Australias Lost Backyard : Cultural Decline or just a Sign Of The Times?
Most older Australians would fondly remember playing in their backyard as a kid. Running around outside kicking a ball around or enjoying a game of backyard cricket has been part of our Cultural Heritage for over a century. Just like the good old Aussie barbeque (which was usually held in the backyard too) with a few snags (sausages) and/or beers, enjoying the outdoors and the great Australian weather that comes with living in this beautiful part of the world has been part of our National Identity for as long as I can remember.
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My family home growing up didn’t have a huge backyard as we were on a sloping block but it was still a decent size. We had enough room for a swing set and a sprinkler to run around and we had this easement that ran down the side of our house which my brother and I spent many hours riding our billy carts down. Sometimes we’d crash spectacularly at the bottom, but that’s the thing about grass – it’s soft, and there were never any serious injuries. Ours wasn’t a yard for backyard cricket, but it was still big enough to enjoy and there was always the mates house down the road for cricket or ball games so we didn’t miss out on the outdoor fun. I had a very good childhood in a great neighbourhood which I am very grateful for.
Now that I’m living the #DadLife I want my kids to be able to have a great childhood in a great neighbourhood and enjoy the outdoors too. We currently live in a very old house (some speculate in the vicinity of 100 years!) but it sits on a big, flat, grassy block and I bought it with my wife 12 years ago which was pre-kids and even pre-marriage. It was always going to be a fixer-upper and a long term investment so over the years we’ve fixed it up and it’s turned out to be a GREAT investment. Now that we’ve got kids I’m enjoying the fact they can play outside and when other kids come over for “Play Dates” they always seem to revel in the space our big backyard offers.
But the problem is that we’re growing out of our old cottage house. I’ve always tried to be a bit of a minimalist and am happy with a pretty basic lifestyle. I don’t need a lot of “Stuff” and I actually like to be able to walk to the shops, or the pub, or even the bus stop if I need to go further. But it’s not about me anymore. We’ve started looking for the “Next House” that we can grow into and I am shocked and appalled by what I am seeing. Just South of where I live is an earmarked “Growth Corridor” where old farmland is being broken up into new estates. I’m not talking about a handful of new estates here either, I’m talking about dozens of them. There are 6 new primary schools being planned in this area and almost as many village centres. It’s going to be big and there are going to be opportunities for both investment and good living for young families….well, I hope.
Have a look at the sales plan for one of these estates above. The bulk of the block sizes are about 450 square meters, in fact I reckon that over 95% of these new blocks in all these estates would be under 500 square meters. For most of the estates that I’ve seen built recently the bulk of this space is taken up by the house. Now sure, new and big houses are all well and good, but the backyards are gone! We’ve been looking at places and one of the key criterion is that the backyard needs to be able to fit the kids trampoline and swing set (seen at the back in the photo above) and many of them can’t even do that. Have a look at this satellite photo of one of these estates nearing completion.
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You can see how tiny, or non-existent these backyards are while across the road there is a massive expanse of farmland (which is earmarked for further development). There is no shortage of land here, this is about cramming as many big houses on small blocks as is possible. I’m not sure if I should be angry at the developers, the council who approved it all, or just the average Australian in the market who is seemingly content to keep buying and building out these places. What we are going to get in this country is a whole generation of kids growing up without one of the basic, and taken for granted, icons of Australia – the backyard! This is what I would call a cultural decline and a drop in living standards….but maybe it’s just a sign of the times and nobody cares.
We built on 800sqm, so reasonable sized backyard, but sloping.
The kids get plenty of oval time at school and the park nearby, also both sets of grandparents are close.
Expect to see this trend reverse after the housing bubble bursts. The internet means more people working from home, so less interested in living near the CBD.
I only drive into Adelaide 3 times a week.
If that gets down to 1, I'd be happy to live 3 hours away.
If I never have to come in, I could live anywhere there's internet available.
Nice. 800sqm is a good size. You've done well and as someone who also works from home I couldn't agree more. I live only 10 mins from the CBD but I might be (un)lucky to travel there once a month, and usually for a restaurant or bar to catch up with friends. I could very happily live anywhere right now.
Not sure if you saw the report that @choogirl posted, but there was an interesting note on page 31 :-
Sounds like you guys are getting it right over there, but maybe you're the exception to the norm....
It all comes down to the economic rent of land (which everyone including most economists ignore). Basically developers are collecting all the windfall gains in land values as peripheral land is rezoned residential. They are maximising their potential return from each sale by increasing the size of the house, rather than the size of the lot. Under the old system, the property owners would collect those gains, so the bigger the plot, the more that property owner would gain from uplifts in land value. (This is not ideal for society either, but I won't go into it now.)
This situation is not because of rising demand for places with no backyards. It is done to decrease the price of a house while enriching the developer. However, since these suburbs typically don't have the facilities that families want, they tend to attract a lower socio-demographic group, which likely leads lead to even greater social polarisation.
At the end of the day, the whole Western system is now highly distorted towards an economy based on rent-seeking, which is why we have booms and busts and ridiculous house prices in the first place. And banks and government policies facilitate this. I am thinking of doing a series of thought leadership type pieces on this very topic, but there is a lot to cover, so I need to think about how to structure it in a logical way.
In the meantime, you might find this Griffith University report on Australia's disappearing backyards interesting.
Wow @choogirl you are a gem! That report is excellent and it pretty much touches on all of my grievances. I now have a whole heap of
ammunitiondiscussion points, metrics and methodology that I can use to evaluate these new suburbs and estates we are looking at. I can't thank you enough.I hope you do find time to write your thought leadership pieces. I know the subject matter might seem daunting, even dour - but these are important topics to explore IMHO.
You're welcome. Land economics links to EVERYTHING that's happening in our economy and society, which fascinates me. Once you see it, it's pretty obvious. But like I said, most economists and market commentators ignore it (and there are reasons why) which is why I want to write about it.
I look forward to reading about it.
Excellent report
Page 24 onwards I think is what really starts getting into it as far as tackling the answers to WHY?
Personally, I feel that it is all "money talks".
Municipalities want more money, this is a quick source of easy income and the "developers" (building lobby) is all for it.
Works out kind of great for everyone, from the politicians who are in the municipalities, to the "developers" and the only people missing out are the families of Australia who have to BBQ out in some park somewhere if BBQs are allowed in that park so as to enjoy a nice afternoon with family and friends.
Kinda, simplified I know, but why beat around the bush, MONEY TALKS!
Personally, I am beginning to feel very alienated as far as this goes, mateship seems to have been put in second place to greed way too often and then add to that things like this, I see that things are changing, but not for the better.
At this rate, soon enough people will be having to buy oxygen in a can because there are no trees to let mother nature do its thing, as all the yards are going to be so small that even some shrub with some weeds around it will be considered to be "a nice garden"!
The size of the yards is baffling but I also wonder where did all of these people come from? Where were they before?
I was in Aus living in Canberra from 2002-2007. We were literally on the northern edge of town. There was our suburb and across the main road was bush. Kangaroos and all. We had a Woolworth’s anchoring a small town center nearby but the place literally had a dirt car park. A
Circus would put up a tent there once a year.
Now fast forward 10 years.... on our visit back last November the small woolies is just one shop surrounded by apartments and a medium sized shopping mall. All the bush is suburbs. EIGHT new suburbs in fact with miles of houses like you describe. And schools and ovals and small shops and apartments and town homes. And I just wonder where the f-ck did all of these people come from?
Good luck finding the perfect next spot for your family. I hope it has a bit of personality and a yard!
Thanks @dfinney it is quite amazing how population growth has exploded in some areas. I guess it is part of our Big Australia Policy but I won't start ranting about that today :)
Ahh Big Australia. I remember some poli back then giving a speech saying all Australians should have three babies. One for mum, one for dad and one for the country. 😄 It creeped me out.
I still remember former Vic premier Jeff Kennett telling school girls that motherhood was a career!
Yep, that would have been Peter Costello I think. Then Kevin Rudd coined the idea "Big Australia" and it's been the way we've padded our GDP ever since. Population Growth = GDP Growth = Politicians able to claim they are doing a good job.
It is so odd to me that Kevin Rudd became prime minister. Just because when I lived there he was on Sunrise everyday as a commentator.
It's happening everywhere my friend.
BIG BACK GARDENS = LESS PROFIT
It's as simple as that! We bought our last house 2 yrs ago when the boy was just a few month old. Like you, I grew up in a house where the back garden was "everything", a race track, a bmx track, a rugby pitch, a wrestling ring......
So I've always wanted my kid(s) to have the room to play, build and explore. We were very lucky with the house in that it backs on to a river and the land at the back's only access is via our garden. So I've obviously claimed that too 😉.
I don't know what the answer is, maybe future demand will force building companies to offer/include larger gardens, but I'll bet that will come at a premium.
The world has gone to shit, its just that 99% havnt realised it yet!!
Yes, it does seem to be coming down to money. You've got the right idea though. I've also been thinking about strategically buying a place near some kind of public or shared land so that even if we don't get a big backyard we can "spill over" into it if we need to.
At this stage I'm happy to pay the premium. Don't see a lot of point in moving to a bigger house if our overall living standards are going to drop!
Mate, tell me about it.
I'm house hunting and it's a bloody joke what the so called plots of land look like, especially when I read "Big spacious block of land..... 405m2"
WTFH IS THAT ALL ABOUT?
I seriously am getting totally depressed about this BS that is going on back home, it is literally killing me.
Looks like I'm going to die a bloody stranger in "my own backyard".
Just saying it as it is and earlier today I mentioned "the cricket match out in the street" and I remembered the old tin rubbish bins we used to use as wickets and so on.
Nostalgia and heartache at its worst.
Life in this country is changing pretty quick. I hope the general population can overcome it's apathy to do something about it. We just seem to be discounting our own history and culture so much in recent times, but we just need people to realise that we can be proud of our heritage without becoming white supremacists. It seems everyone else is allowed to be proud of their culture except us.
Anyway, I won't rant at you. All the best finding your own patch of paradise. I hope you can fall back in love with this place when you get back.
Supremacists?
How the hell did you even get onto that topic?
Where did that come from?
What did someone claim that your post is "racist" or something, seriously, if someone said anything of the sort then they are the "ignorant idiots", just the term "whites are racists" is "racist" and totally ignorant in itself.
So if for whatever reason anyone suggests anything of the sort, tell them to "bug off"!
You've been away for a while mate? I won't go into it here, but if you want a teaser, just pop "It's OK to be white" into the old google and see what comes up.
tbh, life is toooo short to waste on negativity and overall stupidity.
The only racism I know and agree with is "if a person is an asshole or not" end of that story.
Hey, @buggedout.
I don't know how long building on smaller and smaller plots has been going on in Australia, but where I live in the US, it's been going on for years, and I don't live in a larger urban area. In fact, my town is still mainly rural, and while our lots were larger, the newer homes are ending up with smaller and smaller plots.
In other areas around us, though, they're down to the areas you describe. There's enough pressure to provide greenways and parks in developments, though, that some land, not a whole lot at times, gets allocated for that. Even so, you don't see kids running around outdoors that much.
I think with the advent of video games, social media, television on demand, etc., more and more kids want to stay indoors anyway. So, you have a perfect storm of different things happening all at once, and apparently Australia has been on the tail end of it.
I'm told it's called progress. To me, it's more like regress. Get less for more.
Yes, I think it is a bit of regression going on too. That's why I called it cultural decline.
I'm an IT guy and when I was a teenager in particular my parents used to have a go at me for spending too much time playing on the computer or watching TV when it was sunny outside, but I still appreciated the outdoors - especially when I was younger. My own girls are similar - they have some time on the ipad and TV at night or when its cold/raining, but they love to get out in the sun and frolic so I don't really buy too much into the argument that kids are changing due to technology.
It's probably more of a cause and effect. We'll see what your girls do as they get older, too. My boys loved to be outside up until they got old enough to like video games, and then Mom or Dad had to make sure they got outside and played. It helped that they had some school friends for most of their middle school years living in the neighborhood. When we moved, and actually had a large yard, they were in high school and didn't want to get out much. The oldest suffers from allergies, and so that didn't help things, either.
So, anyway, in my experience, it's fairly common for older kids to no longer want to be outside (unless they can hang with friends), even if screen time is restricted.
Holy shit! Big backyard equiped with old school hills hoist. My childhood memories ... 10 extra points if you have redbacks living around that shed.
I feel like Australian culture has been reduced to nothing more than a meme. It's proudly advertised, but when I walk outside my house I can't see it (I'm in Sydney). I have to go search it out and that search gets harder and harder every year.
Yep, I've squished a few of those over the years so I'll bank the extra 10 :)
I know what you mean about it getting harder, and you can understand why I am so reluctant to let this place go. What we really want is a new house on an old block, but I haven't seen any of those around these parts.
When I was in Australia visiting family - with a huge backyard - they said that Melbourne would soon have "unaustralian" blocks of flats to house al new people. Otherwise the commuting to work would take too long was the reason behind. So the growing population is casuing this. That was 8 years ago….
I do think that what is going on is a bit unaustralian. Hopefully commuting will be less of an issue when we have more remote workers, but no doubt population growth is playing a part.
I moved from the UK to Poland for this very reason, and I bought so much land here that I can not even see the end of it, and some woods we own I have never even found (yet) and all of this was less than the price of a crappy house in Birmingham, with a backyard like your photos above.
It was and is the best move I ever made, as we even have some summer here, not just bloody rain lol.
Good on you. I have definitely been tempted to move to a more remote area or even another country so we can have a proper tree-change, but I don't want to be too far from our ageing parents. Finding that compromise is tough though.
Well it is funny you say that, half of, my problem with moving here was the fact my mother was over 70 years old, and it is always me that steps in and looks after her when required. Since I left that position she has re married, and now every year she comes to see us for 2 weeks, and I get to spend more time with her in that 2 weeks, than I did in 1 year, when I was living down the road in the UK, working 60 hours a week, like you have to in the UK. :-)
Indeed it is sad. I can't imagine a childhood without backyard cricket. I think the change is a result of increasing property prices making larger blocks more expensive, people's lifestyles - more content with apartment living and the abundance of technology that takes up leisure time that was otherwise occupied by time spent outside.
The bubble in the property market is playing a big role no doubt. Everyone seems to be desperate for "affordable housing" we seem to be content with sacrificing our quality of life. Hopefully it will change back for the better soon.