Welcome to issue #42 for July 2026.
|
Get involved in environmental activism…
|
An information sharing event for people to learn what biodiversity is, why it is important, and how you can get involved in improving it in Port Phillip. Click to learn more and RSVP.
|
Get involved in environmental activism (cont’d)
|
Good stewardship of the environment is not just a personal responsibility, it is a public value… Our duty is to use the land well, and sometimes not to use it at all. This is our responsibility as citizens, but more than that, it is our calling as stewards of the earth.
President George W Bush
Our economic system and our planetary system are now at war. Or, more accurately, our economy is at war with many forms of life on Earth, including human life. What the climate needs to avoid collapse is a contraction in humanity’s use of resources; what our economic model demands to avoid collapse is unfettered expansion. Only one of these sets of rules can be change, and it’s not the laws of nature.
Naomi A Klein
Naomi A Klein
|
We are living and working on the unceded lands of the Yalukit Willam people. We pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land and their ongoing connection to land, waters, sky and culture.
|
Around Melbourne… The rules are changing so we will see the no boating zone around St Kilda Pier expand to increase safety and better protect wildlife.
The Westgate Biodiversity: Bili Nursery & Landcare community group is asking the City of Melbourne (the new park manager) for more funding to fix ongoing problems.
There is more discussion about the wetlands project at the Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve at the Elwood edge of the City of Port Phillip – Bayside Council and the Board of Works say that the wetlands liner is essential, but a local community group thinks otherwise. Who to believe?
This good short video discusses some reasonably simple and relatively high “value add” improvements that could be made to Melbourne’s tram network, and improving public transport is something we should encourage.
The BYD Zhengzhou, a roll-on/roll-off vehicle transport ship, dropped off 4,809 BYD electric vehicles at the Port of Melbourne in June 2026 – this video about it is a bit too promotional and polished, but has some interesting content. (Also, the port-side vehicle staging yard shown looks like a great place to roof over with solar panels.)
Demolition of the old Australia Post site in Williamstown Road Port Melbourne has commenced to prepare for development of the Sandridge Recreation Precinct.
St Kilda Pier wins peak Victorian architecture award as judges praise its playful and ‘deeply civic’ design
|
Local Heroes – The St Kilda Bike Kitchen The St Kilda Bike Kitchen (StKBK) is an all-volunteer-run, non profit whose mission is to teach people how to maintain and repair their own bicycles. The group started in 2020 when a couple of neighbors got together and started sharing their knowledge and tools. Six years on, the StKBK has been consistently running three public, open workshops each month: - First Saturday of every month at the VegOut Farmers’ Market;
- Second Sunday of every month at the Port Phillip EcoCentre (in conjunction with the Repair Cafe); and
- Fourth Saturday of every month at the St Kilda Library (where we run a formal Fix-A-Flat class, as well).
See the StKBK facebook page for more details.
Would you like to volunteer with the StKBK? No mechanical experience or knowledge required, you just need to want to help people; we’ll teach you the rest. Contact us at stkbikekitchen@gmail.com.
The StKBK is also on the look out for a temporary, indoor space to hold workshops during the winter months, if anyone has any leads.
|
This series of articles is about local environment related community groups that deserve our support. If you are involved with a group you would like featured here – reply to this email with your suggested content (an image, and 1-2 paragraphs of text (about 100 words).
|
Recently seen…
How 5 South-West Queensland Councils have proposed to establish a community mutual property insurer for all local residents because average property insurance rates have risen by over 500% in their municipalities after a series of flooding events. Something to look forward to in Port Phillip.
This amusing and informative video explaining how plastic is recycled and the problems and challenges in the process. It is US focused, but many of the issues also apply in Australia.
This excellent video very convincingly explains the many misconceptions that people quote when trying to discredit renewable energy systems. It a great resource to refute comments by renewable energy skeptics aimed at delaying the transition away from fossil fuels.
Similarly, this excellent video explains why apartment living is a good choice for some people and refutes many of the misconceptions you hear about it.
The recent Australian federal government report that highlights the many economic and other benefits of bike tourism.
The Domain Research report that identifies how energy-efficient homes are becoming mainstream and often attract more buyer attention and sell for higher prices.
An article on how the low operating costs and strong road performance of electric trucks are really starting to prove themselves, with 20%, 7% and 2% of new purchases being electric in China, Germany and the UK respectively. Unfortunately, it is just 0.7% of new truck purchases in Australia.
Recent Melbourne University research argues that we must change the materials we use in Australian buildings to avoid blowing our entire country’s future carbon budget on housing alone. Moving to circular economy materials and avoiding concrete and steel seems a “no brainer”, but so is the wider use of prefabricated modular construction, which is not mentioned in the report.
|
Big Tech, Big Power, Big Questions New data centre developments are becoming a major issue in Australia, and locally in Fisherman’s Bend. Careful community consideration is needed to ensure that we are not “sleepwalking into an AI crisis”, as suggested by Senator Hanson-Young and others.
The proposed investments are huge, but there are major concerns about the amounts of electrical power they will consume, the large amounts of water needed to cool them and the noise they produce. For example, the 163MW data centre being touted for the City of Port Phillip area (Equinix and NextDC) is comparable to the electrical load currently being used by all the residents of the area. Even if the final demand is only a fraction of current projections, it would place significant pressure on an electricity network that is already constrained.
Furthermore, much of the investment will be for importing equipment. While there will be significant construction employment, this will take capacity away from much needed new housing construction. There will also be little ongoing operational employment, and experts say that online business and social activities and increased use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies will lead to many Australian job losses. Additionally, it is well known that the international technology companies funding these investments pay very little in Australian taxes compared to their local revenues. Finally, it is unclear why these data centres are being proposed for inner urban residential areas, and not for industrial zones, or even better, for appropriate regional locations away from residential zones. Learn more here.
The GetUp! Organization currently has a Stop the Data Drain Senate submission about data centres that you might like to add your name to. PECAN/GECAN have also made a joint submission to the same inquiry. Finally, PECAN is considering holding a community forum to explore these issues, please contact pecan.org.au@gmail.com if you would like to get involved.
|
Small modular nuclear reactors – climate solution or costly distraction? Small, modular nuclear reactors have been touted as an alternative to solar and wind for renewable energy for many years. Proponents say that they are small, modular and standardized to take advantage of economies of scale in manufacturing and incremental investment. They also incorporate passive safety features that mean meltdowns (like Chernobyl and Fukishima) are impossible. However, to date, only experimental plants exist and according to this good analysis summary they are never likely to get any further. You can get more detail here as well. The economics of this technology does not stack up against the ever reducing costs of solar and wind. They also need very expensive fuels that must be stored for millennia after use (which is very expensive and risky). Many of the same arguments can be made about the promise of nuclear fusion, which has not delivered anything despite about 75 years of research.
|
Battery health evaluations for secondhand EVs The battery is the most expensive part of an EV, so people should rightly have serious questions about the quality of the car’s battery when contemplating buying a secondhand EV. We all know that mobile phone batteries die rapidly after a few years of use, and will the same thing happen with an EV battery? Luckily, according to this video explainer, the answer is mostly no – EV batteries use technologies that have much longer lifespans and degrade much more slowly. Good and accurate battery health assessment tools are starting to become available so you can get a good check on an EV’s battery before you agree to buy it. Also, if you own an EV there are some good rules of thumb about how you should use it to minimize lifetime battery degradation (so you eventually get a better resale price for it) – mostly keep the EV 20%-80% full, some stop-start driving is good, don’t park it for long periods in strong sunlight, and so on.
|
ereefers are not marijuana cigarettes! Refrigerated shipping units (often called “reefers”) are widely used and make up 5-10% of Australia’s transport trailer fleet. For power, they normally incorporate their own diesel motor and fuel tank. The next generation of ereefer equipment that uses an electric heat-pump is already becoming popular because of the significant operating cost savings they give. These units draw power from an integrated battery or from the prime mover. Interestingly, I cannot find anything that incorporates solar panels into the container’s roof, which seems an obvious improvement.
|
A bit of fun…
To make it easier to recycle, some Macau residents are using their vehicles to flatten out pieces of cardboard! As well as being dangerous for nearby pedestrians, participants also need to get dangerously close to the tyres of the moving vehicles. I also suspect that this practice is not really cost effective and the fuel consumed to flatten the boxes is more than they are worth. It is certainly not worth the risks involved, and I strongly recommend that we do not make this a common practice in Melbourne. Learn more.
|
Goldfarb B (2023) Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of our Planet, WW Norton & Co. ISBN: 9781324005896
https://www.bengoldfarb.com/crossings
Crossings, Ben Goldfarb’s impassioned quest to understand the ecology of roads and its impact on the natural world, is a marvel. The reader learns something new on every page, disturbed and amazed in equal measure. Goldfarb moves us briskly along the manipulated ecosystem of the highway, with vivid, evocative pitstops for environmental history, ecology, and the built environment. With 15 million additional miles of road scheduled to be built over the globe in the near future, the time for this book is now. Crossings adds a new perspective to conversations on how humans have reshaped life on earth.
Reviewer: The Whiting Award Judges’ Citation
|
We welcome book review submissions – send them as a Word documents in a reply to this newsletter email. Follow the format we are using, and we may publish your work.
|
|
