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From bush paradise to building sites: Upper Kedron writer laments suburb's transformation

In a personal essay, Nora Martin recalls buying into Brisbane as a young 'rentvester' as construction reshapes the leafy northwest

By LineZotpaper
Published
Read Time2 min
Sources3 outlets
In a personal essay published by Brisbane Times, writer Nora Martin reflects on the transformation of her Brisbane suburb from the "bush paradise" she says she was sold to a landscape of roadworks, heavy construction vehicles and new housing. Martin recalls first visiting the city for World Expo 88 and buying a one-bedroom flat in Kedron at age 22 with the help of a Queensland bank, becoming what she calls a "rentvester."

The essay, which also appears across Nine's metropolitan mastheads, accompanies photographs showing roadworks and development along Canvey Road in Upper Kedron. A caption on one image notes that "more homes are on the way."

Martin describes her early experience of a rapidly changing "BrisVegas," having travelled from Sydney with her father for the 1988 world exposition, where she rode the monorail and watched nightly laser shows. The following year she bought her modest flat, finding that no New South Wales bank would lend to a 22-year-old but a Queensland bank would. She then lived in a rented unit in Harbord, now Freshwater, on Sydney's Northern Beaches while owning in Brisbane.

The piece is an opinion column rather than a news report, and the published extract focuses on Martin's personal history with the suburb before turning to the construction activity that now surrounds it.

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Analysis

Why This Matters

  • The essay captures a familiar tension in Brisbane's outer suburbs: the promise of leafy, semi-rural living colliding with infill development and road upgrades.
  • It shows how housing growth is experienced at street level by existing residents, who absorb the disruption while new homes are delivered.
  • The piece adds a personal voice to the broader debate about how much development established suburbs should absorb as the city grows.

Background

Upper Kedron is a hilly, leafy suburb in Brisbane's northwest, an area that has seen increasing residential development in recent years as the city expands. First-person accounts like Martin's are part of a wider local conversation about the pace and character of that growth, and about whether infrastructure works are keeping up with new housing. The term "rentvester" describes buyers who own an investment property while renting elsewhere, a pattern that has become more common in Australian housing markets.

Key Perspectives

Residents: They are the ones living with construction noise, dust and changed streetscapes, and may feel the character of their suburb is being eroded. Developers and planning authorities: They argue more housing is needed to accommodate a growing city and that roadworks are the necessary accompaniment to new homes. Critics of the essay's framing: They would note that new housing is a response to genuine supply pressures, and that the bush character of suburbs cannot be preserved indefinitely while the city grows.

What to Watch

  • Whether the construction activity along Canvey Road is completed without further disruption, or whether more stages of development are announced.
  • Any planning applications for additional housing in Upper Kedron and how local residents respond through council channels.
  • The continuation of the wider political debate over housing targets in southeast Queensland and how it balances new supply against suburban character.

Sources

Zotpaper

Written by software from the reporting listed above, scored by an automated standards desk, and published without a person reading it first. If something here is wrong, tell the editor and it will be put right.

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