Independent professional advice for managers and users of public land

In this edition, Terra Publica looks at:

• Emerging major advances relating to Native Title
• Hazardous timber trestle bridges
• Controlled Access Roads, of which there aren't any.

And, as usual, our calendar of forthcoming training course. 

In this first Terra Publica for 2024, we travel to Ramsar, a township on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and Burra - an even smaller settlement in outback South Australia.

We applaud outgoing Premier Daniel Andrews for condemning the House Commission high-rise towers. It's an opportunity to fix the social ghettos, certainly - but also an opportunity to rethink the public land surrounding them.

In this edition, the nature of ownership...Who owns this parcel of land? Simple question, but mabye not with a simple answer. Let's hope we don't need to go to Supreme Court to find out. What is the best way for a Council to allow a sporting club to occupy a club house?

This edition we look at:

• Community Asset Committees (CACs)
• Training Courses as Corporate Silo-Busters and
• The increasing demand for training in Native Title and Aboriginal Heritage.

Also our schedule of Professional Development courses in May 2023.

Take it to Appeal. Planners are all too familiar with the idea of review and appeal - but not so the custodians of Crown Land legislation.

'My Learned Friend.' It's a courtroom term used by one barrister to refer to another barrister. In this edition we take a look at legal cases where the phrase might well have been used.

January is the month of two-faced Janus, so we look back at 2021 and forward to 2022. For managers of Victoria's public lands, we predict it will be a busy year.

As Melbourne hits 5 million, we reflect on the discredited parable of 'The Tradegy of the Commons'. 

Also in this edition, our calendar of training courses for September - October 2021

Reconciliation is happening, but its pace is slow. One reason is the gap between State and Commonwealth systems. In many ways Victoria leads the way, but State law cannot overturn or contradict Commonwealth law.

This month our curiosity about public land takes us to the Wimmera's Little Desert, Melbourne's Bourke Street, the Koondrook Cricket Ground and a concrete Village 'Green' in Essex.

Under Scrutiny

Public Land Managers may come under scrutiny from the Ombudsman, the Auditor General, the Local Government Inspectorate or even, in an extreme case, the Police Fraud Squad. In this edition of Terra Publica we offer an alternative: User-Friendly Scrutiny.

This was the 1960s, the ‘paradise’ was the 90-mile breach, the estate agents were Willmore & Randall, and the land being flogged, although highly valuable in environmental terms, was utterly unsuitable for residential development.  

Also in this edition:

State of Emergency - as seen through the Government Gazette.

Terra Publica - January 2020

So it’s the Twenties.  That’s the Twenty-twenties, Not the 1920s! 

In an age of climate change and population growth, we need to redefine the demarcation between public and private.

We don’t need flappers dancing the Charleston!

Strategic Incrementalism. 

The public land governance regime is subject to three types of change. 

In the heat of a Federal election campaign, TP asks what public land issues fall within the ambit of the Commonwealth Government.

On a related line of thought, we ask whether Commonwealth land has the protection of the Crown.

Dear Mr Premier, Congratulations!
As you get stuck into Victoria's urban challenges, how about appointing a Minister for Urban Reconfiguration?
We could tell him or her about the role of public land in a pro-active program of urban transformation.

• Hard Acts to Follow – a look at Parliament’s current legislative agenda
• A Matter of Necessity – Access to landlocked parcels
• A Place in the Sun – How Gannawarra has become the solar energy capital of Victoria

• Discussing the discussion
• What is 'the Crown'?
• Professional Development for Water Authorities
• Our calendar of one-day courses April to July 2018

• 5 Years' Hard Work - the Victorian Government's response to the VEAC Statewide Assessment of Public Land Final Report
• New professional development programs for Water Authorities, Urban Planners and Licensed Surveyors

Not another restructure!

Governments seem to be forever reconfiguring the public service. Here at Terra Publica we are often sceptical about the merits of such restructures.

• How do we tackle unauthorised retaining walls on roadsides?
• Our suite of 3 one-day training courses for road managers
• Our schedule of Professional Development courses for April-June 2017

• Change management
• Q&A - Carriageway easements
• New one-day Roads courses
• Workshops and Masterclasses in 2017
• Our 2017 Training Calendar

Coastal Special
• Barney at Killarney
• Towards a new Marine and Coastal Act
• What's that on the beach? Pretty sure it's not sand...
• Reconfiguring Coastal Governance
• Victoria's Aboriginal Heritage Act 2004 - our workshops on the forthcoming amendments

Hey, Watch Where You're Walking, Dude - 'Your Honour, Council should have protected me from walking into the traffic while I was texting...' 
The Aboriginal Heritage Act gets some teeth;
If Crown land is subject to a lease, can that land be sold off as freehold?

The VEAC Statewide Assessment of Public Land

• Victorian Environment and Assessment Council (VEAC) may recommend that riparian land be set aside as a ‘Streamside Reserve’ but for most waterways the good old Land Act 1958 and Crown Land (Reserves) Act 1978 continue to thwart sound management outcomes.

North of the Border
They have public land in NSW, too – including types we Victorians know nothing about, like Travelling Stock Routes. But one thing we share: the need for reform of Crown land law. And it seems NSW is a step or two ahead of us.

• The crocodile that ate the powerboats: conservation groups enlist a 4million year old fossil to oppose the expansion of a motor-boat club

In this edition we:

• offer Daniel Andrews some suggestions for reforming public land law and policy
• reflect on the governance of recreational boating facilities
• address some questions about volunteer land management groups

The East-West link, cutting its swathe through Royal Park, has emerged as the principal differentiating issue in the State election.
PLUS – we follow-up on local-significance reserves; and follow-up on bathing boxes.

Should Crown reserves be handed over to municipalities?
Readers’ question: At what point does an urban Arterial Road become non-urban?

Our view differs from that of New-York think-tank Project for Public Spaces (PPS)
Victoria’s new Waterway Management Strategy
Readers’ questions about ‘Private Roads’ and Committee of Management funding

How the economics of public land differ from the economics of private land.
Is a Crown land Committee an Incorporated Association?

Also in this edition: feedback from our 'Road Less Travelled' workshops.

Parks Victoria's commitment to its avowed philosophy gets tested.
Finding 'Titles' for Crown Land. What's happened to Victorian Government Departments?

The law governing Victoria's riparian land resembles something requiring a dose of salts.

141 years after the statutory separation of church and state, taxpayer assets are still being handed out, free.

Five examples of dysfunctional public land legislation.

Competing interpretations of history have their roots deep in the Nineteenth Century. Our ancestors knew full well that they were dispossessing Aboriginal people at the point of a gun. The shameful thing is that the legislation under which they did it is still on the statute books.

There was a time when, if you owned the land, you owned everything on it – the water, the wildlife, the trees – and you held unrestricted usage and development rights. Not any more. This month we comment on easements and covenants, reform of the law governing them.

The Baillieu Government comes to grips with public land.
Also - Risk Management: the Take-Home Messages.
Terra Publica celebrates 10 years of Q&A…