There’s $110 million for Indigenous education in the budget. But where’s the evidence it will work?
There’s $110 million for Indigenous education in the budget. But where’s the evidence it will work?
The 2024 federal budget contains A$110 million for Indigenous education. This includes funding for various different org...
Why Australia’s renewables revolution is behind schedule, and how to fix it
For years, the electricity sector has been the poster child for emissions cuts in Australia. The sector achieved a stunn...
Tone on Tuesday 209: Homes won’t solve homelessness.
In addition to the $9.3bn in last week’s federal budget for social housing (discussed in ToT 208 last week), there’s ano...
How NZ designed denser housing so that it's greener too
Cities across Aotearoa New Zealand are trying to solve a housing crisis, with increasing residential density a key solut...
How modern homes are innovating their floor plans
Here’s something a modern mansion, one storey house, and an apartment all have in common: innovation.
Our cities are widening the divide between the well-off and the rest. How can we turn this damaging trend around?
The “latte line” is the infamous, invisible boundary that divides Sydney between the more affluent north-east and the so...
Constructing the world’s tallest buildings creates high emissions
Since ancient times, people have built structures that reach for the skies – from the steep spires of medieval towers to...
Australia’s peatlands are under attack, decreasing carbon stores
Peatlands store more carbon per square metre than any other ecosystem on Earth. These waterlogged, mossy bogs beat even ...
Is urban infill development the panacea for Australia’s housing crisis?
Urban infill development that can deliver affordable and liveable homes could be the solution for Australia’s rising hou...
Tone on Tuesday 208: Good social housing delivered, dispersed, diverse, indistinguishable & durable
The Federal Government announced expenditure of $9.3bn for social housing in this year's budget. Bickering over whether ...
Grand designs? Why many Australian architects say their career makes them unhappy
For years there have been suggestions of widespread poor wellbeing among architects. In many ways this is not surprising...
Making merry: How we brought Melbourne’s Merri Creek back from pollution, neglect and weeds
I met with a friend for a walk beside Merri Creek, in inner Melbourne. She had lived in the area for a few years, and as...
Infrastructure boom means we need more project managers soon, says report
The Project Management Institute (PMI) 2024 Jobs Report shows that the need for project managers will increase in 2024 d...
Hundreds of cities have achieved zero road deaths in a year. Here’s how they did it
It’s National Road Safety Week and it comes on the back of a year in which 1,286 people died on Australian roads. The ri...
Design ideas to modernise a 1970s home
The 70s is considered a virtual golden age for home design and construction. Many houses built in the 70s are still occu...
Becoming a landlord while still renting? ‘Rentvesting’ promises a foot on the property ladder, but watch your step
As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver.
Flight to character: Homogeny is the enemy of purpose
In the handful of years since working from home suddenly became the ‘new normal’, the Flight to Quality has defined the ...
Electric vehicles will start to cut emissions and improve air quality in our cities – but only once they’re common
Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport.
Tone on Tuesday: Seeking sustainable suburbia 1: The power of solar
Suburbia is the least sustainable form of urban living. Houses spread out at such low densities that too much land, too ...
Our tall, wet forests were not open and park-like when colonists arrived – and we shouldn’t be burning them
Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Aust...
The best designed and most cost-effective heating solutions
Australia’s high energy costs, combined with the desire of many people to be part of the climate change solution, mean i...
The best way to protect your home from rising damp
Rising damp is a huge problem for older homes. Here is how to identify, treat and prevent rising damp from damaging your...
Cutting corners will result in a cycle of disposable development
Late last year, to the alarm of many, a 12-storey apartment block in North Melbourne, built just five years prior, was a...
What do we lose when our old suburbs disappear?
I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that ha...
Design Notes: Ideas, issues and idiocies from the last fortnight
The most recent upgrade to the NCC / BCA included requirements for houses and apartments to meet higher thermal comfort ...
Many Australians face losing their homes right now. Here’s how the government should help
An important principle was invoked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in defence of the government’s Future Made in Aust...
The dangerous impact of plastics goes way beyond landfills
The dangerous impact of plastics goes way beyond landfills and the environment – it’s no longer just about billions of p...
Gone in a puff of smoke: 52,000 sq km of ‘long unburnt’ Australian habitat has vanished in 40 years
Landscapes that have escaped fire for decades or centuries tend to harbour vital structures for wildlife, such as tree h...
Why research cuts at a South Australian institution have scientists up in arms
In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government fun...
Australia’s long-sought stronger environmental laws just got indefinitely deferred. It’s back to business as usual
We’ve long known Australia’s main environmental protection laws aren’t doing their job, and we know Australians want bet...
What are the smart devices that reduce energy bills?
While the Federal and NSW State Government recently implemented an all new ‘cost of living’ package to take the burden o...
Intense rain and flash floods have increased inland in eastern Australia
Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, e...
