Urban Tech Links: UTL: Search results for Australia

If Australia gets around to this faster than Canada does, it might be because Australia is a warmer country. Most of Canada has to contend with cold & crappy weather for almost half of the year.

https://theconversation.com/high-speed-rail-plans-may-finally-end-australias-40-year-wait-to-get-on-board-238232

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/nov/13/australias-high-speed-rail-dream-is-doomed-if-stations-are-built-in-wrong-place-ex-mp-says

https://www.wsp.com/en-au/news/2024/transformational-high-speed-rail-network

https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/reviews-and-advice/bullet-trains-will-never-fire-in-australia-here-s-why-20230825-p5dzkj.html

Thursday, January 23, 2025

Why doesn’t Australia simply build more cities?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAustralian/comments/17rn4r5/why_doesnt_australia_simply_build_more_cities/

A lot of the secondary cities in each state could become big in their own right.

https://theconversation.com/how-our-regions-can-help-make-australias-growing-cities-more-sustainable-240330

Texas has a lot more people than Australia, yet it's a much smaller area & still has plenty of room.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-11/cities-population-density-congestion-urban-environment/100183522

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829222001605

https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-06/future-cities-paper-web.pdf

https://scenariojournal.com/article/made-in-australia

Of course one expects Melbourne and Sydney to have all the big stuff. However, from a Canadian perspective, it's amazing to see that Australia has a 12 lane crossing in Brisbane & a 10 lane crossing in Perth. Such wide bridges just don't exist in Halifax, NS & Victoria, BC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Leo_Hielscher_Bridges 12 lanes.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Gateway_Bridge_aerial4.JPG ,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Leo_Hielscher_Bridges#Duplication

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrows_Bridge_(Perth) 10 lanes.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Narrows_Bridge_from_QV.1.jpg ,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrows_Bridge_(Perth)#Second_road_bridge:_2001

There is a lot more potential to have express bus lanes & HOV lanes on 10-12 lane bridges than some narrow Vancouver, BC bridge with only 4 lanes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrows_Bridge_(Perth)#Railway_bridge:_2005 Seattle & Montreal would end up having their own version of a wide bridge with a train component as well. Of course, stubborn & backwards Greater Vancouver would be one of the last urban areas to ever allow such similar bridges.

It doesn't look like anyone from Canada was ever able to convince Australians to give up on bridge duplication & opt to just cram everything into 4 lanes or an inept 3+lane+bridge for two-way traffic.

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Canada Must Offer Alberta More Than Trump Could

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ef8p-kQDRs

It would be quite an irony if Canada went from being a colony of the UK to becoming a US state. It would be much better if Canada could officially become its own republic.

NZ would rather remain independent of Australia and not have to become an Australia state. Australia might eventually want to become its own republic, thus becoming fully independent of the UK. The same could eventually happen for NZ. Canada should never be too quick to give up and merely transfer from being under the authority of the UK to becoming absorbed by the US.

Canada, Australia & NZ should each all consider becoming their own republics. Alliances with the UK and the US can easily remain intact.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Stumps and Towers of Australia and Canada, Etc.

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=8&status=15 Of course Australia would have its first 90 story tower before Canada. Just like it had its first tower over a 100 floors before Canada.

1967 was a key year in Sydney and Toronto skyscraper history.

https://wikipedia/Australia_Square_building_in_George_Street_Sydney.jpg

https://australiasquare.com.au

Australia_Square Tower would have been even grander if it could have been the first office tower in the country to have 60 levels above the ground.

"The original proposal included 58 floors; however, this was reduced to 50." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Square#Design Although its a reduced building, at least it wasn't Vancouverized to be under 40 stories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Square#Surpassing_of_height

This building was quite the The-Real-Thing for NSW and Australia throughout the changing 1960s and beyond. A good start to the nations first 50 story office tower, indeed. However, it could also be seen as a new pillar within the Global Power Structure. The GPS is in its own AI run dreamworld MATRIX of technology, technocracy and conformity.

https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/top-of-the-town-20040515-gdixds.html

While I marvel at the various tall buildings around the world, if the big buildings & big cities just become part of a totalitarian system, then only a very small percentage of people at the top will benefit.

https://skyscraper.org/programs/harry-seidlers-australia-square-sydneys-first-modern-skyscraper/

The first tower in the Toronto-Dominion_Centre was also the first building to rise above 55 stories in Canada. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre#Technical_details

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1&status=15 Canada

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=7&status=15 Ontario

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=2&status=15 Alberta

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=12&status=15 Quebec

Vancouver has taken a multi-decade, thwarting approach towards holding back the scale of the city & its overall infrastructure. However, that has slowly been changing in recent years. Developers might be more motivated to build affordable housing if they can build taller structures.

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1&status=15 BC

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Stumps+and+Towers

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Living in Australia

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13053349/Struggling-dad-eight-kids-Don-Parkes-earns-125K-year-cost-living-crisis.html

Living+in+Australia has so many perks and advantages. However, the cost of living isn't one of them.

https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook47p/CostOfLiving

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Australia&country2=Canada

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Australia

https://therabbitportal.blogspot.com/search?q=Australia

Saturday, March 1, 2025

Canadian provinces meet in effort to reduce interprovincial trade barriers

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/anita-anand-interprovincial-trade

Fortunately, Australia never adopted internal trade barriers like Canada did.

https://vancouversun.com/news/bc-eyes-nova-scotia-bill-reduce-interprovincial-trade-barriers

https://www.thestar.com/business/winners-and-losers-in-interprovincial-trade-barriers-game/article_de610080-f468-11ef-9b5c-03c88f79396e.html

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/why-is-it-so-hard-to-do-business-between-provinces

https://www.conferenceboard.ca/insights/insights-blogs-time-to-rethink-internal-trade-in-canada

There are some things that Australia got correct early on, why Canada is still trying to sort some issues out.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/interprovincial-trade-barriers-4-ways-1.7453530

"Canada has free trade agreements with 51 countries, and yet we have never been able to institute free trade within our own borders.

Despite decades of discussion, an array of non-tariff barriers still limits the free movement of people and goods across our provinces. From professional certifications to supply-managed products to regulations in a wide variety of industries, restrictions on interprovincial trade flows prevail." https://financialpost.com/news/economy/beyond-borders-internal-trade-barriers

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/article/interprovincial-trade-barriers-what-they-are-why-they-exist-and-how-to-cut-them

Federalism and Sub-National Protectionism: a Comparison of the Internal Trade Regimes of Canada and Australia https://www.queensu.ca/iigr/sites/iirwww/files/uploaded_files/SmithAndrewWorkingPaper2015.pdf

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Hot nights expected in southern Australian states as heatwave sweeps east

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/08/hot-nights-expected-in-southern-states-as-heatwave-sweeps-east

There are some summer days in Australia when you really feel like you are in an oven.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/03/intensely-hot-weather-to-continue-in-south-eastern-australia

Of course you can head up to Canada and freeze your A$$ off!

Extreme heat and extreme cold are just too uncomfortable and even dangerous.

Friday, March 28, 2025

Head of State and Governor-General for Australia

https://www.dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/corporate/protocol-guidelines/1-introduction-to-australia-and-its-system-of-government#:~:text=Australia's%20Head%20of%20State%20is,the%20Prime%20Minister%20of%20Australia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Australia

https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/head-of-state

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Australia#Public_polling

Friday, July 12, 2024

Lower bowl of Vancouver stadium sells out months ahead of Grey Cup

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/07/12/bc-place-lower-bowl-grey-cup-tickets-sold-out

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/grey-cup-tickets-selling-bc-place-lower-sells-out

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC_Place

Owner	Province of British Columbia
Operator	BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo)
Executive suites	50^[1]
Capacity	54,500 27,695 (lower bowl) 22,120 (MLS)^[2]
Record attendance	65,061 (September 2, 2023, Ed Sheeran, +–=÷× Tour)^[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC_Place#History

Of course the biggest stadium in BC would still have to have less capacity than Edmonton's, Perth's & Seattle's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Stadium

Owner	City of Edmonton
Capacity	42,500 (1978–1979) 43,346 (1980–1981) 59,912 (1982) 60,081 (1983–2007) 59,537 (2008–2012) 56,302 (2012–present) 31,000 (lower bowl)
Record attendance	66,835 (U2 360° Tour)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Stadium#History

The stadium's total capacity is 61,266, including standing room, making it the third-largest stadium in Australia (after the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Stadium Australia).^[7] The stadium can be extended up to 65,000 seats for rectangular sports. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Stadium

Owner	Government of Western Australia VenuesWest
Operator	VenuesLive^[4]^[5]
Capacity	61,266^[1] 65,000 (Rectangular)^[2] 70,000 (Concert)^[3]
Record attendance	73,092, Ed Sheeran concert 12 March 2023

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Stadium#History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumen_Field

Owner	Washington State Public Stadium Authority
Operator	First & Goal Inc.
Executive suites	111
Capacity	68,740 (NFL) Expandable to 72,000 (for special events) 37,722 (MLS / XFL) Expandable to 68,740 (for special events) 10,000 (NWSL)
Record attendance	Concert: 77,286 (Ed Sheeran, August 26, 2023) Soccer: 69,274 (Seattle Sounders FC vs. Toronto FC, November 10, 2019)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumen_Field#Funding

Thursday, March 20, 2025

The Typical Vancouver Size Stump Building

Given that most proper big cities around the world are permitted to build much taller & wider buildings than what is allowed in strict & stubborn Vancouver, BC, a curious thing has happened over the decades. When a tall tower is built in another city, next to it will be a Vancouver size stump of a building. However, the Vancouver stump isn't always part of the complex, The Vancouver Size Stump might be across the street or a block or so away. Yet, such a stumpy building can provide an excellent example of the larger scale that most big cities are allowed to exist upon.

The Royal_Banck_Centre_in_Vancouver, B.C. The windows only go up to the 36th floor, but there are 3 more levels above that. It's only 475 feet in height and equivalent to 39 floors..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Centre_(Vancouver) "The skyscraper stands at just under 145m tall and 37 storeys. Royal Centre was the tallest building in Vancouver upon completion in 1973..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Canadian_Place The windows go up to 72 stories, plus a few levels above that. The BMO tower in Toronto is about twice the height of the RBC in Vancouver. The 32 story BMO tower in Vancouver is a stump when compared to the 72 story BMO tower in TO.

The Scotia_Tower in Vancouver, stands at 138 m or 35 storeys tall and completed in 1977.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Scotia_Tower_Vancouver The windows only go up to 34, but there are a few levels above that. The Toronto version has its windows go right to the 68th floor. Its twice the height & twice the width as the stump in backwater Vancouver.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia_Plaza 275 m (902 ft) with 68 floors.

A Vancouver Size stump in tall Toronto.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_Tower It's a 36 storey 146 m (479 ft) tower in the First Canadian Place complex of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Due to the strict zoning restrictions in Vancouver, its difficult to even have an office building with 36 floors.

A Vancouver Size Stump in Perth, WA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_Tower,_Perth It's a 40-storey skyscraper in Perth, Western Australia. Completed in 1992, the 146-metre (479 ft). Stubborn Vancouver just won't permit any office building to have a 40th floor.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Perth_skyline_from_KS1%2C_November_2017.jpg The former AMP has become a stump in Perth, yet in Vancouver, it would still be a predominant tower.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/140_St_Georges_Terrace "140 St Georges Terrace is a 30-storey skyscraper in Perth, Western Australia. Opened in 1975, the 131-metre (430 ft) tower was known as the AMP Building..."

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Elizabeth_Quay_February_2016_%28cropped%29.jpg/640px-Elizabeth_Quay_February_2016_%28cropped%29.jpg The former AMP is a good example the stump size building that stubborn Vancouver wants to hold onto.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/AMP_Bankwest_gnangarra.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Perth

https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/perths-mining-boom-to-blame-for-lack-of-heritage-20130315-2g4xl.html

Vancouver is a very tiny part of the BC land area. Even in the Greater Vancouver Region, Vancouver is a small component. Thus, while stubborn Vancouver wants to keep its stumpy agenda, other BC cities are more accepting of allowing significantly taller structures. https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1&status=15

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=stump

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Queensland vs. BC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland#Transport

Though it might be hard to believe, World_Expo_88 in Brisbane was much more of a catalyst than Expo_86 was for Vancouver. That's because unlike Brisbane, Vancouver imposed & doubled down on various infrastructure restrictions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Expo_88#History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_86#Legacy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia#Transportation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland#Cities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia#Cities

After the Expo 88, Brisbane would go onto allowing significantly taller buildings, wider roads and especially longer trains than what backwards Vancouver is still stuck with. Of course Queensland would have larger port infrastructure than backwater BC as well.

Perhaps Australia is able to get things done on a bigger & better scale than Canada, because of the warmer year-round weather. Unfortunately, backwards Vancouver & backwater BC seem to be hindered by something like a Mind Virus.

https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/australia/canada

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/commentary/heres-why-australians-make-more-money-canadians Fortunatly, Canada hasn't been able to convince Australia, NZ, UK, USA & France to remove blue from their national flag. Japan is surrounded by water & Switzerland has lakes & rivers, but even a speck of blue isn't allowed on the national flag.

https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2009/jun/pdf/bu-0609-4.pdf

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11f0027m/11f0027m2003018-eng.pdf

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Brisbane

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Queensland

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Brisbane+Airport+Railway+Line