Coast 2 Coast Town Planning

10/05/2026

Local councils will get federal money to build roads, pipes and wires to enable new housing in an effort to signal the Albanese government remains determined to boost supply despite its flagging 1.2 million homes target and its pivot to housing tax hikes.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will reveal details of the $2 billion fund in Tuesday's federal budget, declaring the cash injection will add an extra 65,000 homes over a decade.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will reveal details of the $2 billion fund in Tuesday's federal budget, declaring the cash injection will add an extra 65,000 homes over a decade.

09/05/2026

In Singapore, rain-harvesting benches are quietly redefining how small public structures can serve a bigger purpose. These benches are designed to collect rainwater through built-in channels and storage compartments, capturing what would normally run off into drains. As people sit and rest, the bench itself becomes part of a subtle water system, storing and managing rain in a way that supports the surrounding environment.

The collected water is slowly released to nearby plants through controlled outlets or irrigation lines, ensuring that greenery stays hydrated even during hotter and drier periods. This steady supply reduces the need for manual watering and helps maintain healthy urban landscapes with minimal effort. The design often blends seamlessly into parks, walkways, and public spaces, making the system almost invisible while still highly functional.

Beyond convenience, these benches reflect a thoughtful approach to urban sustainability. Instead of treating rain as excess to be drained away, it is reused locally to support plant life and reduce water waste. This kind of design shows how even everyday objects can contribute to greener cities, turning simple seating into a small but effective environmental solution that improves both comfort and ecological balance.

29/01/2025

Celebrating our 7th year on Facebook. Thank you for your continuing support. We could never have made it without you. 🙏🤗🎉

07/07/2024

https://theconversation.com/rising-risks-of-climate-disasters-mean-some-communities-will-need-to-move-we-need-a-national-conversation-about-relocation-now-232703

Climate change is making some parts of Australia unliveable or uninsurable. We need a national conversation about the planned relocation. A proposed National Relocation Authority can lead the way.

21/04/2023

Another example of a tokenism by a failing system controlled by an administrator with a lack of respect for community input.

Central Coast Council has said "thank you" to the community for our 343 submissions on the community land plan of management and categorisation/recategorisation of over 2000 lots BUT (and it is a very big BUT)...all our local knowledge, passion, good intentions have been IGNORED

21/04/2023

"Why don't kids play outside anymore?"

Look outside. We've turned our public spaces into car-only zones filled with parking lots and wide roads.

“"Why don't kids play outside anymore?" Look outside. We've turned our public spaces into car-only zones filled with parking lots and wide roads.”

19/04/2023

13/07/2022

"A huge legacy problem exists" John Brockhoff Pia.

People in communities who've seen repeated flooding and bushfires in recent years are calling for new thinking on how to plan safer towns and suburbs, as the threat from climate change increases. So what might this look like and whose responsibility is it to make sure residents aren't at risk?

23/08/2021

Tru urban happiness..

"For years, urban designers and architects have claimed happiness as their goal," Montgomery says. "And yet none of the claims have been supported by empirical evidence. Which isn't to say they're not right. It's just to say that we don't know. That we haven't known."

Charles Montgomery's new book finds the intersection of urban policy and well-being.

09/08/2021

An epochal new report from the world’s top climate scientists warns that the planet will warm by 1.5° Celsius in the next two decades without drastic moves to eliminate greenhouse gas pollution. The finding from the United Nations-backed group throws a key goal of the Paris Agreement into danger as signs of climate change become apparent across every part of the world.

The latest scientific assessment from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the first time speaks with certainty about the total responsibility of human activity for rising temperatures. The scientists forecast no end to warming trends until emissions cease.

“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land,” wrote the authors of the IPCC’s sixth global science assessment since 1990 and the first released in more than eight years. The crucial warming threshold of 2°C will be “exceeded during the 21st century,” the IPCC authors concluded, without deep emissions cuts “in the coming decades.”

The report released on Monday is the work of more than 200 scientists digesting thousands of studies, and the summary was approved by delegates from 195 countries. More than any other forecast or record, this report’s determinations establish a powerful global consensus—less than three months before the UN’s COP26 international climate talks.

Among the headline findings: The past decade was most likely hotter than any period in the last 125,000 years, when sea levels were as much as 10 meters higher. Combustion and deforestation have also raised carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere higher than they’ve been in two million years, according to the report, and agriculture and fossil fuels have contributed to methane and nitrous oxide levels higher than any point in at least 800,000 years.

The first major assessment from the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in nearly a decade sees no end to rising temperatures before 2050.