Ballan dome roundhouse
 
 
 
A Day in the Life of...Me.  The ROUNDHOUSE My dome Roundhouse had a bit of a struggle to get to where it is today. I had originally wanted to build seven small domes for rent on another block of land I have in Ballan at 21 Atkinson St. This is a half acre which is currently on the market. It will take 8 units and someone could buy it for $225,000. If you are interested please contact me on 61 (0) 425 717 250 or email: clarkeal@ozemail.com.au It took a long time for me to understand that even if I produced designs that were good for the town, some people would object. Planning now on the half acre is a lot easier as the State Government designated Ballan a growth town and it is a lot easier to get unit developments through. So I am pleased now to have gone ahead with a design where it was not necessary to directly consult the council, as it fits in with the current building requirements. I had originally wanted to put seven small one bedroom units on my half acre of land at 21 Atkinson St, but there was overwhelming opposition to those. People said that Ballan never has strong enough winds to warrant the strength of the dome construction. I was surprised to find out from a local builder that in recent times, the western fence on the western adjoining block to 21 Atkinson St was indeed picked up by a small tornado and dumped miles away - so far away in fact it was never found. I am surprised the local opponents of the domes, had conveniently forgotten about this in their statements at the time. In speaking with the lady who owns the mudbrick house two properties to the east, she said she lost her roof during one lot of violent weather, meaning that damage of major proportions does occur in Ballan because of the wind. Of course during September and October 2002 Ballan and district had ferocious winds, just as they had in August 2007 and several other times since I have been living here. They may not have knocked any buildings down in Ballan, but they did damage trees (knocking many down) all over the shire. Out in Blackwood I understand the damage was very severe. Indeed there was a publican who lost part of his building near Melton. These winds occur during the change of seasons from winter to spring. Normally the most ferocious occur out in the Tasman Sea during the meeting of various wind types. But, according to the meterologists who spoke on the radio at the time, every three years or so these wind conflicts occur not in the ocean but over the mainland, which give rise to the large winds. So it may not be an annual wind conflict in Ballan, but certainly is every few years. So my concept of the dome construction is well worth using - for you really only need a bad set of winds once every 50 years that destroys buildings to make the dome worthwhile for protection of property, possessions and most importantly as a place for people to shelter safely during such times. When the Council decided to oppose the seven units, I put an application for 8 rectangle units with peaked roofs which were the sort of buildings the principal dome opponents said they would prefer. Even though these fitted Council building guidelines and were in line with the demands of those around, the same opponents to the domes came out in opposition to the units. I had wanted at least one of the three bedroom units to be used by my brother Cal and his family, who were facing eviction from their house in Kew, the former Police Station in Studley Park, because the state Labor Government had decided to demolish the building rather than keep it in good repair for its heritage value and they are putting to Parliament a special bill to do so in the coming months. (In the end they turned it into a halfway house for drug addicts). So I was very annoyed to see a letter from the principal opponent criticising me for suggesting that family members would occupy some of the units. This was particularly so as Cal’s step-daughter, Nisha, who is epiletic, had just had an accident where she received third degree burns to a large part of her body and was in Prince Alfred Hospital waiting to undergo skin graft and other operations - and where she has remained for two months. Because of the Labor government actions and Nisha’s accident, Cal and his wife Ashland, were frantic about what would happen in the coming months. So I was particularly upset by the comments I read in the paper about my unit proposal by that opponent. Moorabool Council normally have their meetings once a month. I had planned a holiday in Noumea and Auckland leaving Australia on Friday 7th March 2003 and returning early in the morning of Wednesday 19th March, which was a period when I knew they did not have their meetings. It was while I was in Noumea on Friday 14th March that I rang my brother Lowen, who told me the Council had rejected the units. I was indeed flabbergasted. I had not been informed there was to be a Council meeting and had no knowledge my matter was to be put before it. Certainly no letter was received at my house in Steiglitz Street before I left for my office on Friday morning from where I went direct to the airport. There had not been a phone call from any of the council officers to say either there had been three objections or more or that the matter was going from the council officers to the council. If I had received any notice whatsomever, I would have requested the matter be put to the following Council meeting. The fact the meeting was taking place at all had something to do with a recent decision of Council to meet twice a month instead of once a month - a decision taken by Council after I had made my bookings for Noumea and Auckland - thus meaning I had made my bookings in the light of council meeting policy at the time. About a fortnight beforehand I had spoken to the local councillor at a meeting in Ballan where he was canvassing support for the opening of a new abbatoir on the industrial estate. I had asked the only poignant questions at the meeting about whether the 500 metre rule still applied and would it affect development on my five acres (opposite the station). He said it would not affect it so I decided to vote in favour which greatly relieved him to think that I would not fight his proposals this time, as I had successfully done last time when the abbatoir was to be diagonally opposite my land. He did say to me that he recognised Ballan needed the 8 unit development, but felt he was torn in supporting it because some of the locals had said they would never speak to him again. I could see from these comments he was going to oppose the units anyway. In Moorabool there are only a few Councillors and from my discussions two years ago with the former Mayor the coucillors will normally follow the local councillor's lead as they regard him as being supreme in his balliwark. This is rather obnoxious because it means whatever the local man thinks (or fails to think) will be the policy. That was the case with the units. They were rejected with his lead. Now, of course, this allows him to feel he has continued to carry the support of his electorate, while he knows full well he has failed to implement Council planning policy, as the plans were in full accordance with policy. He knows that I can appeal to the Tribunal where I would probably win and then he can say to his consitituents that the ‘naughty old Tribunal’ gave permission against his wishes. This seems to be the way they want things done in Ballan and Moorabool. Besides the cynicism of their attitude, I decided not to follow their route for other reasons. It was not just an ordinary weather time when I rang from Noumea and found out about both the unusual meeting time, but also refusal to grant a planning permit. It was during the middle of the arrival of tropical cyclone Erica in Noumea. This was a particularly vicious cyclone. It unroofed many buildings and destroyed, uprooted and damaged thousands and thousands of trees. It caused widespread damage. I was able to view it from my hotel window on the Baie de Citrons, which normally is a placid swimming beach, but was turned into a surf beach by the wind with waves breaking nearly all the way to the road. Our French hosts had not told us the alerts were still in place when I followed a couple of other tourists down to the local shop (about 300 yards away) when the wind died down. While at the shop the winds suddenly picked up, with the young Vietnamese Frenchman becoming frantic as he needed to shut his shop and go to look after his mother during the cyclone. He would not let me walk in the wind and dropped me as near as he could to the hotel for trees had fallen across the road and were blocking his ability to get any closer. This meant I had to struggle for 100 yards in 200KM winds to reach the hotel. Aparently the calm in which I had walked to the shops was the Eye of the cyclone and the wind and damage was far worse as the second half, the part I had to struggle in for 100 yards, wrecked its havoc over Noumea. It was this cyclone plus my knowledge that the information on winds in Ballan had been vastly understated by the opponents to the domes and my knowledge of increasingly violent weather patterns caused by global warming (including the 500 MPH cyclone, the most ferocious ever recorded, that hit Vanuatu in February 2003) that I decided I must return to the dome concept for anything I built on this land. In a way it was a relief when the council rejected the rectangle buildings with apex roofs that I had drawn up in order to try and please the locals. This gave me the opportunity of course to rethink and plan the building that is now being constructed. As I had another day in Noumea followed by three in Auckland, I was able to draw up the basic concepts for the Roundhouse. As the Roundhouse is one house going onto a single block of land already zoned Residential, there was no need to consult the council. Rather it only needed a building permit. This I decided should be obtained in a manner detached from the council, by using one of the independent surveyors, rather than the council officers. This is a fairly large house, built in the dome or roundhouse style and will be known as The Roundhouse or Tony’s Roundhouse. It is large enough for me to provide the accommodation I wanted to provide to my relatives with accommodation as well as provide my father and I with a place to live. So it will be a family home. Yes I am moving into the Roundhouse myself. While I had originally decided to put it at 21 Atkinson St, I had a change of mind while walking to the train station to get myself out to the airport for a trip to the States. It dawned on me that I may lose my five acres to finance the house in Atkinson St and that it would be much better to build the house on the five acreas at 49B Walsh St and to sell the half acre instead. So I remembered one of the officers had told me they would only have to write to the two neighbours about a single house going on the five acres. I applied for a permit and was successful. I later changed the position on the land with a subsequent application so it was nearer the existing shed. This position has better views and is not so near the train line. I already had the airform onsite by this time and just used the existing house plan for the house on the five acres. The house also leaves room for plenty of gardens. One of the gardens that is being built is a labyrinth. This is a special meditation garden used by priests and brothers in some Christain church orders and comprises a set pathway that turns in and out on itself providing a 300 yard walkway in an area approx 50 ft by 50 ft. There is one of these at Campion Hall in Studley Park Road, Kew. Cal uses it often. He wants to have one of these garden areas with the house in Ballan. Mine will be much larger at about 180 ft diameter. Other parts of the garden will be lawns and also special areas for Australian birds and wildlife with Australian trees and shrubs so as to provide them sanctuary and good place to live. ANTHONY L CLARKE 10/11/07 Welcome page Welcome.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0
The dome house at 49B Walsh St Ballan - just at the back of the train station.