Chop and change

YARRA Glen residents are reported to have raised their eyebrows over the removal of 10 oak trees along Bell Street north, opposite Symons Street, making room for a 28-lot building development (Mountain Views Mail, 17 February, 2015).
Young Australians are desperate to find affordable land near their central business district or inner-suburban professional jobs.
Older Australians are downsizing and reverse mortgaging all their assets, fearing an imminent age-pension crisis.
Everyone needs shelter, somewhere, so Yarra Glen complainants opposing such generous site development are simply barking up the wrong tree.
The Yarra Glen and District Men’s Shed Inc. made its own civil wishes widely known and today leases a 222 square metre building from Yarra Ranges Council.
About 28 distinguished district gentlemen gather for occasional hobbies and conversation.
Nearby, native trees continue to ‘disappear’.
Real estate advertising received in my letterbox (minus an Australia Post stamp and postmark) shows 22 of 28 building sites on ‘The Glen Estate’ are very small: 500 square metres (or a little more) with many less than 600 square metres.
Lots number 15-19, 22, 25 and 26 are hardly big enough for a kennel and a carport.
Where will the conditional native trees be planted?
Is there enough room?
Yarra Glen residents have ‘no grounds’ for complaint about property development.
Land sales are a prime local industry.
These pocket-size lots will make excellent portable dwelling spaces for transient fruit-pickers who only stay a while.
Lots 15 to 19 are tailor-made for a two-storey strip of townhouses, where sprightly retirees can watch the Yarra Valley horse races.
Noel Buchanan,
Yarra Glen.