{"id":7489,"date":"2013-08-04T11:57:05","date_gmt":"2013-08-04T01:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=7489"},"modified":"2022-05-02T00:21:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T14:21:54","slug":"marginal-la-trobe-dottedline3mdr-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/marginal-la-trobe-dottedline3mdr-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Marginal La Trobe: @DottedLine3MDR reports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"CJ-LaTrobe\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/CJ-LaTrobe.jpg?resize=600%2C300\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com.au\/maps?f=q&amp;source=embed&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=https:%2F%2Fdl.dropboxusercontent.com%2Fs%2Fxk9fk6bjtb87od1%2Fnofibs.%2520v2.0.kml&amp;aq=&amp;sll=-33.797409,148.798828&amp;sspn=60.664997,135.263672&amp;t=h&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=-38.01023,145.431519&amp;spn=0.432806,0.822601&amp;z=10&amp;output=embed\" height=\"400\" width=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<small><a style=\"color: #0000ff; text-align: left;\" href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com.au\/maps?f=q&amp;source=embed&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=https:%2F%2Fdl.dropboxusercontent.com%2Fs%2Fxk9fk6bjtb87od1%2Fnofibs.%2520v2.0.kml&amp;aq=&amp;sll=-33.797409,148.798828&amp;sspn=60.664997,135.263672&amp;t=h&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=-38.01023,145.431519&amp;spn=0.432806,0.822601&amp;z=10\">View Larger Map<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tallyroom.com.au\/aus2013\/latrobe2013\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">La Trobe Seat Profile<\/a><\/p>\n<p>By <a title=\"Michelle Slater\" href=\"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/michelle-slater\/\">Michelle Slater<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/DottedLine3MDR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@DottedLine3MDR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>4 August 2013<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to the beautiful bellwether seat of La Trobe!<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s take a tour through an electorate that includes a rainforest-covered mountain dotted by small villages, then sweeps down to rapid urban growth-belts on its southern flat-lands.<\/p>\n<p><b>Who the hell is Michelle?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m passionate about independent media and giving a voice to communities.<\/p>\n<p>I have a special interest in politics and the environment and I&#8217;m also a freelance journo. Check out\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/michelleslater.wordpress.com\/published-articles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">my gear here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, in my mind&#8211; at the end of the day, rock n roll will save the world!<\/p>\n<p>I host The Dotted Line on community radio 3MDR 97.1fm for independent Aussie musos, with a big emphasis on the rich Melbourne live music scene.<\/p>\n<p>Tune in Wednesday nights at 9-11pm for weekly interviews and live in-studio performances by some of the city&#8217;s best undiscovered musos. Or live-stream at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.3mdr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.3mdr.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For me, the seat of La Trobe is all about the magnificent bush in the Dandenong Ranges.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7492\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7492\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7492\" alt=\"Olinda Forest - Dandenong Ranges\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Olinda_Forest.jpg?resize=640%2C480\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Olinda_Forest.jpg?w=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Olinda_Forest.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7492\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Olinda Forest &#8211; Dandenong Ranges<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;ve lived there on and off for nearly 25 years and have a special connection with the unique community that comes with living on the mountain.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s bloody cold in winter, \u00a0and in summer the Country Fire Authority is vigilant. But I wouldn&#8217;t wanna live down in the city.<\/p>\n<p>The small village of Tecoma sits in along the narrows into the winding hills. The town&#8217;s residents are\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.burgeroff.org\/%E2%80%8E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">protesting to stop a 24 hour McDonald&#8217;s outlet<\/a>\u00a0from being built in the area.<\/p>\n<p>When I was a kid, I rode my horse, Damien, all over the district. We explored every little dirt road and bush track. As a result, I reckon there&#8217;s not many places I don&#8217;t know on that mountain.<\/p>\n<p>I still love riding around the hills on my Arab mare, Magic Buttons.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve also seen some amazing changes over the decades. When I first moved into the electorate, its southern flats were mainly farming lands and Pakenham was a small country town.<\/p>\n<p>Today, bang! It is a major centre with large shopping precincts. Pakenham is now one of Melbourne&#8217;s largest growth corridors and with a\u00a0 large population of city commuters.<\/p>\n<p>I care deeply about La Trobe and my community. As a bellwether seat, the electorate&#8217;s voting behaviour will arguably define our nation.<\/p>\n<p>Please join me as we explore how it will all unfold in this election year.<\/p>\n<p><b>A bit about La Trobe<\/b><\/p>\n<p>La Trobe sits on Melbourne&#8217;s eastern fringe and is one of the country&#8217;s most marginal seats. It will be a key focus in this year&#8217;s election.<\/p>\n<p>The ALP&#8217;s Laura Smythe just pipped Liberal&#8217;s Jason Wood in a photo-finish\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/results.aec.gov.au\/15508\/Website\/HouseDivisionFirstPrefs-15508-223.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">with a 1.42 per-cent swing<\/a>, giving the government a crucial seat in the 2010 cliff-hanger.<\/p>\n<p>The seat is split by Mount Dandenong, which defines electoral behaviour by its changing demography.<\/p>\n<p>Local state Liberal MP, Brad Battin,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/midnightoil-1\/federal-electorate-profile-la\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told local community radio 3MDR 97.1fm<\/a>, that\u00a0 La Trobe was made up of many aspirational voters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has a lot of families in it, a lot of management people throughout the electorate and a lot of small-business owners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are affected by decisions by both state and federal governments and if state or federal governments make decisions that will affect them in a negative way, then they will make change<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll get areas that are traditionally Labor and traditionally Liberal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, it is interesting to note that the Kallista polling booth returns one of the highest Greens results in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The Liberal&#8217;s Bob Charles held the seat from 1990 to his retirement when ex-cop Jason Wood took the reins in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>Wood held on by 50.51 per-cent to Labor&#8217;s Rodney Cocks in the 2007 Ruddslide.<\/p>\n<p>Smythe will re-contest her seat this year against Liberal Jason Wood and Michael Schilling for the Greens.<\/p>\n<p>The Palmer United Party, Australian Sex Party and Democratic Labor Party have also preselected candidates for La Trobe this year.<\/p>\n<p>The seat begins in Boronia on the eastern foothill, then ascends up to\u00a0 Belgrave, Emerald, Cockatoo and Gembrook, following the Puffing Billy tourist steam rail.<\/p>\n<p>As the land flattens out, La Trobe changes dramatically to embrace new housing developments in suburbs like Narre Warren and Berwick.<\/p>\n<p>As the mountain is within an hour&#8217;s commute from the metropolis, there is a strong tourist economy\u00a0 which relies on Sherbrooke Forest, village antique shops and the Yarra Ranges gourmet trail.<\/p>\n<p>The area also boasts a vibrant arts and music culture with open studio events, community festivals and small music venues.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>View Larger Map La Trobe Seat Profile By Michelle Slater\u00a0@DottedLine3MDR 4 August 2013 Welcome to the beautiful bellwether seat of La Trobe! Let&#8217;s take a tour through an electorate that includes a rainforest-covered mountain dotted by small villages, then sweeps down to rapid urban growth-belts on its southern flat-lands. Who the hell is Michelle? I&#8217;m [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,3546,66,585,1068,1067],"tags":[1072,1066,1070,1069,1071],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Olinda_Forest.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-1WN","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56483,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489\/revisions\/56483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}