Sensational-Adelaide.com

Has anyone thought about this before...

If Australia ever gets in a major war. Who would be one of the biggest targets?



Its usually the industrius ones. The ones that build the weapons for war. We now have what 70% of all defense contracts, a new battalion, warships, subs, other battalions.


Not to mention in the case of war, factories such as holden get switched to war time production.



In summary. Your in a bit of trouble if you live in the norther suburbs or Osborne/North Haven.

There's a shit load of land or sea to cross before anyone gets here. That should give the ADF plenty of time to neutralise the incoming threat....

Which is why Adelaide gets so much of this stuff! Apparently the Adelaide-Darwin line was built in part to service military needs.

South Australia is strategically and possibly the best location for the centralisation of military industry and possibly even intelligence.

rogue wrote:There's a shit load of land or sea to cross before anyone gets here. That should give the ADF plenty of time to neutralise the incoming threat....

If a war ever gets serious this century we wont need to be looking north, south, east and west. To the sea or to the land.


Only up.


Long range missles could wipe out our defence areas in a matter of seconds.

Very interesting thread, appreciate the information guys/gals.

To give some perspective- I'm a Gawler East boy now living in Tulsa, Oklahoma due to marriage, and we are in the process of buying a house.

4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms- list price is about 135K (USD), approx. 203K AUD at the time of posting (although that's kind of meaningless I know).

Point being, you can't find a shitty home in Gawler for under 200K, and probably not a good one under 250+. That's pretty insane.

I would LOVE to move back to Gawler, Adelaide, anywhere in SA- but it's insanely expensive- the worst part being the ridiculous house prices (and I guess mortgage rates). People over here consider 130K the average sort of price. And lenders are fairly reasonable esp. given the credit crisis here.

It kills me that Australia has become so unaffordable in the past 5-10 years, mainly housing, but everything else as well. I can't even live in my own country.

I don't think the housing prices are sustainable by a long shot- keep in mind all the debt we Aussies have on credit, and sooner or later the credit has to run out- as happened recently over here in the States.
The major difference is that smaller purchase items such as electronics are very cheap over here, as is pretty much everything except certain food items, whereas in Oz almost everything except healthcare and education is unaffordable- and those are trending away also.

I just don't know how the country is in business- don't get me wrong, I love my country and would live in Adelaide over anywhere any day- and would love to.

But I just don't get how the next generation of Adelaideians/Australians are going to afford housing and bills and food, let alone any sort of luxury purchase- if the answer is more credit the country is sure to bubble to insane proportions by 2020 (and it seems we're almost there now).

Thoughts? I'm just so torn- I'd love to move home but don't think I can find work or afford a house- I was unemployed on Centrelink in Gawler and within a month became a Manager of an electronics store over here.

Regards, and hello from Tulsa,
- Spike

Sorry for the double-post, but this is a different comment:

In response to the concern over housing in Gawler East, I have 2 opposing thoughts:
1. Extra housing is needed to satisfy the demand for living in Gawler (it's predicted to double its' population in the next few years) and to drive down housing costs.
2. Adding more dwellings to an increasingly crowded town will ruin the lifestyle of Gawler and make it another crowded town like many other parts of the Northern Suburbs.

I don't know what the solution to Gawler's woes are. It's changed so much from when I was a kid, it's barely recognisable- everything's so expensive, so many of the idyllic spots have been trashed or not looked after well, and the nice shopping center got replaced by Woolies/Big W (although that's kind of nice for the convenience). I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Off-topic- don't suppose anyone knows anyone high-up in Dick Smith's or Tandy? I work for the equivalent company in the US and would love an 'in'.

Regards,
- Spike

Hi Spikey!

I've just been reading a book about America's sprawl problems called "Home From Nowhere" and I think it touches on the point you make in your second post about having opposing thoughts. It seems like the only choice we are given a lot of the time is either no development or poor development - and neither of these choices is any good. I feel really worried about what seems to be happening in Gawler - it sounds like the town is being given the "poor development" option - and this, in turn can spook people into opposing any developments, even those that might be good for a town. You say that adding more dwellings to the town will ruin the lifestyle, but the more I read on this subject the more I am convinced it's not the growth itself that is the problem, but the way it is done. Sadly, it seems like things are not being done so well in Gawler, regarding this particular project - the fact that the townspeople are having trouble getting their concerns heard sounds serious alarm bells for me. Just sticking the houses down, with no thought to things like loss of good, arable land or the impact on small business from the arrival of chains, just stinks - I really hope the people of Gawler agitate for the consultation they feel they are not getting.

I really feel for you about wanting to move home. I guess the affordability factor depends on where you live in the US. Even with the financial crisis, Washington State (at least in Seattle) is as expensive for property as Adelaide (maybe moreso) and the food is around as expensive. But I do wonder what will happen in Australia in future too - things have certainly gone to hell here in the US. I am hoping that our stronger regulations on mortgage lending in Aus will save us from having the scale of meltdown that happened in the US - don't really know what what I'm talking about here though Employment on the other hand..it really does seem much easier to get a job in the US..but...honestly...if it came down to it..I would rather be broke in Australia than stay here forever..that's not much help though

Welcome to the site. We drove through Oklahoma over summer and had some nice BBQ in Oklahoma City
Cheers, Caroline

Hey Caroline,

Thanks for the extensive reply, much appreciated.

It seems like the only choice we are given a lot of the time is either no development or poor development - and neither of these choices is any good. I feel really worried about what seems to be happening in Gawler - it sounds like the town is being given the "poor development" option - and this, in turn can spook people into opposing any developments, even those that might be good for a town. You say that adding more dwellings to the town will ruin the lifestyle, but the more I read on this subject the more I am convinced it's not the growth itself that is the problem, but the way it is done.

Unfortunately this is just another in a long line of poor development in the town. First we had the Big W/Woolworths (aka Walmart) shopping centre in the middle of the town, which was good for consumers in one sense- options, prices- but made the town more of a concrete jungle and lost the town a lot of its' identity without adding all that much.

Next about a year ago the State Government pushed through its' "Urban Growth Boundary" idea, which is complicated but basically meant they would take green belt land and undeveloped land in Gawler and some other parts of the State (mainly Gawler) and turn it into residential housing, approximately doubling the population from an already congested town with a very unsustainable outlook. Very concerning, and I was one of the 'concerned residents' you speak of who attended meetings and the like. Since moving I'm not sure what came of it but I can only assume it was passed. I love our State Government but hate their attitude to development.
It will add to further sprawl in the State and is a disaster.

Then we have this- which sounds actually like the latest bit of the urban expansion deal- and sounds like they've reduced the original intent. I'm out of touch on the story but it looks like this is an improvement over the original idea.

So maybe this could be good. Obviously, the way the Government deals with the community is a bit of a disaster- they tell them it's good for them and do it, when they could at least pretend to listen and win a lot more friends that way.

I'm curious now- 2500 homes is a heck of a lot better than they were suggesting back late last year- who knows, maybe this could be a positive boost for the State/area. I'll have to look more into it/ask family/friends.

Couple of other things:
- Small business in Australia isn't the same as small business over here- small business in Oz (at least Gawler) are usually expensive and limited in selection- I guess due to the geography.
So I don't really worry about them- if anything they'll make more money.
- Yes, things have gone to hell in the States. People seem very paranoid, uncertain, similar adjectives commentators like to use ( ), and it's really not a fun place to be, especially Oklahoma which is populated by a bunch of extremely right-wing people- for my fellow Australians think Family First or even Pauline Hanson.
- No, the broke comment isn't much help, but it is sweet, thankyou It's pretty much my thoughts anyway.

Question: Did you live in Adelaide at one point? I'm curious how someone from Seattle found this board.

And BTW- I like the US, and it's a great place to live if you like the stuff that Americans do- but for me, Tulsa is just such a stark contrast to Adelaide in so many ways- it's really disappointing. I miss the cosmopolitan feel in particular, as well as the food. This food gets old FAST. ;P Even that barbecue!

Regards,
- Spike

Hiya Spike,

The Queen and I are from Adelaide, we moved over here for a while just because the time seemed right to see a different part of the world.

Gawler is the sort of place that's vulnerable when growth happens. For a long time it was probably just a bit too far from Adelaide for it to be attractive as an option for people to work in town and commute from Gawler. Now that's changed, maybe people are just more comfortable with the idea of driving all that way everyday. Then people from the city see these areas that have cheaper land and offer an attractive country town and decide that this is the place that they can go to build a house bigger than the one they could afford in town. The areas are still cheap when you compare them to Unley, but not cheap compared to Gawler twenty years ago. Worse still, it could start to become "bedroom communities" - the places that people "live" in only at night, and empty out by day when they go to work. The Queen feels like this is alarmingly like Australia sneaking it's way closer to America's style of development that has produced too many lifeless cities surrounded by enormous suburbs (that end up using valuable agricultural and natural areas); she totally agrees with you about sprawl being a disaster (I'm the Royal Typist tonight )

This is the reason that I'm not interested in seeing high-speed rail connecting Adelaide to the Barossa, Murray Bridge, or Victor Harbor. That just makes them targets for this same pattern.

But housing affordability is a real problem, and it's very hard to address it through development. A developer is a business, they want to maximise their profits. It's far easier to do that by selling to the top-end of the market than by selling to the affordable end. It takes a long time for this to lower prices; basically it takes waiting for the new stuff to age enough to become affordable.

The situation in America is different for a few reasons:

• America's economy is underpinned by inexpensive Hispanic labour, especially in the building and farming trades. That is their ugly little secret.
• Tract development (where a developer buys a big parcel of land and then builds the same house over and over) is cheap, but makes for boring areas.

And don't forget that the average wages in the States is lower than you'd expect (it always surpises me, anyway), so housing isn't as affordable here as you might think by just comparing house prices. Especially when you factor in the burden that owning and running multiple cars puts on families in these areas.

All in all, I don't like hearing anybody saying that Australia should be as "productive" as America's housing market. If you acheive that at the expense of uninsured labourers getting below minimum wage to build ghastly nightmares, they can keep it. What's the alternative for affordability? I wish I had an answer for that problem, I'm still looking for it

JamesXander wrote:

rogue wrote:There's a shit load of land or sea to cross before anyone gets here. That should give the ADF plenty of time to neutralise the incoming threat....

If a war ever gets serious this century we wont need to be looking north, south, east and west. To the sea or to the land.


Only up.


Long range missles could wipe out our defence areas in a matter of seconds.

Hence the building of the Missile Defence Systems and Australia's JORN system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jindalee_o ... izon_radar

Gidday,

On page 4 of this thread I posted a post of the sizes of the land that had been released by the Government.
Gawler East 320 Hectares
Concordia 500 Hectares
Evanston Gardens 179 Hectares.

Roughly it workes out to 2500 homes in Gawler East.
4000 homes for Concordia approx.
And about 1250 homes in Evanston Gardens.

Regards,

bm7500 wrote:Hence the building of the Missile Defence Systems and Australia's JORN system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jindalee_o ... izon_radar

I love that when they first set up Jinderlee the operators called the US Airforce and said that they could see the spy planes.

"No No No you can't!" complained the US.
"Yes we can." said our intrepid DSTO boffins, "There's one and there's one..."
" " said the USAF.

Sorry to go off topic, but speaking of the military, this cracks me up every time i read it...

Two Hunter traffic patrol officers from Newcastle LAC were involved in an unusual incident while checking for speeding motorists on the F3 Freeway. One of the officers used a hand-held radar device to check the speed of a vehicle approaching over the crest of a hill, and was surprised when the speed was recorded at over 800Kph. Their radar suddenly stopped working and the officers were not able to reset it.

Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar had in fact latched on to a Williamtown FA-18 fighter jet which was engaged in a low-flying exercise over Wyong, approaching from the ocean.

Back at police headquarters the Local Area Commander fired off a stiff complaint to the RAAF Liaison officer at Williamtown.

Back came the reply in true laconic RAAF style:

'Thank you for your message, which allows us to complete the file on this incident. You may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Hornet had detected the presence of, and subsequently locked onto, your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a jamming signal back to it. Furthermore, an air-to-ground missile aboard the fully-armed aircraft had also automatically locked onto your equipment.

Fortunately the pilot flying the Hornet recognised the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile systems alert status, and was able to override the automated defence system before the missile was launched and your hostile radar installation was destroyed.

Thank you for your enquiry.'

Good morning,

A recent report in the Barossa Herald states that a new Shopping centre is due to open on Carlton road in 2009, June I believe. This would be an ideal place for a bus service to a new Railway Station at Railway Terrace Kalbeeba to pick up and set down passengers for the Gawler East railway Extension that the gawler council and the SA Government are negotiating on.
This would service the new Delfin Development when it gets off the ground.

Regards,