based on the example of Melbourne, the combination of economic sustainability and ecological perspectives of the region can be applicable for Hornsby. The economic issues represent the central point of Greater Melbourne Area Case (Jones et al. 2015). The availability of Victorian parks, gardens and the Observatory created in the 19th century made the region attractive for tourists and professionals. The basis of economic values in the region comprise profound green infrastructure. The natural benefits remain the direct improvement of environmental health, connectivity of spaces and promoting species diversity (p. 3). Certainly, the location of the region further to the south encompasses its promoting climate conditions and landscape differences compared to Hornsby situated deeper inside the continent. If to consider economic aspects of Hornsby, positive tendencies can increase due to creating a natural park and bringing the species of the trees either from outside of the region or growing forests in the zones allowing forestry.

After the three years, the growth of demography in the region makes the local government rethink the strategic possibilities for creating more jobs and defining the principal economic outcomes. However, erosion processes can create obstacles for developing agriculture. Cultivating and investigating the land sources agriculturally or for ecological purposes can become a new field for development control plans compared to the ones of 2013 (DCP 2016).

The residential part (DCP 2016) contains the exact norms concerning the housing issues, their size and peculiarities of location. The measurements are efficient in forming the residential infrastructure suitable for peculiarities of the region, which allows creating large parks and promote the development of conservation plans. The introduction of green cultures suitable for the region should include planting and growing trees, cultivation of Australian plants to decorate the landscape of the locality. The measurement would not be controversial to the local environment plans (LEP 2016).

The issue of control development sphere remains to be the business part. Taking into account the extended development of entertainment spheres and housing, the main points highlighted in the plan consider design of the landscape and planning of the public welfare. Car park scheme location does not create obstacles for driving and helps to preserve the natural landscape.

Conclusions

The possibilities to pertain sustainable economic and ecological development of Hornsby on the local, regional and governmental level remain undiscovered. The strictness and determination of the Australian government to preserve the land sources and determine the exact measurements and scales of their use has an effect on the environmental improvement in the region. Deeper investigation of the ground processes and the difficulties to preserve the Australian ecosystem could reveal possible solutions and the exact measurements necessary for economic and ecological sustainability.

The control of development and ecology in the investigated region demonstrated the effective and exact measurements towards providing the stable growth of the suburban area of Hornsby. The ideas of the local government are effective and sufficient on the scale of real estate. Education sphere remains the issue to consider. The ecotourism possibilities of the region are weaker compared to the south, but they present the interest to invest into.