Title

WINTER 2014 EDITION (rrp $8.95)

APARTMENT & TOWNHOUSE LIVING

Anatomy of a

HIGH RISE STARS AND THEIR APARTMENTS

FINDING THE OOH IN UBUD GADGETS AND GIZMOS PERFECT PETS FOR YOUR PAD

VERTICAL VILLAGE IDIOTS

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Contents TITLE | APARTMENT & TOWNHOUSE LIVING | ISSUE ONE

15

LEVEL ONE Interiors

29

LEVEL TWO Life & Style

61

LEVEL THREE Strata Facts

Contact us and register (see page 79)

Looking to buy a Sydney apartment?

Register at cpmrealty.com.au ƋŅ Æå ƋĘå ĀųŸƋ ƋŅ Ÿåå exciting new projects across Sydney

Call +612 9247 1299 Visit cpmrealty.com.au

$ EallrooP of one·s oZn Having enough room to entertain guests might be fairly high up on the list for most flat-hunters; having enough friends to fill their home probably less so. But that’s something to consider with the two-bedroom London apartment that boasts its own 350-capacity ballroom.

(The £5.5m [A$10m] price tag might also give pause for thought, of course).

Billed as the “ultimate party pad for socialites who love entertaining”, the luxury Mayfair flat comes with an enormous ground-floor reception room, complete with 20ft-high ceiling and kitchenette for making those allimportant nibbles and cocktails.

$Q DSSDUHQW PDVWHU RI XQ

ON TOP OF THE WORLD One of Australia’s newest residential towers has been declared the fifth best skyscraper in the world by an international jury of architecture experts.

One Central Park at Sydney’s Broadway, developed by Frasers Property Group and Sekisui House, was chosen from a pool of 300 high rise buildings completed in 2013 all over the world.

“It’s a huge honour for the country

12

7Ke ´ultiPate party pad for socialites ZKo loYe entertainingµ Zill cost you a cool $ Pillion generally,” says Paul Lowe, sales director for Frasers. “It will be an enduring tribute to the ingenuity and work of Australians.”

The only buildings to beat it were London’s The Shard, DC Tower 1 in Austria, Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort in Huzhou, China, and the Ca yan Tower in Dubai, UAE. The two-tower, 623-apartment One Central Park features a massive cantilevered sky garden extending from level 29 of its taller 34-storey East tower and has the largest en masse vertical gardens in the world: over 1100sqm of the exterior facades of the two towers containing 35,000 plants and 350 different species.

BACHELOR BAN Dubai might promote itself as a playboy’s paradise, but the local government is cracking down on

bachelor pads, and issuing fines to landlords who let apartments to single men.

According to press agency Emirates 24/7, resident associations have been instructing unit owners not to lease their properties to bachelors who are looking to rent or share apartments meant for families.

It is unclear whether it was a series of wild parties or the potentially corrupting nature of single life that has prompted this move, but it follows an announcement in 2013 that the Dubai civic body was enforcing the categorisation of a number of developments designated for families in a bid to move single men out of these areas.

Landlords falling foul of the new directives could be fined up to 50,000 dirham (A$14,500).

THE SHARP END OF PET POLICIES Police in Washington were forced to take action after a landlord raised concerns about their tenant’s choice of pet.

The officers evicted a 5ft alligator after they found the reptile living in a children’s paddling pool in a 600sqft apartment in Ocean Shores, 130 miles from Seattle. Owner April Rognlin told local TV reporters that “Snappy” was “just like a dog or a cat” and that the

TITLE | NEWS Tennis court for sale, with house, on Power Avenue, Toorak

creature “wouldn’t hurt anyone”.

However, the police insist they had to act as not only was Ms Rognlin in violation of her lease by keeping the pet, but state law prohibits the ownership of an American Black alligator.

Snappy was moved to an animal shelter which is now looking for a permanent home for the creature.

:Ken a dorP Must Zon·t do Affluent Chinese families are snapping up apartments in college towns around the globe for their children – despite the fact their little ones have yet to start kindergarten.

A report by the Wall Street Journal shows that the country’s exceptionally forward-thinking upper-classes are buying luxury flats from Melbourne to Manhattan to secure accommodation for their offspring two decades down the line, using the property to meet universities’ residency requirements and off-setting tuition costs by renting them out in the interim.

Kevin Brown, a New York estate agent who sold a $5.5m (A$5.9m) New York apartment to a Chinese businesswoman who made the purchase for her twoyear-old daughter, told the WSJ: “[In China] family and financial planning all mix into one.

“Where we have a one-year or three-year plan, they generally have a 20-year plan.”

TENNIS COURTS COP A SERVE It’s an old Melbourne joke: How do you know when a Toorak woman is off to a funeral? Her tennis dress is black.

But these days, apartment developers are avoiding adding tennis courts to their facilities since the value of tennis courts has been smashed. “There are so many tennis courts for sale in Toorak now, you could lay them end to end and they’d cover three soccer fields,” says Morrell & Koren buyers’ agent Christopher Koren.

Was it really only seven years ago that one businessman lobbed up almost $7 million for a house on the suburb’s Maple

7Ke unnaPed 26-year-old started a fire to “burn the bugs in his hoPe and coPputerµ destroying his apartPent

Grove, saying he planned to demolish it merely to make way for a tennis court to be built adjacent to his mansion?

Now developers are scrambling instead to use spare space for gyms and pools while courts go down love-all everywhere in the suburb.

“There’s a real disconnect between what vendors want for courts and how much purchasers want them and are prepared to pay,” says Koren.

FroP pest to Zorst Insect infestations are the bane of many an apartment dweller, but they would be well advised not to follow the example of the Orlando, Florida resident whose DIY fumigation left him homeless and hospitalised.

Enraged by the pests, the unnamed 26-year-old started a fire to “burn the bugs in his home and computer”, destroying his apartment and ultimately prompting a rescue attempt by his neighbours, who broke down his front door and dragged him to safety.

“I heard him yelling, but I felt like he couldn’t hear me. He wasn’t really responding,” Leanna Boyer told a local TV station. “I banged first, then I just smashed through (the glass).”

The man was treated for smoke inhalation at a nearby hospital.

13

CBRE TO SUPPLY

Interiors LEVEL ONE

16 18 20 22 LOUNGES

GADGETS

DECOR AND COLOUR

STORAGE

Interior from Eve building in Erskineville (see page 64)

23 26 27 28

ACCESSORIES

BEDROOM

BATHROOM

KITCHEN GADGETS

INTERIORS | LOUNGING AROUND

Take a

SEAT Even when space is at a premium, you want a lounge that’s built for comfort as well as convenience Top: Febo sofa with high seat cushion; Category B fabric, designed

by Antonio Citterio – Maxalto, from $12,445, from Space Furniture (spacefurniture.com.au) Above: UNO sofa Combination Q1 in tango raisin $1,295 from King Furniture (kingfurniture.com) Top right: Tufty-Too sofa, Category B fabric, designed by Patricia Urquiola –

16

B&B Italia, from $11,695, with Tufty-Too Ottoman, $3,160, from Space Furniture; Bell table light by Tom Dixon rrp $946.00, from Dedece (dedece.com) Middle right: King Furniture Delta storage sofa from $4,162 Bottom right: King Furniture Neo three-seater package, with King leather ottoman, from $7,188.

17

INTERIORS | GADGETS

SOUND THINKING From a music system that won’t keep the neighbours up all night to a light that will wake you gently, Jamie Thomson discovers that technology never sleeps

SOUND THINKING

LIGHT FANTASTIC

SCREEN GEM

For those of us who aren’t morning people, the Wake Up Light could be the answer to our prayers. It gradually lights the room like a sunrise, which, Philips claim, makes it easier for you to get up, and improves your wellbeing. And instead of an angry buzz or beep. how about birdsong?

Although not yet available in Australia, the HF3510 lamp can be ordered from Philips’ UK website and used with a plug adaptor. www.phillips. co.uk. $180 plus p+p.

Bang & Olufsen have been putting TVs on rotating stands for decades but their new Beovision Avant range takes the hi-tech biscuit.

The TV doesn’t just rotate, the stand moves too, to give you optimum viewing (and listening) wherever you are in the room. It really does have to be seen — and heard — to be believed, so drop into your local B&O store and be prepared to be blown away.

18

COOL AS IT GETS This cool little gadget turns any air-conditioning unit into a state-of-the-art cooling system controlled by your phone. It will automatically turn your AC off when you leave the house, or you can pre-cool your home in time for your arrival. Originally developed with the help of substantial Kickstarter funding, pre-orders are now being taken as Tado look to roll out their ingenious product globally. $159 plus p+p. Find out more from www.tado.com

You have to think differently when you live in apartments.

Speakers mounted on walls or concealed in ceilings are great ... until neighbours thank you for turning their floor or wall into a massive sounding board.

Perfect for flat dwellers who like their music to pervade every corner of their homes, Bose has a system of interlinked wireless speakers and players. Check out the Bose Soundtouch Portable portable wi-fi system at a store near you. www.bose.com.au

It takes 89 years to create movement this beautiful.

The new 55" BeoVision Avant.

An Ultra High-DeďŹ nition, 4K Bang & Olufsen Smart TV with iconic sound. Experience it in store now. Recommended price $10495 bang-olufsen.com For store locations visit bang-olufsen.com/storelocator

*Recommended price for BeoVision Avant 55" includes BeoRemote One. Price excludes placement option on either wall, table or ďŹ&#x201A;oor starting from $1295. Energy class C.

Colour style When so many apartment residents live in a black and white world – or even white on white – a splash of colour makes a refreshing change, write Sue Williams 20

Too many of us spend our lives in a sea of grey and white, when we could be living so much more vibrantly in rich, dynamic colour, putting our own individual stamps on our surroundings.

“It can be boring and predictable, living without colour,” says Andrea Lucena-Orr, Dulux’s colour expert. “It’s important to have your own individual colour palette for interiors that reflect your personality and enrich your life.

“Particularly with apartments, paint can really transform a room, and even change the perception of space. Vertical stripes of colour, for example, can make a low ceiling taller, while horizontal strips can make a small area look wider. And you have to remember – it’s paint. So if you want, it can be changed quite easily!”

To try to encourage people to be more daring with their use of colour, Dulux constantly creates images of rooms, and even redecorates existing rooms (see images above), to show what a startling effect colour can have.

Interior designer and colour specialist Camilla Molders says many of us certainly need to be

INTERIORS | COLOUR

â&#x20AC;&#x153; 3lay Zith colour texture and patterns to find soPething that ZorNs Zell Zith your oZn space and that you liNe to liYe Zith Âľ

pushed to move away from neutral colour schemes enlivened only by brightly-coloured cushion covers and vases. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People generally do need to be a little more daring,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They tend to be very conservative, but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d always encourage them to play with colour and texture and patterns to find something that works well with their own space, and that they like to live with.â&#x20AC;?

This winter, the colours in fashion tend to be deep and decadent hues, designed to add warmth for the colder months.

These include moody browns, purples, violets, greys and dusty pinks, offset with metallic tones.

Artist Geoffrey Carran designed the room featured above left, drawing inspiration from the deco, Baroque and Renaissance periods, with a modern twist. He used Duluxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Romantic Spirits range with dark blue-green Anchorman and Mundi for the main wall, contrasting them with Spearmint Ice for the skirting boards. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Paint can be so dynamic when used to change the space you live in,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People like to change the atmosphere with the seasons. They can pile on some luscious, textured textiles with a blend of patterns to escape from the bleak weather outside.â&#x20AC;?

With many open-plan apartments, residents tend to like to paint areas in similar colours throughout to create a flow of

space and colour, but then pick out certain features, or walls, to add more contrast. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That might be a study nook in a living room, or a dining area in the kitchen,â&#x20AC;? says Andrea Lucena-Orr, whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tipping serene greens as the colours to look for as we head into spring, with the colours leading into the living area (above right) part of the Precious Elementals range, moving from the pale grey Ohai Half and dark grey Pipe Clay to the mossy green Hammock. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It can make that space feel differently instantly, and add a real point of interest that can be inviting and warm, and make people feel that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really their individual home.â&#x20AC;?

Above Left: Styling by Geoffrey Carran for Dulux.

Top of wall and roof colour: Dulux Wash & Wear 101 Barrier Technology in Spearmint Ice. Lower Wall colour: Dulux Wash & Wear 101 Barrier Technology in Anchor Man. Trims: Dulux Aquanamel in Spearmint Ice. Above: Styling by Wilhelmina McCarroll for Dulux.

Main wall: Dulux Wash & Wear 101 Barrier Technology in Hammock. Door through doorway: Dulux Wash & Wear 101 Barrier Technology in Domino. Trims: Dulux Aquanamel in Whisper White. Left: Andrea LucenaOrr. All Photography: Lisa Cohen

21

INTERIORS | STORAGE

'MBU friendly

SWRUDJH

One of the most common complaints in apartment is the lack of storage. But while we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t allow form to entirely dictate function, it does no harm if our space-savers have a hint of style.

In apartments and townhouses, every little cubic centimetre of space is precious. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why some of the best designers around have put their minds to the problem of providing storage that also has a sense of style.

And with 50 percent of apartments occupied by tenants who canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just drill holes and bang nails into walls, there has to be a bit more thought in how a piece of furniture will be used, as well as what it will be used for.

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why the one Step Up ladder styled bookcase is so clever - storage for a stack of books or shelf space for displaying your nicknacks and not a drill hole in sight.

Storage tubs that double as stools, a smart stacked multifunction unit with a tea tray on top and a magazine or file rack with echoes of Mondrian - there are no limits to the ways you storage can be smart and stylish.

22

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INTERIORS | ACCESSORIES

8JOUFS IVFT BOE

635,1*

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23

ERSKINEVILLE APARTMENTS NOW SELLING

Beautiful 1, 2 & 3 bed apartments only a short walk to Erskineville urban village & train station.

Premium finishes by Hecker Guthrie & sophisticated architecture by DKO Architects and landscape design by 360 Architects.

Visit the Display Suite.

Sat & Sun 12pm – 4pm, Mon to Wed 1pm – 4pm Corner of Eve & Macdonald Street, Erskineville.

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INTERIORS | BEDROOMS

Sweet

dreams When your day is done, there’s nothing better than snuggling down in a great new bed among some lovely linens, writes Virginia Addison Whether your apartment is sleek and spacious or a cosy, older-style home, there is one room you always want to make your own special place – your bedroom. It does not take much to put an individual stamp on your sleeping space with the addition of a stylish modern bed, colourful cushions, textured throws and picturesque pillowcases.

Simply changing your quilt covers and bringing in a mix of muted and vibrant tones to the bedroom can create an exciting new look. Why not introduce an artistic touch with moody, abstract seascapes on which to rest your head?

And, for comfort, nothing beats slipping into beautifully soft Egyptian cotton sheets at the end of a busy day.

Top left: Anise European pillowcase - single $59.95, from Sheridan (sheridan.com.au) Top right: Minoti's Spencer bed, $9,460, from Dedece (dedece.com) Middle left: Elkins soft cotton throw in lagoon, 227cm x 258cm $299.95, from Sheridan. Right: NEO bed with mattress - queen size with fabric finish, $5,890, or Italian leather $6,863, from King Furniture (kingfurniture.com.au)

26

INTERIORS | BATHROOMS

Wash

your cares

away

It may be the smallest room of an apartment but, says Michael Murillo, your bathroom should also be a treasured refuge

Top Left: Bathroom by Roger Seller with Fantini Levante tapware and shower from $445, and Catalano CX 55 washbasin rrp $755 (rogerseller.com.au) Top Right: Kartell by Laufen mirror in tangerine orange, rrp $499, from Reece (reece.com. au) Bottom Left: The Scoop bathtub, designed by Michael Schmidt for Falper, is a classic bathtub with a free-standing contemporary twist, rrp $11,995 from Roger Seller Bottom

Right: Hotel-inspired bathroom by Reece, including the Kado Lure 1500 Petite freestanding bath, rrp $1871; Milli Axon floor bath mixer with black outlet, rrp $1999; Alape Unisono 400 counter basin, rrp $935; Roca Meridian back-to-wall pan, rrp $725; Roca Meridian back-to-wall bidet with cover, rrp $801; and Milan Hydrotherm floor-to-ceiling heated towel rail in chrome, rrp $1699.

27

INTERIORS | KITCHEN GADGETS

The Eiko plastic egg boiler (far left) Clockwise from top: hooks over the side of your pot, before becoming ownrest instant plastic eggits boilers on the 1. Eiko egg The side cup. of your pot,Squirrel protectingNutcracker the egg beforeis a becoming basic lever so it’s notegg ascup nuts as its own instant it2. looks.

Retro styled isLanotSorrentina Squirrel Nutcracker as nuts as it stove coffee maker recreatesstove the looks.top 3. Retro styled La Sorrentina 1947 patented The1947 Citrange top coffee maker design. recreates the patented two-way central funnel design. 4. juicer’s The Citrange two-way juicer’s directs juice into while central funnel directsthe juiceglass into the glass sifting out seeds.

Lid under while sifting out seeds.

5.Sid Lid sits Sid sits the lid the allowing steam totoescape under lid allowing steam escape while stew is um ... um ... stewing. while your your stew is ... ... stewing.

Handy

Kitchen Helpers

Youknow know a kitchen gadget willa be a hit you You a kitchen gadget will be hit when say “why did no one ever think of that before?’ when you say ‘why did no one ever think That’s why we reckon these gizmos have found of that before?’

That’s why we reckon these the recipe for success. gizmos have found the recipe for success.

28

Life & Style

LEVEL TWO

30 34 42 44 48

CELEBRITY HIGH RISE HIDEAWAYS

50

52 54 58 59 60

GROW - ROOF AND BALCONY GARDENS

WEEKEND BREAKAWAYS

ANATOMY OF A HIGHRISE

FICTION: THE APARTMENT

EATING IN, DINING OUT

A QUIET NIGHT IN

LOCK UP AND LEAVE - UBUD

MOTORING

DRIVING THE EYRE PENINSULA

FITNESS

Picture by John Montessi for South Australian Tourist Commission

Stars

and their high-rise

Hideaways Apartment living is now the top choice of many of our biggest stars, says Jaz Allen, thanks to the security, convenience and privacy ... when they can get it 30

LIFE & STYLE | CELEBRITIES

Far Left: Russell Crowe Left: The Finger Wharf development where he owns a $14m penthouse. Above: Cate Blanchett filming Blue Jasmine with Woody Allen and Alec Baldwin.

It’s the stuff of pure fantasy: one day, you visit the spa in your apartment building and discover a near-naked Hugh Jackman sitting there.

But for residents of one luxury block in Sydney, that wasn’t the only reason to call the place home. Also living there at the time was Todd McKenney – the original star of The Boy From Oz, the musical that Jackman later turned into the Broadway hit.

“It was a surreal experience,” says the lucky lady who shared that spa with Jackman at the award-winning designer building Altair in Kings Cross, and then a lift with McKenney. “I tried very hard not to perve on Hugh while we were in the spa, but it was tricky! He was lovely; they both were ...”

Jackman was a regular visitor to the building where a friend resided, and Dancing With The Stars’ McKenney was an owner-occupier, but both were celebrities who discovered that apartment-living often offers many advantages over freestanding houses.

The X-Men star, for instance, lived for years in an apartment in Melbourne. When he won his first big Hollywood role as Wolverine, he was stunned to discover his film trailer was bigger than his entire unit. “And they’re apologising, and saying,

‘The real trailer will be coming in on Monday!’” says Jackman.

He now spends most of his time in an apartment in New York’s West Village as a neighbour of Nicole Kidman, a wellknown lover of apartment-living, who recently sold her unit there for a cool $16 million.

Back home in Sydney, Nicole, mostly recently starring in Grace of Monaco, was beseiged by paparazzi at her Darling Point house, but found life much more peaceful – and private – in an apartment at Pier 6/7 in Walsh Bay before later moving into two penthouses at the Latitude building in Milsons Point for a rumoured $13 million, and then snapping up a third unit in the same block for $2.7 million to serve as a home office.

“More and more celebrities prefer apartment living,” says buyers’ agent to the stars, Janne Sutcliffe of Change of Address. “They travel a lot so with an apartment, they can lock up and leave it. Also, they don’t need so many staff or to do so much maintenance.”

The stars who have made apartments their home over time have become legendary. Noah’s Russell Crowe, for instance, broke the record for a Sydney apartment resale when he bought the $14 millon whole-floor penthouse of the Finger i

31

TITLE | CELEBRITIES

“More and more celebrities are choosing apartment living. They travel a lot so they can just lock up and leave. They don’t need to worry about staff or maintenance”

Top row: the view from Cate Blanchett’s Elizabeth Bay ­apartment block; Todd McKenney; Hugh Jackman.

Middle: Nicole Kidman, Bottom: the Latitude building, where Kidman owns three properties worth $15.7m

32

Wharf at Woolloomooloo in 2003. More recently, Blue Jasmine Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton bought a $1.9 million apartment in an art-deco block on the harbourfront in Elizabeth Bay, reportedly as an investment for their sons, Dashiell, 12, Roman, nine, and Ignatius, five.

Meanwhile, Avatar star Sam Worthington and girlfriend Lara Bingle inspected an apartment in Point Piper together, and she put her one-bedroom unit in Darling Point up for auction. She’s bought that quickly, after moving out of the luxury Bondi Beach pad belonging to her former fiancé, cricketer Michael Clarke.

Many well-known Australians have come to appreciate highrise living even more after stints overseas where apartments are often far more popular than in Australia. Besides, if you want to live in the centre of the world’s biggest cities, apartments are often the only option.

United States of Tara’s Toni Collette, for example, had an apartment in London, while Diana star Naomi Watts lives in a US$4m apartment in New York, in the hip TriBeCa neighbourhood, with husband Liev Schreiber and sons Sammy, five, and Sasha, six.

Another major appeal is the privacy and level of security in most good apartment blocks, with concierge providing the first line of defence against paparazzi, building security as the second, and restricted access to each floor as the final barrier.

“They also have to be careful of line-of-sight, to make sure people won’t be able to spy on them through telescopic lens,” says Chris Curtis of buyers agents Curtis Associates. “But then some stars, like Russell, seem to like to saunter through crowds at the wharf, to expose themselves, but then close their door on everything.”

Meanwhile, Chris “Thor” Hemsworth and his Hunger Games star brother Liam rented their first apartment together in Los Angeles before Liam moved out with girlfriend Miley Cyrus ... one move he may well now deeply regret.

LIFE & STYLE | ANATOMY OF A HIGHRISE

Anatomy of a

Highrise

Once it was the headquarters of a multinational computer company, now it’s the apartment block that brings a little bit of Downton Abbey to downtown Sydney. SUE WILLIAMS goes upstairs and downstairs in Observatory Tower.

Powerful business leaders, leading barristers, a world-renown playwright, diplomats, a top publisher, a NSW Parliament Opposition leader, even a former Australian prime minister ... they’ve all, at various times, called this place home. It’s been the setting for love affairs, political intrigue and high-level corporate deals.

But above all, say those who currently live and work in one of Australia’s top apartment buildings, Observatory Tower at Sydney’s historic The Rocks, it’s one big, happy family.

“I just love going there every day, opening that big front door and stepping into the grand foyer,” says Tony Cottle, who’s been working as a concierge at the 27-level, 199-apartment building for the last 17 years. “I’ve got to know everyone over the years, and it feels such a privilege to be a part of it.”

And even people who swore they’d never, ever live in an apartment have been won over by its charm. Jane Watson, for instance, a confirmed house-dweller, resisted strongly when her husband Dean suggested they try apartment- living when they made the move with their business, the Watson Headache Clinic and Institute, from Adelaide to Sydney in 2012.

“I always said I couldn’t get my head around the lifestyle and couldn’t imagine living in a space where everyone lives on top of each other in a stacking arragement,” says Jane, 58, a tenant in the building. “I had a problem with heights, too, and always liked having a house with a garden and backyard. But we agreed to try living at Observatory Tower, and now ... I absolutely love it!”

ġ3 4

It’s more than a building, it’s a community.

Clockwise from top left, Dianne Gakas, Jane Watson, Tony Cottle, Glenn Webber, Karen Catalano and Jonathan Clinton in the Observatory Tower’s elegant library (opposite).

The building, a long-time Sydney landmark, has stunning views from its higher levels over the harbour, bridge, Opera House and The Rocks.

With a 24-hour concierge service, it also has a s triking foyer with a marble staircase leading up to a two-storey library, as well as an 18-metre indoor pool, a spa, sauna and gym f or its 300-400 residents, half of them owner-occupiers, and half tenants.

The cheapest south-facing one-bedroom apartment on a lower floor these days sells for around $780,000, while the most lavish of its five penthouses – a three-storey, three-bedroom-plus-studies home of over 600 square metres, including a rooftop garden – is currently for sale for a cool $10.5 million.

All this glamour, however, is a world away from its beginnings as business high-rise offices The IBM Centre, built in 1961 on land used as a cooperage and timber storage depot. One of the firs t buildings to be constructed in Australia with steel frames and ‘drop-in’ concrete slabs, it was then only 22 storeys tall.

“ I couldn·t get Py head around the lifestyle and couldn’t iPagine liYing in a space Zhere eYeryone liYes on top of each other µ

ġ35

â&#x20AC;&#x153; I fell in loYe Zith the lobby and then Zith the apart Pents I loYe the priYacy of it the security and the aPbience of the buildingÂľ

ÄĄ36

Thirty-three years later, in 1994, the building was sold off and extensively redeveloped to become a residential tower, with extra floors taking it higher to 143 metres, widened to incorporate balconies and additional apartment space with a new pod on the western side and painted a dark green.

Apartments were sold off the plan and residents started moving in from completion in 1996. Amongst the first were two people whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d worked for IBM, met in the lift in the first week of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s move to the building, fallen in love and decided to return to the tower to live there after its transformation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Many of our former colleagues ask us how we can bear to live in a building where we formerly worked,â&#x20AC;? says former IBM personnel manager John Wood who these days sleeps on the side of the bed which is on the new addition of floor while his wife Yvonne, who used to be the IBM managing directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s secretary, sleeps on the side that stands on the original section. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I assure them that the atmosphere here now is a lot more peaceful than it was in those working days!â&#x20AC;?

Dianne Gakas was also around from Observatory Towerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s early days, after moving from a large house on Newport Beach. She and husband Bill had grown tired of spending around 20 hours a week driving into the city to work, and bought, 30 seconds after viewing it, a two-bedroom apartment. Four years later, in 2006, they bought a bigger unit, higher up. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I fell in love with the lobby, and then with the apartments,â&#x20AC;? says Dianne, 65, a former partner in a medical centre. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I love the privacy of it â&#x20AC;&#x201C; how noone can walk past and peer in â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the security and the ambience of the building. You can make a snap decision to go away and you just turn the key in the lock, let the concierge know and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing else to do. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every time I walk through the front door, whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s after ten minutesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; shopping or six weeks on holiday, I feel like Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m walking into a grand hotel.â&#x20AC;?

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an opinion echoed by even the most recent newcomer. Nine-year-old schoolboy Jonathan Clinton moved in with his mum and dad five years ago from Indonesia and has become a big fan. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s made friends with a couple of other children in the building and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll often meet up with them, swim in the pool and go to the gym with his mum Fatima. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll go on a treadmill or ride 2km on an exercise bike or do a plank â&#x20AC;&#x201C; my longest is two minutes!â&#x20AC;? says Jonathan, who plans on being a basketball player or cricketer when he grows up. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty great here. Our neighbours are all really nice and I can walk to school or we go to the Botannical Gardens, or walk around the harbour or skateboard nearby. And the concierge are all very nice.â&#x20AC;?

Chief among those concierge is Tony Cottle. He was visiting his dad in the UK from his home in Barbados when he met a young Australian woman in London, who was about to travel to the Caribbean for a friendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wedding. They arranged to meet up and soon became a couple. When Judith decided to return home to Australia, she persuaded Tony to leave his job at the front desk of the Barbados Hilton Hotel to join her. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was meant to be for a few weeks, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s turned

LIFE & STYLE | ANATOMY OF A HIGHRISE

Below: From the Romanesque swimming pool to the ornate lifts and the “Game of Thrones” front door (Opposite), the Observatory Tower is both modern and yet, somehow, from another age.

Pictures by Lorrie Graham.

Jonathan Clinton: “It’s pretty great here. Our neighbours are all really nice and I can walk to school or we go to the Botannical Gardens.”

Jane Watson: “We agreed to try living at Observatory Tower, and now ... I absolutely love it!”

Glenn Webber: “You get to meet people from different backgrounds ... pollies ... successful businesspeople ... everyone.”

into 18 years,” says Tony, now 54. “I came for an interview at Observatory Tower and I just walked in and thought, ‘Wow!’ It was a place that oozes class.”

Tony still lives happily with the woman who lured him over and has been at the building’s front desk ever since. Highlights include being asked to park one resident’s $400,000 Ferrari for him. “I’ve always worked in the service industry and I love the job here, the building and the people,” he says. “It’s a very well-run building and professionally managed; it’s a fantastic place to work. It’s a dream come true.”

One of the newest members of the Executive Committe helping run the place is Karen Catalano, the , .0ġ0%)!ŏ+""% !ŏmanager of an insurance research centre for IAG. She arrived two years ago and fell in love with the building. “It has such a great sense of community and family about it,” she says. “You really get to know people and it’s in such a vibrant location.”

Building manager Glen Webber, 55, has been doing his job for 13 years, after managing commercial buildings. There are always challenges with co-ordinating building work with so many residents, he says. “But there’s a real community feel to the place and the people are generally quite sociable,” he says.

“You get to meet a lot of people from very different backgrounds ... pollies ... successful businesspeople ... everyone.”

Tony Cottle: “I came for an interview and I just walked in and thought, ‘Wow!’ It was a place that oozes class.”

Karen Catalano: “You really get to know people and it’s in such a vibrant location.”

Dianne Gakas: “Every time I walk through the front door ... I feel like I’m walking into a grand hotel.”

ġ37

LIFE & STYLE | ANATOMY OF A HIGHRISE

Anatomy of a

Highrise It’s had a birth, weddings and even a death. But at the end of the day, Melbourne’s Freshwater Place is a vibrant, friendly community with a rich mix of people and their pets, reports Susan Wellings with pics by Chris Beck

Opposite: The street view of the stunning Freshwater Place, the eighth highest building in Melbourne. Below: Residents and staff of the complex: left to right, building manager Mike Zverina; body corporate representative Peter Renner; air conditioning contractor Peter Cooke; residents Tanya Cheng and Irene Ward; and concierge Joanne Boyle

ġ34

When grandparents Irene and Maurice Ward revealed to their family that they had become the first off-the-plan buyers of an apartment in a massive new development on the banks of the Yarra River, their children were horrified.

They argued that if the couple, both nearing their 70s, were thinking of moving from their fourbedroom house in Forest Hill, it should be into a retirement home; certainly not into a 60-storey, 534-unit showpiece tower on Southbank.

“But we’d given it a lot of thought, and felt it would be perfect for us,” says Irene, now aged 80, nine years after moving into a one-bedroom apartment at Freshwater Place. “And, you know, we were right.

“Our children took a while to come to terms with it, but this place has everything we ever wanted from a home, and more, and we didn’t even have to look after the garden or pool ourselves, and we were among people of all ages, not just our own!”

Retirees, downsizers, upgraders, families, children, singles, couples, tenants ... there’s a huge variety of people among the around 1,200 who now call the Bates Smart-designed, Australand-developed Freshwater Place home.

Plenty of others have come to love it as almost a second home, too.

Joanne Boyle worked for the now-defunct Ansett Australia airline for 28 years as a flight attendant before taking a new job as a concierge in the building. “Flying always used to be my passion, but Freshwater Place has now completely replaced it as that passion,” says Boyle, 59. “I love this building, it’s like being part of a new family.

“It’s a lot like being a flight attendant, except that you’re on the ground. You see the same people every day so you’re able to get to know them as individuals, and while the two jobs have a lot in common as they’re both part of the hospitality industry, working here is a much richer experience than walking down an aisle asking, ‘Beef or chicken?’”

It’s also a great deal different to being part of the team at any other regular Melbourne apartment tower. Freshwater Place, between the Crown Casino and Southgate, is the eighth tallest building in the city and is consistently acclaimed as one of the very best apartment blocks in Australia, with a full range of facilities on both levels 10 and 40, including landscaped gardens, pools, saunas, steam rooms, function rooms, well-equipped gyms, a theatre, BBQ areas and a retail village on the ground floor.

When apartments first sold, prices ranged from $649,000 for a one bedroom apartment on the lower floors to a penthouse at the top with i

“Everything is at your fingerips.

You can walk around the city or hop on a tram - and the facilities here are the best in Melbourne, if not Australia”

ġ35

“There have been a lot of things added to the building to keep values rising: Wi-Fi hotspots, a pergola ... and a vegetable patch has been dug on the podium.”

ġ36

panoramic views for $3,096,000. Price tags have risen considerably since.

There have also been a lot of things added to the building by the dedicated members of the various bodies corporate to keep its value rising. A highly productive vegetable garden has been dug on one strip of the landscaped podium – overseen by the green-fingered Irene Ward. A pergola has been erected, an outside section added to a function room, highspeed internet has been introduced along with Wi-Fi hotspots, and a website and app have been produced.

“It’s also been very important to us to develop a real community spirit in the building,” says Peter Renner, 64, of the Body Corporate, with an annual budget of up to $4 million. “I think it’s much more friendly than a street would be in suburbia, where you often only see your neighbour when they drive in or out.”

Renner, a former NAB executive, bought an apartment with his wife Robyn because they were tired of all the time they had to spend gardening and maintaining their house. The idea of a lock-up-andleave unit really appealed. “We both love it,” he says.

“From here, everything is at your fingertips. You can walk around the city, hop on a tram, and the facilities are the best in Melbourne, if not Australia.”

That’s a verdict echoed by younger residents, too.

Twenty-one-year-old Tanya Cheng moved into an apartment bought by her parents in 2009 so she’d be closer to her uni arts and law course, after a period of renting to check that she’d like it. She’s never looked back.

“I use the gym every day, which is great,” she says.

“I also sometimes use the pool and I invite my friends over to the theatre so we can watch the footy together.

I’d like to think it might make me more popular, but who knows?”

For potential buyers, the facilities often provoke a feeling of love at first sight. Indonesian Roth Prisno arrived in Australia from Singapore three years ago to finish off his studies, walked past the building, looked inside and then bought an apartment straight away.

“I didn’t do any research or anything,” he admits. “I didn’t know if it was a good building or not. But I liked the look of it. It’s in a great location and I liked all the amenities.” Prisno, 23, an intern at the nearby Monash Medical Centre who qualifies as a GP next year, is now very glad he bought on the 56th floor.

“I don’t use the gym as much as I should, but I’ve used the pools quite a few times,” he says. “I love having a concierge there to pick up packages, too.

Everything becomes so convenient, and the place is very friendly.”

As concierge, Boyle prides herself on greeting every resident with a smile at the start of each day, and welcoming them back home at the day’s end.

Occasionally, people don’t quite understand her role, and she’s asked if she can order them a pizza – she gently passes over the number of the nearest, best

LIFE & STYLE | ANATOMY OF A HIGHRISE

Irene Ward, resident: “This place has everything we ever wanted from a home, and more.”

Joanne Boyle, concierge: “I love this building, it’s like being part of a new family.”

Mike Zverina, building manager: “We have people from all walks of life, of all ages, and at all stages of life – we’ve had a baby born in the building.”

With its stylish lift lobby and reception desk (opposite) and ultra modern lap pool, Freshwater Place has the feel of a luxury hotel or spa rather than an inner city residential block

pizzeria instead and explains how an apartment block functions differently to a hotel – but problem-solving has become one of her favourite parts of the job.

Naturally, in such a big building, there are problems, such as the time someone hung their washing on a fire sprinkler, setting it off and flooding the apartment, and one day when the entire concierge staff became trapped in a lift. But such emergencies never last for long.

Air-conditioning contractor Peter Cooke is a regular visitor. “There are occasionally water leaks, noises, different water temperatures, just as you’d have anywhere,” says Cooke of company AE Smith. “But they’re all fixed very quickly.

“I actually really enjoy coming to Freshwater Place. The people there are all lovely, and I’m in the fortunate

position of people always being very happy to see me!”

Another major problem-solver is building manager Mike Zverina. He lives onsite together with his MalteseShitzu cross Buffy, one of many dogs in the pet-friendly building, which range from a tiny Chihuahua to a giant Rhodesian Ridgeback. Those dogs not on diets often receive treats from the front desk, which tend to make them even friendlier.

“But everything, and everyone, here is very friendly,” Zverina, 65, says.

“We have people from all walks of life, of all ages, and at all stages of life – we’ve had a baby born in the building, weddings and even, once, a death.

“It’s a wonderful place to live, and to work. I think it’s certainly a unique building, and one of the very best Melbourne has to offer.”

Freshwater Place, www.fwp.net.au

Peter Cooke, air conditioning engineer: “The people there are all lovely. I’m in the fortunate position of people always being happy to see me!”

Peter Renner, Body Corporate representative: “I think it’s much more friendly than a street would be in suburbia.”

Tanya Cheng, resident: “I invite my friends over. I’d like to think it might make me more popular, but who knows?”

Roth Prisno, resident: “Everything is so convenient, and the place is very friendly.”

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CAN YOU TELL WHERE THIS IS? Check out page 79 for the answer.

LIFE & STYLE | WHERE IN THE WORLD

LIFE & STYLE | EATING IN & DINING OUT

The

kitchen

DOWNSTAIRS Popolo had the residents worried when they opened up beside a Sydney apartment complex, but now they’re a local fixture, writes Jimmy Thomson

There’s something just a little different about some of the customers in one of Sydney’s hottest new Italian eateries.

“Once a week, a customer comes down about 6.45pm, he has a glass of wine, a bowl of pasta and reads a book,” says Flavio Carnevale, co-owner of Popolo in Rushcutters Bay. “At 7.30pm exactly, he gets up, asks us to keep the table and the tab open, and leaves. Five minutes later his wife comes in, takes the table, orders a bowl of pasta and a glass of wine, and she reads her book.”

This is one of the little oddities that come with running a traditional Italian restaurant in the heart of a modern apartment complex. Apartment residents often have a way of making their lifestyles work … well … differently. While one parent gets quality time with the kids, the other gets “me” time on his or her own.

Like this neat example of a combination of attentive parenting and selfpreservation, Popolo itself is a mixture of modern and traditional. This rambunctious eatery is housed in the last remaining brick building of the former Advanx tyre factory in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.

The rubber works’ name now lives on in the apartment complex that has Popolo on its collective doorstep. And it’s not a relationship that’s as cosy as it might seem or could be.

“We get a lot of calls asking us to deliver meals to the apartments,” says Flavio. “But we have to say, sorry, but no. When we opened here your residents asked the council not to let us do deliveries – I think they were worried pizza scooters would be coming and going all night. But we let people come down and pick up the takeaway food themselves.”

Popolo, the recipient of one hat in the latest Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide and three hats in the Gault & Millau

42 42

Yellow Guide, is evangelically committed to southern Italian cuisine, even to the point of having only wines from that region ... mostly.

“People ask me for a sauvignon blanc or a shiraz but I say, I don’t have exactly that but try this ...” says sommelier and co-owner Fabio Dore. “Usually, they like what I offer and enjoy learning about wines from a different region.”

From the porceddu – slow roasted pork shoulder, orange segments, radicchio and young Sardinian pecorino – to chiaffoni, a Basilicata style large penne, traditional

“ It’s about how you look after the people who come here, not how many you can get in” veal ragu and caramelised onion, these are familiar dishes with a southern twist.

And it’s the traditional family restaurant vibe that has made Popolo so popular in this very modern setting.

“A restaurant isn’t just about how many customers you push through the door,” says Flavio. “It’s about how you look after the people who come here, not how many can get in. That’s why we have people who come three or four times a week.

“We look after them and they look after us by coming to our restaurant.”

Popolo, 50 McLachlan Ave, Rushcutters Bay. popolo.com.au. Ph 9361 6641.

Tuesday to Sunday. lunch from 12, dinner from 6pm, breakfast Saturday and Sunday from 8am.

POPOLO FREGOLA Toasted pebble-shaped pasta, seafood ragú Ingredients for seafood ragú (4 serves) 4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1/2 brown onion, finely chopped 200g fresh squid, cleaned, cut into 1cm cubes 200g fresh cuttlefish, cleaned, cut into 1cm cubes crab stock Method Pre heat pan to medium and add olive oil. Cook onion until lightly browned then add squid & cuttlefish, stir well. Cook on low heat for 20 mins. Add some crab stock if needed.

Once ragú is finished, start with the fregola Ingredients for fregola (4 serves) 8 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1/2 brown onion, finely chopped 1 garlic clove, whole & peeled pinch of saffron strands 100g cherry tomatoes, cut in half 360g toasted fregola 100ml dry white wine such as Vermentino 500ml simmering crab stock 8 medium green prawns, peeled, de-veined, cut in 1cm pieces 16 black mussels, (Boston Bay), cleaned & de-bearded 10 fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped salt to taste Method Pre heat pan to medium and add 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Add brown onion and garlic clove to pan, stir & cook until lightly golden. Stir in saffron strands and cherry tomatoes, then add the fregola and stir as you lightly brown everything together.

Add wine and stir until the wine evaporates, then pour in crab stock and let it simmer for 7 mins, stir every minute to ensure the fregola does not stick to pan. Remove garlic clove and add seafood ragú, prawns and mussels to the pan, combine & cook together for 4 mins – until the fregola is al dente. Remove the pan from the heat, add chopped basil and the remaining 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, stir to coat. Taste and add salt if needed. Serve in large shallow dish or individual bowls, arrange ++'! mussels in cent.!.

WHAT’S HESTON UP TO IN... MELBOURNE

Top: Popolo’s stunning modern interior Above: a traditional Italian leg of ham; Left: Popolo’s owners Fabio Dore (.%#$0) and Flavio Carnivale; Below: Popolo Fregola (see .! %,!Čŏ(!"0)ċ

In avant-garde British chef Heston Blumenthal’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant, one of the biggest surprises comes after the elaborate four-hour 12-course meal: the coffee is from a Nespresso machine.

And when he temporarily closes The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, this Christmas to relocate to Melbourne for a six-month stay, opening in the Crown Towers Hotel in February next year, Australian diners will be sipping exactly the same brand after their signature snail porridge and bacon-and-egg ice-cream. This is down to the consistency of flavour, the ease of use of the pods and the spacesaving machines.

“I’ve loved coming to Australia since my first visit in 2003,” Blumenthal told Title magazine on a recent visit to Margaret River. “It’s a great opportunity to set up here.”

He’ll be bringing over his famed Tasting Menu, as well as a staff of 70 to service 45 diners a time.

At the end of the six months, he’ll return to the UK, but leave a Dinner by Heston Blumenthal restaurant behind in its place as his first venture outside his home country. And, of course, those Nespresso machines. Sue Williams Heston’s Great British Food begins on Thursday, 7 August on SBS.

43

LIFE & STYLE | EATING IN & DINING OUT

The

kitchen

DOWNSTAIRS Morning, noon and night, residents of the block above an Elwood cafe know they can get a hot meal, reports Sue Williams, and a warm welcome For restaurateur Peter Newson, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the most unusual orders heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ever received. And it came from one of his dedicated regulars, a customer living in one of the apartments above his Melbourne eatery. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m thinking of tying a bucket to a piece of rope and lowering it down over the balcony,â&#x20AC;? the man declared one day. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Do you think you could put in a meal and a couple of beers to save me the trouble of coming all the way down?â&#x20AC;?

Peter laughs as he takes a seat in his Elwood Food & Wine Bar, which serves as a cafe by day and transforms into a restaurant by evening. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think he was only half-joking!â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But it is only two ďŹ&#x201A;oors down for him to come ...â&#x20AC;?

Set beneath the three-level Edge Apartments building on Ormond Road

by Elsternwick Park, he shares plenty of laughs with the residents above, who often eat at his place up to four times a week. Everyone knows everyone else by name, and sometimes they feel so much as though theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re dining at a friendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, they even walk out without remembering to pay the bill. Happily, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all back a day or two later to shamefacedly settle up. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I take it as a compliment that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re so relaxed,â&#x20AC;? says Peter, who left the corporate world as a senior financial executive to set up with a partner in 2009, and then bought him out to go solo in 2012. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a wonderful environment for getting to know people. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With a restaurant, particularly as part of an apartment building, you become a part of the neighbourhood and you meet new people and make great friends all the time. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve probably learnt more about the local community in the five years Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been with the restaurant than in the 25 years Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve lived in the area!â&#x20AC;?

Elwood Food & Wine Bar, at the end of

; 42

the Elwood village strip, plays an integral role in the area, opening at 7am each morning and not closing till late, seven days a week. Often, residents from the 17 apartments above might pop down for a breakfast bruschetta with poached pears and figs or the gypsy eggs with bacon or nip in for a crisp ciabatta at lunch.

In the evenings, the weekday special is tapas and a glass of wine for $12.50, with the choice of tapas including halloumi with figs, honey, lemon and micro herbs; seared scallops wrapped in prosciutto on a carrot and cumin puree drizzled with extra virgin olive oil; Asian grilled prawn skewers with mixed Asian vegetables, soy and lemon; and crispy pork belly with Asian slaw and a sticky chilli soy glaze.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a wide range of mains, too, from spaghetti marinara with scallops, prawns, calamari, salmon, tomato, chilli and parsley in a rich tomato sauce to Spanish paella with chicken, chorizo, peas, beans, artichoke and red capsicum (see right), or even beetroot and feta ravioli in a creamy white wine sauce with walnuts. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We feel that people are looking for value for money and somewhere comfortable to go with their friends, or take their daughter or grandmother,â&#x20AC;? says Peter, who also has acoustic musicians perform between 5pm and 8pm on a Sunday. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Elwood is a very mixed community, and we like to think we cater for everyone, from the ages of eight to over 80. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We become a part of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives.

One time, we even had a couple have a row over dinner in the restaurant and one person took off back to the apartment above. But they were back the next evening, and all was fine. So we felt happy about that.â&#x20AC;?

Elwood Food & Wine Bar, 201 Ormond Road, Elwood. Ph 03 9531 3339. Open 7Â days for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Regular diners often feel so relaxed, they forget to pay the bill. Happily, they return to settle up later ELWOOD FOOD & WINE BARâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SPANISH PAELLA Ingredients: 100g saffron paella rice, 50g sliced chorizo, 25g artichokes, 25g fresh peas, 40g red pepper, lemon wedges, 110g chicken tenderloin, three large prawns and two mussels, white wine and Napoli sauce, paprika Method: Cook rice in saffron stock.

Separately pan-cook the rest of the ingredients in a hot paella pan, slowly adding the white wine and Napoli sauce.

Season to taste, then add the cooked rice, drizzle with paprika and garnish with lemon wedges

WHAT’S HESTON UP TO IN ... MELBOURNE

Above: Elwood Food & Wine Bar in its daytime cafe guise; Left: their Spanish Paella

In avant-garde British chef Heston Blumenthal’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant, one of the biggest surprises comes after the elaborate four-hour 12-course meal: the coffee is from a Nespresso machine.

And when he temporarily closes The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, this Christmas to relocate to Melbourne for a six-month stay, opening in the Crown Towers Hotel in February next year, Australian diners will be sipping exactly the same brand after their signature snail porridge and bacon-and-egg ice-cream. This is down to the consistency of flavour, the ease of use of the pods and the spacesaving machines.

“I’ve loved coming to Australia since my first visit in 2003,” Blumenthal told Title magazine on a recent visit to Margaret River. “It’s a great opportunity to set up here.”

He’ll be bringing over his famed Tasting Menu, as well as a staff of 70 to service 45 diners a time.

At the end of the six months, he’ll return to the UK, but leave a Dinner by Heston Blumenthal restaurant behind in its place as his first venture outside his home country. And, of course, those Nespresso machines. Sue Williams Heston’s Great British Food begins on Thursday, 7 August on SBS.

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LOCKUP & LEAVE | LUBUD

finding the

ooh

in

Ubud

Pampering at one of the planet’s top spa resorts puts you in the footsteps of movie stars and world leaders but, as Sue Williams discovers it can come as a shock When we walked back into our villa at the Balinese resort, we instantly sensed something was wrong.

Nowhere was there any sign of the untidy tangle of possessions we’d left strewn over chairs, tables and the hammock on the deck that bordered our private infinity-edged pool. Instead, the whole place was bare. Obviously, someone had been there while we were out and everything was gone: our passports, money, clothes ... even our suitcases.

Panicking, and with my heart racing, I tore open one of the

44

wardrobes and then stopped dead in surprise. Hanging up, artfully matched, were a few of my outfits, looking far less crumpled than I’d ever seen them before in their lives. I pulled at a drawer – yes, my T-shirts carefully folded and laid out. In the desk, our passports and money. And in the laundry bag, the finishing touch: all our unwashed clothes lovingly folded, as if unwashed clothes deserved nothing less.

There was a soft knock at the door. I opened it. Standing there was a beautiful young Balinese woman, dressed in a crisp white

Photograph The pool by night at UMA

by COMO

blouse and a sarong. “Good afternoon,” she said. “I took the liberty of tidying your room. I hope it is to your satisfaction.”

The COMO Shambhala Estate in Ubud, nestled among the mountains and rice paddies of central Bali, is consistently voted among the world’s best health resorts, and there are many reasons why.

One of the most compelling is that you don’t have to organise the tiniest thing in either your room or your life; the personal assistant you’re allocated does it all for you.

You feel like a hot river stone massage, reflexology, a Javanese Royal Lulur bath, a regenerating facial? Or how about a yoga class, a vooking demonstration, a SCUBA diving trip or an ayurvedic or oriental medicine balancing total mind and body overhaul?

“Just one moment, madam, I will book that for you.” i

45

“3aradise might come a close second apparently, past guests Robert 'e 1iro and Tony %lair thought so, too”

46

But that is still only one reason of many that the COMO Shambhala Estate was the winner of the Destination Spa of the Year in the World Spa & Wellness Awards and was recently named the best spa in the world by readers of Traveler.

Take the privacy of its setting, on 9.3 hectares of picturesque jungle-covered riverbank, dotted with the most spacious and luxurious of villas, suites and rooms, with a choice of two fine restaurants, numerous pavilions for resting between treatments or practising yoga, pilates, tai chi, Qigong or a spot of meditation, and various health treatment centres. The one for massage is all gurgling water features, thick white towels and beautifully scented oils, while the alfresco hydrotherapy pool is all gurgling water, thick white towels and ... er ... beautifully scented instructors.

Paradise might come a close second. Apparently, past guests Robert de Niro and Tony Blair thought so, too.

The Estate is also famed for its food: all organic, sourced locally and delivered from field to table with minimal delay. A nutritionist liaises with guests to make sure the menus suit any special dietary requirements, with recommendations for the healthiest options – but with no compulsion to take them. Along with the beautiful crisp vegetables and fruits and the massive menu of juices, there’s plenty of meat and fish, but always the

LOCKUP & LEAVE | UBUD Far Left: Yoga Left: COMO Shambhala Estate Retreat Villas Top Right: Courgette Carpaccio at the Glow Restaurant Bottom Right: Uma By COMO’s Pool Suite Terrace guest room

Five 2ther Top Healthy Retreats 1. Pepper’s Moonah Links Resort, set in ancient rolling sand dunes on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, offers the amenities of a world-class resort with programmes carefully designed by a doctor specialising in health and wellness. Stays include bathing in natural hot springs, hiking, relaxing on secluded beaches, yoga, meditation, mindfulness and relaxation classes. www.peppers.com.au/moonah/ Ph 1300 987 600 2. Gaia Retreat & Spa in Byron Bay, NSW, co-owned by Olivia Newton-John, was visited by Oprah Winfrey on her trip to Australia and offers detox, weight loss and get-fit programs that run from two to seven nights. They include complete health overhauls, mother-and-daughter retreats and weekend escapes.

As well as daily yoga classes and walking tracks, there is a gym, tennis court and pool on the premises. www.gaiaretreat.com.au. Ph (02) 6687 1216.

best, most succulent cuts, and the freshest seafood. Without word of a lie, I had some of the best dishes I’ve ever had the good fortune to taste there.

It’s a similar story at the other COMO property on the other side of town too, Uma by COMO. Much more a regular hotel resort, and far less remote with only a short taxi or hotel courtesy-car ride into the centre of Ubud – the fitting setting of the bestselling novel Eat, Pray, Love, this is also a stunningly peaceful, and exceptionally healthy, place to stay. The menu is based on the Shambhala’s, with dishes eaten on the terrace overlooking the shimmer of the communal infinity pool, or in the light, airy restaurant behind, with its soaring ceilings and well-stocked bar.

While the rooms are nothing like the size of its grander cousin, they’re spacious and impeccably designed, with billowing curtains around the bed, and private balconies looking down on to rolling emerald hills. The treatment centre, also with a wide array of massage, facial and body therapies, is set over a fishpond.

Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Australia and Garuda fly to Bali’s capital, Denpasar, and hotels provide pick-up services. COMO Shambhala Estate and Uma by COMO have a range of packages according to time of year, treatments required and inclusions. www.cse.comoshambhala.bz www.uma.como.bz

3. The Eden Health Retreat on the Gold Coast Hinterland is Australia’s oldest health resort and, following an expensive upgrade, now one of its most luxurious. Set among the rolling hills of the Currumbin Valley, in 120 hectares of tropical rainforest and walking tracks, it offers numerous treatments, as well as activities as diverse as meditation and drawing to Qigong, tennis, and is also home to Australia’s longest flying fox. www.edenhealthretreat.com.au Ph 1800 074 157 4. The Split Apple Retreat near Nelson, New Zealand, is a gorgeous boutique retreat right on the ocean and close by the South Island’s stunning Abel Tasman National Park. Its gourmet menu is both delicious and fabulously healthy, and it offers yoga, massage, acupuncture and meditation guidance. As well as a saltwater pool on the deck, it has sea-kayaking, hidden beaches and some of the best bushwalking in New Zealand,. www.splitapple.com/ Ph (0011 64) 3527 8377 5. Chiva-Som in Hua Hin, Thailand, is consistently voted one of the top three spa resorts in the world. 200km south of Bangkok, it’s right on the beachfront and has rooms hidden away in lush tropical gardens. There are no fewer than 70 treatment rooms, a number of pools and a gorgeously peaceful ambience that has been untouched by the years. Much of its fare is grown within the resort’s own organic gardens. www.chivasom.com/ Ph (0011 66) 2711 6900 12

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Australian

The Great

Bite

Jimmy Thomson test drives the new Audi RS5 covertible through the Eyre Peninsula and develops a state for fast cars and slow dinners

As a tourist destination, South Australia has so much to offer, it’s a surprise anyone ever gets to the Eyre Peninsula unless they were on their way to somewhere else.

But Eyre isn’t on the way to anywhere. By road from Adelaide, you would head north to Port Augusta and take a left towards the Nullarbor and Perth, before quickly turning south again.

By air, Port Lincoln is almost due west from the capital and barely a 50-minute flight by turbo-prop. What you find there are a lot of wide-open spaces and a coastline punctuated by villages, some with cafes and restaurants serving the region’s pride and joy – the best seafood you will ever encounter.

The Eyre coast is a fisherman’s paradise, and every other

48

vehicle seems to have a at least a tinny (or, more often, a motor cruiser) following it around. We were staying in the Port Lincoln Hotel, and while I’m usually not a big fan of hotel dining - a good plan B if there’s nothing else open – the seafood in the Port Lincoln Hotel’s Sarin’s Restaurant could not have been fresher if it had been flipping about on the plate.

All the dishes you would expect were there - oysters, kingfish, salmon, tuna and more prawns than you could shake a skewer at. However, there was a Japanese flavour to many of the dishes, and a refreshing availability of vegetarian choices, too.

Considering that once upon a time, if you ventured half an hour beyond capital-city limits, you’d find yourself in

LOCK UP & LEAVE | EYRE PENINSULA

BEEP TESTING THE BEAST

Above: Title editor Jimmy Thomson puts the Audi RS5 through its paces on the spectacular Eyre coast Top Right: Serving up something special at The Oysterbeds Restaurant in Coffin Bay

a vociferously carnivorous tofu-free zone, it’s reassuring that even this quiet corner of South Australia recognises that gluten-free bread and decaf coffee are not sins of omission.

It was odd, however, to think that the next day we would be swimming with some distant relatives of the food on our plates.

Swim With The Tuna, based in Port Lincoln, does what it says on the tin. A tourist boat ferries you out to a giant pontoon where you can swim with something that might, sometime in the future, end up on your dinner table. There’s about 60 Southern blue-fin tuna – as well as salmon, snapper and trevally – contained in netted pools on what is basically a man-made island about 40 minutes offshore.

Back on land, seafood is still very much on the menu at the Oysterbeds Restaurant in the morbidly named Coffin Bay. Oysterbeds is like a traditional tourist tearoom that has exploded out on to its forecourt, bringing a slice of Brunswick St or Darlinghurst to this corner of a small national park that juts out into the ocean.

Fed and watered in spectacular style, we headed off to the park for some car pictures made all the easier by the fact that every corner seemed to reveal views each more stunning than the last.

Further up the coast were more opportunities to get up close and personal with the life aquatic, such as at Baird Bay Ocean Eco Experience, which is based on a remote beach south-west of Streaky Bay. Being a non-swimmer, these underwater close encounters often have limited appeal, but I was able to pootle around with a float while the sea lions came over to play. Truth be told, they are impossibly cute and made the dolphins that the stronger swimmers splashed around with seem like show-offs.

Our last stop was Streaky Bay where we stayed at the Streaky Bay Motel and Villas which, in an odd way, summed up the feeling you get from travelling through the Eyre Peninsula.

There’s lots and lots of room ... and it’s so clean. Thinking back, from Port Lincoln all the way north, it was like the country and all its little towns had been given a good scrub.

We managed to squeeze in another couple of meals before we left and add yet another top-notch eatery, the Mocean Cafe, to our list of memorable feasts. And that’s another lasting impression, wherever we went, whether it was a hotel restaurant or a roadside cafe, people were really into their food. It’s the same passion that drives all these TV cooking contest makes every dinner an event.

Anyone for a great Australian bite?

The Audi rep had gone pale “What did you think?” she’d asked brightly.

“Hmmm,” I said, doubtfully. “Great car ... lovely handling, especially in sports mode .”

“But ...?”

“But sometimes it beeps like the Roadrunner?”

“Really?” her perfectly plucked eyebrows arched. “When?”

“Soon as you hit 180 ...”

I laughed. She didn’t. But, all joking aside, the Audi RS5 that I had just parked outside was a beast.

I am not a motoring writer so I can’t regale you will technical stuff about torque and traction. However, I do drive a Mazda RX8, so I probably have that “boy racer” gene. And I do like my gadgets, so the Audi RS5 pretty much ticks all the boxes and presses all the buttons for me.

You can dial up your own comfort and performance settings – literally ... it’s a dial on the centre console – and you can either change gears manually, using the stick or paddles on the steering wheel, or you can let the automatic gearbox do the decision-making for you.

Either way, there is an adrenalineinducing push in your back as you accelerate, and a satisfying throaty rumble behind you as the engine kicks down from top gear to something approaching a suburban speed limit.

I sampled the RS5 in both cabriolet and coupe format during our trip to the Eyre Peninsula (see main feature).

Powered by a 4.2 litre V8 engine, the RS5 scampers from a standstill to 100 km/h in 4.9 seconds, according to the literature.

I wasn’t holding a stopwatch, but it certainly felt like it.

The coupe’s handling is a bit livelier than the cabriolet. Apparently there’s a lot of additional weight structurally and in the roof mechanism for the convertible to carry. I noticed the difference but I’d take either of them in a heartbeat if I could handle not getting much change out of $200K. And as for that beeping sound ...

See, there was this long, straight road, a road train to overtake, no traffic and sometimes it’s safer just to get past as quickly as you can.

Beep beep.

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LOCK UP & LEAVE | WEEKENDS AWAY

GOODBYE TO CITY STRESS One of the joys of apartment living is that you can pack up, lock up and head off whenever you feel the need for a break from the city, says Virginia Addison. What better way to share a weekend or a mid-week break than to treat yourself to an out-of-town adventure. We’ve picked four top destinations from around the country.

HUNTER VALLEY, NSW

CLARE VALLEY SA

SURFERS PARADISE, QLD

COLES BAY TASMANIA

Peppers Convent is a beautifully restored heritage guesthouse set in the heart of NSW’s Hunter Valley wine region.

Weekend packages range from $390 to $440 per night and midweek escape packages from $250-$300.

The Ultimate Indulgence package includes a bottle of Tattinger on arrival, breakfast, afternon tea, a three-course dinner for two and two massages for $535.50 - $593.50 per night.

One of the country’s most stunning wineries is South Australia’s Skillogalee, a boutique family-owned and operated winery located in the heart of the picturesque Clare Valley, with its handcrafted, world-class wines.

Room rates range from $455 for a couple for a weekend in a cosy selfcontained cottage with a wood-burning stove.

Who can resist a relaxing weekend at the beach?

Soul Surfers Paradise combines 77 levels of contemporary luxury with stunning ocean views and one of the Gold Coast’s premier, two-hatted restaurants. Weekend prices for a one-bedroom, ocean view apartment start at $297 per night, while the four-bedroom sub-penthouse will cost you $1,499.

Tasmania’s Saffire Freycinet (main picture) combines boutique luxury with a promise of an enriching and rejuvenating experience at its unique coastal lodge. With only 20 accommodation suites, it is designed for a relaxing getaway. Room rates per night range from $1,800 (all inclusive for two people) to $2,500. A threenight package costs from $1,750 per night.

Address: 8 The Esplanade, Surfers Paradise, Queensland. Bookings: www.peppers.com.au/soul.

Tel: 1300 737 444

Address: 2352 Coles Bay Road, Coles Bay, Tasmania.

Booking and details: www.saffire-freycinet.com. au. Tel: 1800 723 347.

Address: 88 Halls Road, Pokolbin, NSW. Bookings and details: www.convent@ peppers.com.au.

Tel: (02) 4998 4999

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Address: Trevarrick Road, Sevenhill, South Australia.

Bookings and details: www. skillogalee.com.au Tel: (08) 8843 4311.

OUT

inside

One of the first things many people put on their apartment wish-lists is a balcony, but it’s then often the last area to receive any attention after they move in. And that’s purely because most don’t realise what an incredible asset they can turn it into – with or without a great view.

“Balconies are usually the most forgotten part of a unit,” says Mark Curtis, design manager of landscape company Secret Gardens. “But as more and more people move into apartments, and apartment-living becomes part of the culture, the trend is now becoming seeing the outdoor space as their garden, and wanting to find out what they can do with it.”

The options are these days huge, including being landscaped with elevated decking or new tiles, large planter boxes or pots, edible vegetables or herbs, succulents, flowers, wall-climbing

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Once you face up to the challenge of greenery on that balcony or roof terrace, Jaz Allen says you’ll find it grows on you

vines, fishponds, ornaments ... The only limitations really are imagination, budget, aspect, the rules of the individual building and the size and strength of the balcony, veranda or courtyard.

“For example, we wouldn’t recommend putting a ten-tonne Buddha on many older art deco apartment balconies,” says Curtis. “That’s unless you want everyone on every floor below you to enjoy it too as it falls through!”

Key factors to bear in mind are aspect, which will ultimately dictate what you’ll be able to successfully grow (far right), and whether there’s a water supply to the balcony. If there is water, then that makes everything easier, with the possibility of installing an automatic irrigation system for plants or a water feature that’ll have to be topped up regularly because of water loss through evaporation or wind.

LIFE & STYLE | GROW

WHAT TO PLANT FOR SPRING Rooftop garden in the Observatory Tower complex. Right: A more modest balcony garden in Melbourne. Far right: Joel Bence, gardener extraordinaire.

“A power point outside is also an asset for lights or a gas supply for a BBQ or heater to make the space useable all-year-round,” says Curtis. “These really shouldn’t be neglected spaces. With a little help, these can become a stunning feature that can add so much to the home.”

Even small balconies can be transformed into beautiful little oases in the city, says Brent Reid, the owner of Candeo Landscape Design. It doesn’t have to be a costly, elaborate exercise either.

“The simple act of installing a light can change the way you use a balcony,” he says.

“Then there’s the third dimension: height. Getting that right will add the proper scale to the design and from there you can add colour or screening if you need privacy.

“But as well as aspect, there’s also the wind to factor into a design. Every time you do something up off the ground, the elements are multiplied – the sun seems stronger, the wind windier, the cold colder. So you have to be careful then with what you plant. You might have 1,000 options of species on the ground, but higher you might have only 100.”

Designing a garden for a small balcony can start at around $1,200 while a larger one might cost up to $7,500, although on top might be extra construction costs for a much more major job.

Reid says the investment is always worthwhile, however, not only in the extra enjoyment it gives the resident, but also in the increase in value of the apartment.

One of his clients had his apartment revalued after having a garden put in on the balcony, to find it was now worth up to $10,000 more.

Curtis agrees the results can be a triumph on all fronts. “There are so many options and ideas for balcony spaces now,” he says. “It’s important to make the most of them.”

Secret Gardens, Sydney www.secretgardens.com.au Ph (02) 9314 5333; Candeo Landscape Design, Melbourne www.candeodesign.com.au Ph 0423 080 728

A northern-facing balcony is ideal from a growth perspective, says Joel Bence of Commercial Landscape & Maintenance.

“But if you do want to grow vegetables, you have to remember you need to tend to them every day,” he says.

“Southern balconies, though, aren’t very well-suited to vegetables or herbs, so it’s better to go for more shadetolerant plants.”

Bence says now is the time to start planting: On northern balconies – • Easy-to-care-for crassula avata, commonly known as the jade plant – in vogue now is the grey-blue Blue Bird varietal • Dracaena draco (dragon tree) and Yucca elephantipes • Vegetables like kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, lettuce, onions and beetroot • Flowering plants like geraniums, violas and pellagonia On southern balconies – • Easy-to-care-for crassula avata • Palms • Aspidistra • Podocarpus – his favourite varietal is falcatus www.commerciallandscape.com.au

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Photo by Ilia Kotchenkov

The

Apartment

By Greg Baxter

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LIFE & STYLE | BIG READ

Rug up well before you immerse yourself in this evocative slice of quality fiction.

This is an extract from THE APARTMENT

by Greg Baxter, a novel that takes place across one snowy December day in a northern European city.

Our hero, a US ex-serviceman with a history in the Gulf wars, leaves his rundown hotel with Saskia, a local woman he has met in an art gallery and who has agreed to help him search for an apartment to rent.

In this atmospheric passage, we visit two apartments - Saskia’s and our hero’s new home - and begin to understand how we are defined by both the places where we choose to live and the people with whom we share fragments of our lives.

I’m in her bedroom, because her flatmate is making dinner and Saskia has refused to let me go near him. She is in her en-suite bathroom, and steam is coming through the barely cracked door – the extractor fan does not work, she said, so she has to crack it. The room is dimly lit by two lamps with dark blue, almost opaque, lampshades.

I am lying on her bed with my boots off – I left them in the cold and damp stairwell. My jeans are wet at the ankles, from the snow, so Saskia has put a towel down rather than make me sit on a chair. My shins, ankles and feet are cold. It’s the first time my feet and ankles have been cold in a long while.

Otherwise I am warm. I’m still in my coat and scarf. My hat and gloves are beside me.

The music on the stereo, Saskia told me, is a Spanish pianist named Mompou, who, she claims, was Chopin’s only equal when it came to volume of sound in single notes. The music is slow, very slow, and seems to swirl and radiate in the dissipating edges of the steam coming from the bathroom. Saskia has been taking a shower for almost half an hour.

She poured me a glass of wine and then poured herself a glass and went into the bathroom with it. And I lie here, imagining her wet arm reaching out from behind the shower curtain, feeling for the glass, bringing it in for a sip, then replacing it.

This is the first time I’ve been in her flat, and the building is as grubby as Janos, back in the café, implied. The stairwells stink.

The paint is peeling and the floors smell of mildew. The walls are so thin you can hear the heavy front door to the building open and close, four floors down.

Saskia’s bedroom is messy and cramped, but in an eccentric, smart way. Books are stacked all over the floor, but her bookshelf is empty, suggesting that she is the kind of person who reads seventy-five books at once. In the stacks are the jagged, flopped edges of loose pages and stapled bundles of paper, which have come from years of evening courses.

In many ways, she has admitted, she is not really reading books but working on thoughts, so that she might read a sentence in one book – a novel or a book of poems – and immediately need to leap to a history book, or an economics textbook, or an art book.

Her small collection of paintings hangs on the four walls of the room. They are all so small that you have to get up and look at them closely to make sense of them. Propped up on my little grey Samsonite case is the painting we bought together. I still cannot tell which way is up, and I’ve forgotten the way Saskia has shown me.

As soon as she is ready, Saskia and I are going to drop my things at my apartment and go find food. The woman – the landlord, or the landlord’s agent, I wasn’t sure – didn’t want to give me the keys, even though I had my bank documents.

I had expected this. Saskia and Manuela offered to act as my references, but she required references from landlords. So I gave her a year’s worth of rent in cash.

I went into the bathroom, pulled it out of my money belt, and placed the whole stack on the kitchen counter. I’d halfhoped the woman might find it suspicious, but money is money.

She smiled, took the keys out of her bag, and said, This one is the deadbolt to your door. This one is the door downstairs.

This one is the door to the side terrace, and this one is to the bedroom’s balcony.

Saskia sat down at the kitchen table and smoked a cigarette.

That was a lot of money to be carrying, she said. She was, I could see, disappointed after having seen it. I could not say if she was disappointed in me – because of the way I placed it on the counter, perhaps, like a gangster, or because of a suspicion on her part, which would have been justified, that I had added evil to i

55

the world in order to obtain it – or if she was simply disappointed by the fact that nobody could or wanted to resist money.

I said, I just wanted to get this over with. This is why it’s good to be rich, Manuela said. We did not spend too long in the apartment after that. Manuela, with errands to run, left us, and we promised we’d meet up at Chambinsky if we had the energy.

I sat in my large living room, looking out the window to my small terrace, overlooking the cemetery, in a large, comfortable rocking chair, while Saskia paced around the apartment on the phone, trying to book a table for later. She came in finally and sat heavily on the couch. Every place she knew was booked out.

She said, Why don’t you go get your stuff and bring it here, I’ll go home and change, and we’ll meet in the city? I agreed that was the smartest thing to do, but as we sat there pondering the consequences of separating, we did not seem interested in that, either. There was always a chance we might get sidetracked, get tired, and decide to raincheck dinner, and for my part, continuing the rest of the evening without her had, without my realizing it, become unthinkable.

So I suggested we stick together and see what happened, and when she agreed I could tell she liked the idea. Mr and Mrs Pyz were sad to see me go, but our goodbye wasn’t as emotional as I’d feared. They simply wished me well and told me to come back for dinner sometime. It was also easy to leave my little room. It might as well have been a bunk in sleeping quarters, for all the emotional attachment I had to it.

Saskia came into the room with me, expecting to help me pack, and was shocked to see how little I had with me. When we left Hotel Rus, I turned around to give myself a chance to capture it in the condition of me leaving it, so that if I lasted in this city for another twenty years, I might think back on it one Christmassy night and remember the moment; but as soon as we left it the picture went hazy.

We took a taxi to Saskia’s place with my belongings. It was snowing again, though not as heavily as before. I was getting hungry, and was eager to head into the city, find a place to eat, then maybe hit another Christmas market, hear some music, and figure out a way to skip Chambinsky.

The glass door between Saskia’s bedroom and the little shared balcony that runs in a square over the courtyard below is sweating badly with condensation. At the end of her bed, Saskia’s clothes are piled in three huge mounds, which she classifies as dirty-and-to-be-washed, dirty-but-to-wear-again, and washed-and-ready-to-iron. She irons a piece of clothing only when she needs to wear it.

She told me that she irons against the wall, since there is no room for an ironing board and no other uncluttered hard surface. Against the wall? I asked. Like this, she said, and showed me. There is nothing hung up in her closet, except hideous dresses she bought in a fever and is too embarrassed to return. The shower stops. I hear the water dripping off her into the plastic-bottomed shower box. I hear her open the shower curtain and step out, and I even hear the towel drying her. The Mompou is slow and quiet. There are times I assume it has stopped, then another note comes.

Saskia opens the bathroom door fully, and steam and warmth billow out. She is wearing a towel around her body and another on her head. Is the music too dull? she asks. It’s perfect, I say. She sits down beside me on the bed and throws the towel on her head onto the mound of dirty-but-to-use-again. She opens a drawer in a little chest beside her desk, and takes out some underwear and a bra.

She lets the other towel fall from her body and exposes her back to me, an inch away from where my arm is lying. Her back is muscular. I can feel heat coming off it, after the shower. She

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puts on the bra and stands up, and ties the towel around her waist. She changes the music from the Mompou CD to some trashy europop. She taps her fingers along with the beat.

You like this stuff? I ask. She walks to the bathroom again.

You sound like Janos, she says. He can’t stand the fact that I have base tastes. Maybe he knows his stuff, I say. She makes some noise in the bathroom, opening and closing a drawer, spraying deodorant, and returns with a blow-dryer and a hairbrush. Janos thinks his alternative music on his alternative station is art, and he thinks this is pop, she says.

It’s all pop. His music is just as predictable, just as sentimental, and nearly as catchy. The only difference, she says, is that this music does not pretend to be anything. And it’s sung by people who are not pretending to be anything but petty celebrities. She plugs in the blow-dryer and sits back down beside me on the bed. Anyway, you can’t hear Mompou over this, she says, and turns the blow-dryer on.

She’s ready about twenty minutes later, wearing black tights and a denim mini-skirt, a dark green, long-sleeve top, and an amber costume necklace. You look nice, I say. Do I? she says. We put on our boots in the stairwell, having completely avoided any contact with the roommate.

Every stairwell in this city has the same overpowering

The shower stops. I hear her open the shower curtain and step out.

I even hear the towel drying her underscent – a scent of wet stone. Nothing gets rid of it.

Nothing even really masks it. Not plants or pots of potpourri or urine or mice or sunlight or shadow or breeze. Saskia’s stairwell has it. The stairwell at Hotel Rus had it, and inside the lift too.

And the stairwell in my new building has it.

The woman who showed us the apartment stayed on her phone all the way up the stairs. I immediately wondered if the phone call, which seemed to express the fact that she was speaking to somebody else about the apartment, was an act, and wanted to tell her, as she clicked severely up the broad stone steps, that it did not matter, that if the place had walls and a ceiling, I was going to take it.

She was a striking woman, less pretty in every respect but in every respect more beautiful than Manuela, not merely in aspect but in the air that came off her: she was stranger, more serious, more distant. I wondered if she spent time on her own after work watching people from windows, if she switched her phone off, sat down in a bar or café on her own, and wished she were another person, in another place.

We arrived at the door to the apartment and she put the phone away. She turned around and waited for us all to arrive on the landing. She gave us an inauthentic, polite smile, one she did not even realize she was giving. She put the key in the door and asked us to step in. I went first, then Saskia, then Manuela, and finally the woman.

The hallway inside the door was arched, white, and high, and had a small chandelier. The walls were wallpapered, and the wallpaper was old. Manuela and Saskia agreed that it would have to be redone, but I liked the way it looked. In fact, it was very much in line with the way I imagined it would have to be. There were two doors to the right and two to the left, and one straight ahead, which was

LIFE & STYLE | BIG READ

the bathroom. The doors to the right were bedrooms.

The first door to the left was the kitchen. The second was the living room. Every room had high ceilings, white walls, and a darkly stained wooden floor, except the kitchen, which was tiled. It was cold, but that was because the woman arrived only a few minutes before us to turn the heat on, she told us.

Have a look around, said the woman. She checked the time on her phone and said, Take all the time you need. Saskia, perhaps sensing that I wasn’t going to bother looking at all, took me into the kitchen. It was a large, rectangular room, with lots of counter space and a little island for chopping, above which pots and pans and large utensils hung from hooks. Beyond the island was a space with a large rectangular table. Beyond that was the flowerpot-sized balcony we had seen from the street.

There was also a glass door in the far wall, with a view of the graveyard, that opened to a long, narrow terrace that stretched the full length of the apartment.

It’s nice, said Saskia. It sure is, I said. Let’s check the bedrooms, she said. Manuela was in the bathroom, testing the water pressure. The shower came on – spurting once or twice, as the pipes in the wall shook and groaned, as though it had not been used in a long time. Manuela shouted, Good pressure!

The guest bedroom was the same size as the kitchen, but, with only one window, which faced the street we had arrived on, was much darker. I only peered in. I had a feeling I would never be in there. But Saskia sat on the bed and said, as she bounced up and down lightly on the mattress, This is perfect. This is all I need.

I left her there and went to the master bedroom, a large room with a big bed that faced some sliding doors that led to a small square enclosure. The curtains were drawn to either side of the glass doors. I opened them and stepped out. Saskia and Manuela followed.

The little balcony, which had a high wall separating me from the next balcony, overlooked a pitifully dark and narrow space between the backs of buildings. There were wires and clothes lines and antennae, little plastic chairs beside flowerpots and small charcoal grills. Saskia looked over the edge. It looks like an Egon Schiele painting, she said. There were so many different shades of white and grey and brown and silver and black in that narrow space that it seemed like one very mottled and disconsolate colour. Dots of contrast – hanging red shirts and yellow underwear and green sweaters – had grown icicles.

I like it, I said. Some plants might cheer it up, said Saskia. It’s north-facing, said Manuela. Nothing will grow but ferns. It’ll be nice in summer, said Saskia, when you want shade. I did not feel the need to check the bathroom closely, but when we crossed the hallway to the living room, I peeked inside, and saw a large tub, a gleaming white commode, and an oval mirror above a sink. That was all I needed to know – a bathroom of my own, with a tub big enough to lie down in. I would drag a little table beside the tub and put some books and a glass of cold water and an ashtray on it, and take the hottest baths I could bear.

The living room was large and wide, and because of the width there was the illusion that this ceiling was higher than the others. It was maybe thirty feet long and twenty feet wide. That is not large relative to really large rooms, but compared to my little room in Hotel Rus it seemed like an opera house. Manuela sat on the couch and Saskia and I looked out the window. Beyond the long, narrow terrace and the two-lane street below us, headstones and crypts dotted a snowy, tree-filled hill, and beyond that the city rolled gradually downward, toward the river valley, and far beyond that were mountains, concealed by snow and fog.

The woman drifted in behind us. That window, she said, gets the sun all evening.

How long has the apartment been empty? Saskia asked. Not long, said the woman.

The creaking and spitting pipes in the bathroom suggested she was lying, but that did not matter.

Somewhere between the apartment and Hotel Rus, on the underground, on our way to get my things, Saskia asked, Does it bother you to be so close to a cemetery? How do you mean? I asked. People like to pretend they will live forever, she said. Oh, I said.

She said, quoting, speaking from memory, slowly, Let us await it everywhere. I looked at her. She smiled. She was always in many places at once, invested deeply in a hundred different notions, and of all the things I liked about Saskia that was the thing I liked most.

She took my arm in her hand, as though we were walking, and said, Such a long day.

That repose, that sleepiness and quiet, accompanied her all the way to Hotel Rus, in Hotel Rus, and on the way to her flat. She had her eyes closed often, and rested her head on my arm. The daylight was still semi-strong when we separated from Manuela, but had disappeared by the time we arrived at her place. Saskia was so tired I feared

Photo by Anja Pietsch

Greg Baxter was born in Texas in 1974.

His first book, A Preparation for Death, published in 2010, was lauded by Anne Enright, James Lasdun, David Shields, and William Leith, among others.

The Apartment has been widely acclaimed around the world, and Munich Airport is published in the UK in July.

He has published essays and stories in The Dublin Review, Five Dials, and The White Review. Over the last twenty years he’s lived in Germany, Austria, Ireland and England. He now lives in Berlin.

57

LIFE & STYLE | A QUIET NIGHT IN

STARS SHINE IN TV CRIME Woody and Matthew bring more movie magic to TV while those familiar little bricks are supersized for the silver screen

by Hamish McFadzean DVD TV: TRUE DETECTIVE Another contender for the “TV is now better than the movies” argument, True Detective is a dark, verging on bleak, examination of the inner lives of two detectives, their relationship and, of course, the crimes they’re trying to solve. With Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey and double Oscar-nominee Woody Harrelson leading the cast, this was always going to be a cut above your regular TV cop show. Rumours have it that Brad Pitt is being lined up for series two so if you’re not already hooked in, this DVD of the first series is your chance to see what you’ve been missing.

DVD MOVIE: THE LEGO MOVIE Here at Title, our favourite YouTube clip is the Lego animation of stand-up comic Eddie Izzard’s take on Darth Vader in the Death Star canteen. So joy was unconfined when we heard about The Lego Movie. An ordinary Lego figure has to save the world from evil forces who want to glue bricks together. He is assisted in this quest by other figurines, such as

58

Batman and Gandalf. To the smartiepants, it’s a postmodern realisation of crosscultural connections. To the rest of us, it’s an excuse to sit down and pretend we’re having quality time with the kids.

DVD MOVIE: NEBRASKA A crabby old man gets a magazine subscription bait letter that tells him he may have won a million dollars. He sets off to collect, despite the warnings of his son who eventually becomes his travelling companion and accomplice. This black-and-white journey through a past littered with failed friendships and disappointments, a lot of laughs and genuinely touching moments, leads to an unexpected ending that makes the whole journey well worthwhile.

soapie from the 1970s.

Who knew that snobbery was even more rife below stairs than it was among the upperclasses upstairs?

It’s a double trip back in time when a different era of television looked back at a period – from Edwardian England to the roaring ‘20s – that was a lot closer in the rear view mirror. There was a modern remake of the series, but, as with most things, the original Bafta, Emmy and Golden Globewinner is the best.

DVD TV: UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS, 21-DISC SERIES If there is something vaguely familiar about the Downton Abbey phenomenon, it could be because it has its roots in this venerable class-based

BOOK: WENDELL SAILOR: CROSSING THE LINE Dual league and union international Wendell Sailor is a complicated man. The

first player raised entirely in rugby league to cross over to the 15-man game at international level, his career was plagued and almost ended by a series of public indiscretions.

This hard-hitting biography reveals a childhood started by rejection but nurtured by a couple who had nothing but love to give.

And it finally answers one of the enduring mysteries of this supremely-talented sportsman’s life: Where did he come from?

AUDIO BOOK: GONE GIRL BY GILLIAN FLYNN Listening to audio books is a very distinctive pleasure.

Get the right story and narrator and you’ll find yourself transported in a way even the printed page can’t manage. Great for long car journeys to exercise to, listening to novels is a rare treat. And listen to this fascinating tale before the movie version in October of this bestseller releases in Australia in October, and every conversation needs to begin with a spoiler alert.

LIFE & STYLE | TRANSPORT

THE WHEEL THING

When it comes to getting around our cities, apartment dwellers have it sussed. As Anna Washington discovers, the options are almost endless

Stephen Goddard, and his multiple modes of transport.

Photo by Lorrie Graham

It used to be all about planes, trains and automobiles, but the nation’s apartment residents are now leading the way in using a multitude of city-friendly transport options to get from A to B, and then on to C. Bicycle ownership is on the rise in both Sydney and Melbourne and the popularity of scooters is increasing sharply. There’s also a much greater emphasis on public transport, while share-hire car companies like GoGet have been expanding rapidly.

Take Stephen Goddard, a Sydney lawyer and the Chair of the Owners Corporation Network, the peak body for apartment-owners nationally. He has, at home in his apartment complex in Kensington, a Mercedes Benz car, a Trek mountain bike, a Vespa GTS250 scooter, a membership of GoGet and a ticket he regularly uses for the ferry.

“It’s great to have access to such a wonderful range of transport options,” says Goddard, 62, the director of strata legal firm Goddard & Co. “I use my scooter – nickname Buttercup – to get to work, to do the shopping and to go out on, I have my car for outof-town trips, I use GoGet for their vans when moving items, the ferry for lunches in Manly and my bicycle for fitness.

“I took it to Melbourne last year for Opera Australia’s Ring Cycle and ended up making it a complete cycling week. I went on a number of their trails which were just beautiful.

Melbourne’s cycleways are far superior to Sydney’s.”

With developers generally including far fewer car spots in their inner-city projects, many new developments are actively encouraging alternative forms of transport.

GoGet CEO Tristan Sender says the company’s always pursued the vision of car share in developments: “Developers have recognised that car share is a

Maison Blanc, a 16-apartment building being sold off-the-plan at Bondi Beach, even offered free scooters to those buying units without parking. “It proved extremely popular, and I think we’ll continue doing that with future projects,” says Marie Doyle of Fiducia Property Group.

“'evelopers can see that car share is a natural addition to any building”

The future of hire car share looks extremely bright, too. GoGet, the first and largest company in Australia, now has 36,500 members, 1,110 cars in Sydney, more than 6,000 members in Melbourne and over 200 cars, including its first-ever electric vehicle network and charge station in a strata development. For GoGet, members book online then gain access to the car, usually parked in their neighbourhood, by swiping a card over the windshield, which unlocks the doors with the keys inside. They’re then billed by the hour.

natural addition to almost any building and they’re using GoGet as a selling point for their projects.”

And with access to convenient transport now in the top three items on apartment-dwellers’ wish-lists, it’s likely developments will continue to improve their provision of spaces for scooters, bicycles and share-hire cars.

“That’s getting better all the time!” says Goddard.

The 2wners Corporation 1etwork, www.ocn.org.au

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LIFE & STYLE | FITNESS

SEVEN MINUTES FROM FITNESS Fitness fads come and go but there is one that we reckon will stick around for years. Why? Because, says Title fitness editor Grant Hyde, it’s simple and it works

ONE MACHINE THAT MEETS ALL YOUR GYM NEEDS I am often asked what is the best single piece of aerobic equipment you should have in your gym. A stationary bike, treadmill or stepper, for instance?

One of the best things about the Seven Minute Workout program is that it requires no fancy equipment, no expensive gym membership or classes, and not even that much time out of your busy schedule.

All it needs is you and a watch with a second hand on it. The Seven Minute Workout comprises 12 exercises deploying only body weight, a chair and a wall. The program, say sports scientists, crunches the effects of a long run and a visit to the weight room into about seven minutes of intense, if admittedly uncomfortable, activity.

And happily, it can be done even in the smallest apartment.

Researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, claim that even a few minutes of training at a level approaching your maximum capacity produces molecular changes within muscles comparable to those of several hours of running or bike riding.

The seven-minute program is designed to alternate the use of large muscle groups in different parts of your body so that even though you are only stopping for 10 seconds at a time between sets, you are effectively resting different muscles while you thrash the others, so you get the same effect as interval training.

The 12 exercises for 30 seconds each with a 10-second break in between are, jumping jacks (star jumps), wall sit, push-ups, abdominal crunches, step-ups (on to a chair), squats, dips (on chair), a plank, high knee running on the

60

Grant Hyde, personal trainer, author and Title’s fitness editor. www.stratagym.com.au

spot, lunges, push-ups with rotation and side plank.

The benefits are obvious for those of us who are time poor, don’t have access to a gym or who travel a lot and spend way too much time in hotel rooms.

But experts say that if you have a regular training routine that has left you stuck in a rut, this is one way to turn a fitness wheelspin into real progress.

The easiest way to use the seven-minute program is to download it on to your smartphone or tablet from ITunes or Google Play and it will give you clear instructions on what to do, when and for how long.

And remember, since it is time-based, rather than a set number of repetitions, you can go at your own pace, depending on your fitness level. But always check with your doctor before embarking on any new fitness or training schedule.

The answer, for the broadest range of users in terms of age and fitness, is a good crosstrainer. It works all the parts of the body while allowing you to keep going for a bit longer than most people can manage on a rower. It works the legs, obviously, and some can even isolate the glutes, calves or thighs. And it works the arms too, if you use the levers properly. Interestingly, it also brings in the core if you let go of the handles and just let your legs do all the work.

So why is a cross-trainer better than a bike or treadmill? Because it is weight-bearing while a bike takes all your weight on your backside, and, unlike a treadmill, it has low impact on your knees.

Now there is a huge range of cross-trainers available – from the frankly pathetic TV offers to top-range professional gear. As in most areas in life, you only get what you pay for. So if your block is about to upgrade its gym gear, persuade them to invest in the best cross-trainer they can afford.

If you want advice on the best equipment or on personal training, email me on gamefit@ optusnet.com.au

Strata Facts LEVEL THREE

62 64 68 69 PETS

70 72 74 76 Q&A

BREAKING GROUND

VERTICAL VILLAGE IDIOTS

INSURANCE

WHAT DOES ‘MANAGER’ MEAN?

FINANCE

HEALTH

STRATA | PETS

DOGS IN FLATS DOES SIZE MATTER? Breed is more important than bulk when it comes to choosing a dog that won’t drive your neighbours barking mad, writes Isabel Mackie.

Is size the most important factor when it comes to choosing a dog to share your living space in an apartment or townhouse? Not at all, say the experts.

A massive Great Dane or Doberman is much more likely to prove the perfect apartment pet than a nippy little Jack Russell.

“Often, the larger the dog, the better suited they are to apartment-living,” says Steve Austin, past president of the Pet Industry of Australia. “People might look at Greyhounds or Salukis or big Irish Wolfhounds and imagine they can’t possibly live happily in small spaces.

“But they don’t need as much exercise as other breeds, and tend to like to lay around a lot. Generally, it’s not the size of a dog that matters, but the size of the commitment of the owner. No matter whether a dog is large or small, the owner must be prepared to exercise them and spend time with them, and that will fix any behavioural problems.”

At a time when two-thirds of Australian households own pets and half own dogs and cats, it’s little wonder that more and more apartments are also becoming home to animals. Most new developments now advertise themselves as being “pet-

friendly” and owners often find the value of their property rises as a result.

“Owning a pet also helps build community in apartment buildings,” says Alex Greenwich, a Sydney independent MP in the NSW Parliament who lives with his Whippet-Fox Terrier-Cross, Max, in a pet-welcoming building in Kings Cross.

“People all start to talk about your dog and it creates a much friendlier, happier atmosphere.”

Research certainly supports that view.

University of Western Sydney social scientist Dr Emma Power is one of the few academics in Australia ever to have studied the issue, and she’s found that most people’s experience of strata-living has been enriched by the presence of pets.

“One lady told me that when she first moved into a block, people would smile but avoid her eyes,” says Emma. “But when she bought her dog, every time she went out for a walk with it, people would stop her in the corridor to chat.

“That’s an experience we found was duplicated over and over among so many of the apartment residents we interviewed.”

Most apartments that permit pets impose rules about noise, control and – often erroneously – the breed of

Sydny MP Alex Greenwich with his Whippet Terrier Cross Max

dogs permitted, and then find there are plenty of benefits, including no shortage of tenants for rental units, and more contented owners, since a number of studies have found that having pets improves people’s mental health.

The kind of breeds suggested by animal authorities include Pugs, Basset Hounds, Great Danes, Boston Terriers, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Toy Poodles, ShihTzus, Yorkshire Terriers, Chihuahuas and Bichon Frises.

The main rules to remember are to stay with a dog as much as possible when you first move into your apartment until they are used to it, try to keep as much floor space available as possible and to establish a routine. Then, the cardinal rule is to give your dog enough exercise.

“A good owner will walk their dog every day, rain, hail or shine,” says Steve Austin, who’s now the current director of Young Diggers Australia, an organisation that trains rescue dogs for returned soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Dogs need regular exercise, which is a mistake many people in big houses with big backyards make. They need someone to take them out, wherever they live.”

IS DRIED FOOD MAKING YOUR CAT FAT? Are you killing your cat with kindness? It’s happening in far more apartments and townhouses around the nation than we’d ever suspect.

Many of us feed them far too much dried food than is good for them, believes cat vet specialist Melissa Catt of Sydney’s Paddington Cat Hospital. “Many cats these days aren’t able to self-regulate how much food they should eat, so if it’s left out for them, they eat too much of it. And it can be high-calorie food, with a lot of carbs and, of course, it’s dehydrated, so they should be drinking a lot more water than they usually do, too.”

The solution? Cats should be fed mostly wet food. “And people should spend more time playing with their cats,” she says. “They need to be actively engaged to exercise, which is something many cat-owners just don’t realise.

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Licence #183407C

STRATA | BREAKING GROUND

Apartment block styling hits

NEW HEIGHTS They soar, they bend, they break all the rules as architects compete to create the next generation of iconic buildings.

By Michael Murillo

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Downsizers looking to upscale on the Melbourne waterfront will be eyeing plans for the 42-level, 460-apartment Marina Tower, set to be the tallest building in the Docklands. Not only will it have a big selection of three-bedroom homes, many with fabulous views, but it will also have world-class facilities that it will share with a Four Points by Sheraton hotel set to occupy the low-rise section.

These will include a 25-metre lap pool, gym, library, gallery, business centre and conference rooms, and also a private cinema, billiard room, private dining room and restaurant and cafe. Designed by dKO and marketed by CBRE Melbourne, prices will range from $360,000 to $4 million.

China’s largest developer of residential property, Country Garden, has finally entered the Australian market with a major project of 830 apartments over three towers. Set to become one of the largest residential developments in Sydney, the Bates Smartdesigned buildings in North Ryde will be 12, 21 and 27 storeys high, each with a rooftop sky garden and spectacular views to the city, while sharing a gym, pool and childcare centre.

“This is a new chapter in Sydney’s property market,” says marketing and sales agent Sam Elbanna of CPM Realty. “It’s a very exciting development, and a very exciting time.”

Top Left: Marina Tower, Docklands Bottom Left: Ryde Garden, North Ryde Centre: Darling Square, Darling Harbour Left:Claremont Manor, South Yarra Below Left: Eve, Erskineville interior Near Left: Sue Axeland of Woolooware Bay Below: Eve, Erskineville

What’s in a name? While Melbourne tends to favour the more conservative option of calling buildings after their location – think The Melburnian, The Fairlie on the corner of Fairlie Court and The Clarendon on, yes, Clarendon Street – Sydney goes full bore for monikers that are far more evocative.

The names of two of the just-released towers of the vast new sell-out development Darling Square on the site of Sydney’s entertainment centre, for instance, caused much furrowing of brows at first: St Leon and Wirth House. Then developer Lend Lease explained they were called after old Australian circuses, for an area that’s always been known for showbiz. Roll up!

Roll up!

Clean lines and contrasting colour ... Melbourne’s South Yarra is soon to have a striking new resident shape up close to its famed Chapel Street. The 18-level, 318-apartment Claremont Manor, designed by renowned architects Bird De La Coeur with interiors by Hassell, has just been launched for sale off the plan, and is already creating a stir.

“It’s in such a prime location, yet is very, very affordable,” says Andrew Leoncelli, managing director of agents CBRE Residential Projects Victoria, adding: “It’s a beautiful-

looking building and it offers great connectivity and a wonderful lifestyle.”

Renowned for its passion for design, Melbourne developer Fridcorp – the company behind the good-looking Avenue and Lilli in South Yarra, Elm in South Melbourne and Ivy in St Kilda – is making a splash with its stylish entry into the Sydney market with the 198-apartment Eve at Erskineville by dKO Architecture, with interiors by Hecker Guthrie.

“I think the location is fabulous, close to the CBD, with lots of amenity, but also it offers real value for money, and great design,” says Fridcorp managing director Paul Fridman. “We’ll be delivering a bespoke, high-quality property at a price point the market can afford, with an integrity of design that we love.”

Buyers of apartments at a massive new waterfront development in Sydney’s south are being offered a good-looking add-on.

The Bluestone Group, the developer of the 600-apartment, 10-hectare community Woolooware Bay, is offering purchasers a free 1.5-hour session with interior designer Sue Axeland to personalise their home. “The feedback I’ve received has been very rewarding,” says Axeland.

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STRATA | INSURANCE

TRIPLE DECK COVER MAKES COMMON SENSE When it comes to insurance – like everything else in strata living – nothing is a simple as it seems. Lia de Sousa, General Manager, Strata, at Whitbread Insurance Brokers leads us through the potential minefield that can turn an unfortunate incident into an expensive disaster balconies, shared water pipes, sewage pipes and electrical conduits.

If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from broking insurance for 35 years at Whitbread Insurance Brokers, it’s that there’s a lot of confusion in the market about the various types of cover required by people who live in strata titled properties. In short, it’s hard to know where one policy ends and the next begins.

If in doubt, your original strata management plan and any subsequent by-law or rule amendments will define what is and isn’t common property Common Contents includes any appliances, equipment, furniture, fittings and works of art in common areas for which the Owners Corporation is responsible. Strata Insurance also provides cover for the legal liability of the Owners Corporation.

There are three basic kinds of policies linked to strata living, but they all cover different aspects of your home and what you have in it.

• STRATA INSURANCE Strata Insurance – which is compulsory – provides general insurance cover for the building, shared or ‘common’ areas, common property and common contents ... basically anything you and your neighbours own collectively and which comes under the management of an Owner Corporation (or Body Corporate).

• CONTENTS INSURANCE As far as your personal assets are concerned, the cover afforded by a Strata Insurance policy ends as soon as you cross the threshold of your front door and step into your individual lot.

If you are an owner-occupier or tenant in a strata title then you will need to take out a Contents Insurance policy to protect your personal assets as well as the personal liability associated with your home. An easy way to visualise the tangible assets you need to personally insure is to imagine the

Common Property includes fixtures that form part of the building structure, such as fixed plant, machinery and underground services, and owners’ fixtures, fittings and improvements that form part of the building, such as

STRATA INSURANCE POLICY

CONTENTS INSURANCE POLICY

LANDLORD INSURANCE POLICY

Mrs Jones Owner Occupier

• Burst sewerage pipe in common area • Walls • Ceiling

• • • • •

Not applicable

Mrs Wells Landlord

• Burst sewerage pipe in common area • Walls • Ceiling

Not applicable

• • • • •

Mr Smith Tenant

Not applicable

• Personal effects • Furniture

Not applicable

Internal carpets Furniture Blinds Light fittings Personal effects

Internal carpets Furniture Blinds Loss of rent Other fixtures & fittings

NB: This table relates specifically to the situation described in the main article. Other circumstances may differ.

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building being turned upside down and shaken vigorously. Anything that falls out of your lot is your responsibility to insure; clothing, jewellery, furniture and electrical appliances not fixed into the premises.

Internal carpets, light fittings and blinds might not be so easily shaken out, but these items are also included under your Contents Insurance policy as they do not form part of the building structure.

• LANDLORD INSURANCE If your strata title property is an investment which you lease, then you will need a Landlord Insurance policy.

Landlord Insurance provides cover for the landlord’s fixtures and fittings, including blinds, carpets and light fittings inside the lot. It can also cover rent default and public liability for your capacity as a landlord.

Should the premises become uninhabitable due to contents damage, the Landlord Insurance policy can also extend to cover loss of rent.

To put this information into context, let’s take a look at a claims scenario and step through how each of these policies responds.

Kings Landing is a residential apartment block comprising 30 separate lots. Mrs Jones, who lives on Level 5, is an owner-occupier. She lives directly above Mr Smith on Level 4, who is renting the apartment from a private landlord, Mrs Wells.

One day, Mr Smith returns from work to discover sewage leaking from his ceiling and his lounge room flooded.

It turns out a pipe has burst in Mrs Jones’s apartment, which is causing sewage to seep through the floor and into Mr Smith’s apartment.

STRATA | FINANCE

THAT SINKING FEELING Mrs Jones has extensive damage to her walls, carpets and personal belongings as a result of the burst pipe, as does Mr Smith. Mr Smith, being a tenant, refers the matter immediately to his landlord, Mrs Wells, informing her that the apartment is uninhabitable until repairs are carried out. Mrs Wells is concerned that she will be out of pocket for the rent she would have received during the period the repairs are being carried out.

The ‘belt and braces’ approach may signal excessive caution ... but is even that enough when it comes to stata insurance?

So, who is responsible here? Is it Mrs Jones’s fault because the problem began in her apartment? Is it the Owners Corporations’ responsibility as the sewage pipe formed part of the building structure? Or, does the answer (as it usually does) lie somewhere in the middle?

As the problem occurred in Mrs Jones’s apartment, Mrs Jones as an owner occupier would firstly make a claim under the Strata Insurance policy for the burst sewerage pipe, which is common property.

The Strata Insurance policy in place for Kings Landing would then respond to cover the repair of the burst sewerage pipe in the common area and the repairs of ceilings, walls, etc. for both Mrs Jones and Mrs Wells. Mrs Jones would also make a claim under her contents policy for the repair and replacement of any contents damaged. This would include damage to carpets.

Mrs Wells’s structural repairs would be covered under the Strata Insurance policy, but she would also need to make a claim under her landlord policy to repair and replace any carpets, blinds or light fittings damaged.

As the premises has become uninhabitable due to damage to contents, Mrs Wells’s Landlord policy should respond to cover the rent she will be out of pocket for during the period the tenanted premises is uninhabitable.

All strata schemes are required by law to make plans to finance future maintenance. But is your sinking fund a safety net or just money down the drain?

Nobody loves levies and if there’s one pot o’ money that we hate pouring funds into, it’s the sinking or maintenance funds.

Most state strata laws require schemes to have a plan for the future maintenance of their common property, so that when the roof starts leaking or the wall start cracking, money has already been set aside for the rainy days yet to come.

Well, not quite - you do have to have a plan, but in most states you don’t necessarily need to have the money in the bank to match it.

And that can be a major problem, especially for people on fixed incomes, because unit owners are bound by law to maintain and repair common property, whether or not there is enough cash in the kitty.

So what do you do if the ceiling is caving in and the biscuit tin is empty? The most common solution in the past has been to strike a special levy to raise the money in one hit.

And while that may seem like just deserts for owners who have pennypinched on repairs for decades, it can be a bit harsh if they have to sell their units because they can’t raise the extra levies (which can add up to tens of thousands of dollars).

There is, however, an alternative: strata finance. Basically, this is a specialist, unsecured loan at a consequently higher interest rate that allows owners corps to get the work done but spread the cost over several years.

The loan is unsecured because, by law, owners corps are not allowed to offer common property as a surety, and common property is all an owners corp owns. However, owners can enter a binding contract that guarantees that they will, collectively, pay back the loans at an agreed rate.

The leader in this field is, ironically, the smallest player. Lannock Finance were among the first to enter the strata finance market and are now reckoned to write about 70% of the strata loans in the country.

Their CEO, Paul Morton, is almost evangelical about the financial wisdom of strata loans and will put up a convincing argument as to why any other form of financing repairs is money down the drain.

Next, and a much larger entity, is Macquarie Bank, which has the benefit of holding the vast majority of strata funds on its books, and in recent years has become very active in this area.

And a relative newcomer to the field is Westpac, which has realised the potential of not just a growing market but an ageing building stock which is starting to need a little TLC ... and a lot of cash.

So don’t despair if your sinking fund has been allowed to run dry by the cowboys who used to run your block ... you can always call on the loan arranger.

69

STRATA | STRATA GEMS

ANSWERING YOUR

CURLIEST QUESTIONS It’s a simple fact: nothing in strata is simple. So we asked Strata Community Australia (the strata managers’ professional body) and the Owners Corporation Network (strata owners) a few head-scratchers just to see where they are on the same page ... or not.

BUSH LAWYER BULLY Our Executive Committee has become dominated by one man who claims to be an expert in strata law and, more to the point, won’t let anyone else speak if they disagree with him. He was not elected at the last AGM but turns up at meetings and interjects and makes negative comments, occasionally going off on a rant. I know he is entitled to attend meetings and is only allowed to speak if the committee agrees - but what do we do when he refuses to sit down and shut up?

SCA: The Chair must make it clear through a statement at the start of the meeting that visitors are welcome but may only speak after seeking permission of the executive committee. Failure to comply with this legislative requirement may result in the meeting being suspended until the visitor can act appropriately and in accordance with the rules. If he still fails to comply then you may have to ask him to leave the meeting.

Alternatively if you have a strata manager it might be possible to hold the meetings in their offices making it difficult for your problematic owner to attend and/or misbehave. As a last resort you might need to seek some mediation from the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. They might help you reach agreement from him to observe the rules at future meetings.

OCN: Stop trying to do this by yourselves. Too informal and personal.

Get an outside expert to hold the line. For the next committee meeting, invite either your strata manager or, even better, an assertive lawyer, to attend. They should be briefed to stop the intervention of the vexatious individual.

70

Alternatively, keep a record and document all vexatious behaviour of the individual and then have a solicitor send them a letter telling them to cease and desist.

REPAIRS NEEDED BUT WE’RE BROKE Our building’s common property is badly in need of repair. One problem is that we don’t have the funds as the sinking fund has been neglected for years. The other is that there are a couple of older residents who have been there from day one who say they won’t be able to afford a rise in levies, let alone a special levy. Some owners say they would let the older residents off their share of the special levy just to get the work done. Our strata manager says this is not allowed but we have an obligation to fix common property. What’s the answer?

NB: Both the SCA and OCN agreed that owners corps have a legal duty to maintain and repair common property SCA: Failure to maintain the property could end up costing a lot more than increased levies especially if someone is injured or killed as a result of a lack of maintenance.

You may want to consider taking out a loan to cover the immediate costs of the repairs to common property.

The loan can then be repaid through increased levies but at least this won’t be as big a hit as a one off special levy due to the interest and principal being paid over a number of years.

Of course levies would need to be increased to cover the loan.

You should also urgently get a review

of the sinking fund done and ensure that this is kept up-to-date. A ten year sinking fund plan is required by law and the owners corporation can engage a professional to assist in the preparation of the plan.

As for your older residents, wanting to help out is admirable but they are legally responsible as lot owners so must contribute. Alternatively if owners wish to assist the elderly residents they could pay their portion of the special levy, as the Act does not allow their levy to be waived.

OCN: The owners corporation is not a welfare society. Lot owners are all obliged to contribute. The sinking fund is a way for today’s owners to pay their fair share of the wear and tear on a building, and of easing the pain of paying for major works.

Make sure you keep things objective and at arms length by engaging a structural engineering firm to carry

“Consider taking out a loan to cover the immediate costs of the repairs. It can then be repaid through increased levies but at least this won’t be as big a hit as a one off special levy.”

out an expert inspection and prepare a report with recommendations, which can include a priority order and estimated budget.

It may be that the work can be staged over time to avoid one great big special levy. Other options are strata finance and reverse mortgages that allow older residents on fixed incomes to borrow against their home.

CHAIRMAN’S PARKING PERK Once a week our chairman, who doesn't live in the building, uses visitor parking for his car for several hours while he attends business meetings (and a nearby gym). Last week a doctor attending a resident had to park on the street and got a ticket.

The chairman says using the parking spot is a 'little perk' for all the hard work he does for the building (and he is pretty efficient and organised). But I think he's setting a bad example to other owners. What do you reckon?

SCA: Visitor parking is usually part of the Development Consent for the scheme and, as such, is for visitors not owners or occupiers. On this basis an owners corporation cannot consent to owners or occupiers parking in this area as to do so would place the owners corporation in breach of the Development Consent.

OCN: Yes, the chairman should be leading by example and, no, the chairman should not be getting a perk. This is an infringement of the by-laws, which the owners corporation should enforce without fear or favour. If the owners feel the chairman should be recompensed for his efforts, they can consider an honorarium.

HEARTBREAK HOUND I love dogs and while I don’t mind them living in apartments I do find it hard that they are often left alone all day and sometimes into the evening.

Dogs are very sociable animals and I think leaving them locked up all day is cruel. The one next door to me doesn’t bark, so he is not breaking any by-laws, but I sometime hear him scratching and whining at the front door which I find very distressing. Is there anything I can do?

SCA: Hear, hear – we at SCA (NSW) love pets too but we love responsible pet owners more. Hopefully your bylaws allow pets. If that’s the case and if you have the time why not ask your neighbour if you can look in on and perhaps event walk Fido each day.

It could be a new business for you especially if others have pets as well.

OCN: If dogs are allowed to live in your building, then from an owners corporation viewpoint, this is not your business. On a personal level, you may want to have an informal chat with your neighbour, suggesting environmental enrichment such as kongs, or perhaps offering to mind or walk the dog on occasion.

SICK OF BBQ SMOKE Our building has a by-law that allows barbecues on balconies . The by-law only says that the barbecue must be kept clean and fish and seafood must

be cooked in foil because of the smell.

However, my neighbour below likes to put wood chips on his grill and the smoke comes into my unit. I am sure this can’t be good for my health. How do I prove this is a nuisance?

SCA: Section 117 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 allows for actions to be brought for nuisance. Owners and occupiers are not to create a nuisance which is likely to interfere with the use or quiet enjoyment of the common property by other owners or occupiers.

The first thing is speak to your neighbour about this issue. You might be able to come to some compromise that he can smoke his food as long as you’re given advance warning and can close your doors and windows.

If the smoke still comes in or your neighbour is not co-operative and won’t give up smoking his own food then you could bring an action in the NCAT seeking an order to cease using his BBQ as a smoker.

OCN : If you have a grievance, your first approach can be a friendly chat with your neighbour about the effect on you, which they may not realise. If that does not resolve the matter, you could approach the committee about amending the by-law to include a condition relating to excessive smoke.

You need expert advice on how you prove the smoke is excessive, from a doctor or a fire safety expert.

71

STRATA | TENANTS

HOW TO DEAL WITH ...

VERTICAL VILLAGE IDIOTS If apartment blocks truly are Vertical Villages then, writes Jimmy Thomson, it’s reasonable to assume that, just like the oldfashioned horizontal hamlets, they have their fair share of “characters”.

The biggest, scariest and most confronting aspect of living in strata is dealing with other people. And the scariest thing about people is that they are totally unpredictable.

There is no handbook that tells you how your neighbours will behave or, indeed, how they will react to your behaviour. However, when you get enough people living literally on top of each other, it’s going to bring out the best in some and the worst in others. Here’s the Title guide to the latter, those people we like to call Vertical Village Idiots, and how to deal with them.

THE STRATA FASCIST: Some people just love a set of dos and don’ts and there’s nothing quite like your strata by-laws or rules to get them puffed up and strutting their stuff. Expect every minor infringement to be met with a flurry of threats and “no-no” notes. Then there’s the first, final and “We really mean it this time!” official warnings, as well as lectures on being a good citizen.

HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM: Assuming you aren’t blithely breaching every by-law you encounter, the simplest thing to do (although not always the easiest) is to ignore them. Or you could tell them there is a process for complaints and their home-made so-called “official warnings” are not part of it. In which case, this is a personal attack and you will be filing all their notes until such times as you can show someone in real authority how much you

72

have been harassed. NB: If you are breaking the rules, the easiest way to stop people hassling you is to stop breaking them.

THE WHINGER: Constantly complains about everyone and everything but would never dream of doing anything about them. Write a letter? Raise an official complaint?

Join the strata committee? “Oh, I don’t want to cause any trouble,” they say. But they DO want to cause trouble, or they wouldn’t be talking to you. They just don’t want to be held responsible for the consequences.

HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM: Look at your watch and say “I’m terribly sorry but I have to go,” adding a different exotic reason each time like, you have an appointment at the STD clinic, or you are on trial for assault, or you have to be at the airport to make sure your boogie board clears customs.

Your thinking time while you invent a new excuse will give the impression you are really listening.

SERGEANT SCHULTZ: Remember Hogan’s Heroes and the German prisoner of war camp guard whose catch phrase was “I see nothing ... NOTHING!”? Get one of those as chairman of your strata committee and watch your little corner of paradise turn into a first-come, first-served free-for-all as chunks of common property are annexed for personal use, visitors parking turns into additional spaces for owners and awnings, gazebos and sunshades make the outside of the building look like an explosion at Bunnings. “Live and let live,” he or she will say as short-term lets spread through the building like rabbits on Viagra. “It’s all about give and take,” they’ll intone serenely as one of their mates gives themselves permission to take a slice of common property as their private garden. “We’re all one big family,” they smirk ... although with all the back-scratching and mateship,

it’s more like the Sopranos and the Medicis than the Brady Bunch.

HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM: Make a note of all the bits of common property that have been purloined for personal use then put a motion to your Executive Committee or your next AGM saying that now you have pointed out the problems, anyone who decides to do nothing is personally responsible for any loss to the owners corporation. That should get their attention.

KING OF MY CASTLE: There are still people who think that ownership of a strata home brings with it all sorts of rights but no responsibilities. They are almost always wrong on every count. The ‘rights’ range from being allowed to play their surround sound system at floor-trembling volumes to being able to use visitor parking whenever they want “because I own it”. They think they can complain about tenants but tenants can’t say a word about them.

Their responsibilities do not include attending meetings, reading (let alone abiding by) rules or by-laws or making sure there is enough money in the maintenance funds for the upkeep of the building. They certainly don’t involve even a second’s thought for the welfare or contentment of their neighbours.

HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM: You really, really don’t want to get involved in the kind of psychological warfare it might take to convince these people that they don’t belong in strata. However, you could start by putting together a newsletter that explains what being part of a community involves and then using every various infraction of the rules to reinforce the message – in a positive way, if possible. With any luck, you will have a Strata Fascist in your scheme too and you can just point them at each other and let them go for it.

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STRATA | MANAGERS

MANAGERS AND THE NAME OF THE GAME Jimmy Thomson looks at the strata jobs that have similar sounding names but very different roles A strata manager, a building manager and a caretaker walk into a bar ... who buys the drinks?* It’s a joke, but in strata there are some labels that are so confusing that it’s just not funny.

Depending on where you live, you could have a strata manager, building manager, owners corporation manager, strata managing agent, body corporate manager, facilities manager, caretaker, or residential manager.

They might report to a strata committee, executive committee, strata council or management committee. And all of this could be overseen by an owners corporation, body corporate, strata company or strata corporation - all of which mean exactly the same thing.

Confused? You should be. But getting back to just the managers, the names may be similar but their roles can be very different.

A strata manager (aka owners corporation manager, strata managing agent or body corporate manager) is basically a professional administrator for strata schemes. It is his or her job to take the collective decisions of the owners, via general meetings or through their elected committee, and turn them into actions.

He or she is not the boss of the owners or their committee – in fact, it’s the other way round. Strata managers can only do what the scheme’s owners collectively instruct them to do.

For that reason, there is little point in raging at the strata manager if you think your levies (or strata fees) are too high. Your strata managers are only doing what the people who bothered to turn up at your AGM instructed them to do, and that includes collecting a specific amount of money from owners.

Yes, they will have advised on how much money the annual budget needs

74

and therefore the amount you should contribute every quarter. But shouting at the strata manager because your levies are too high is like yelling at your kids because they get too much pocket money.

From the levies or fees that strata managers collect, they pay bills and expenses (including their own fees).

FYI: the average annual cost of a strata manager is $250 per unit – hardly worth bursting a blood vessel over, especially if you are getting good service.

“Shouting at the strata manager because your levies are too high is like yelling at your kids because they get too much pocket money.”

The good ones will tell your committee if they’re about to do something that contravenes your state’s strata laws and the smart ones will tell you how likely you are to get away with it.

They handle communications between the owners’ committees and the owners and make sure that new by-laws or rules are registered with the appropriate authorities. They can send out breach notices (if instructed by the committee) but they are not StrataKops – they won’t patrol your car park or sneak into gardens in search of contraband pets. In fact, he or she may conceivably never set foot in your building.

They also organise strata insurance – which is compulsory under strata law – for which they often receive a commission. It’s worth noting that owners can collectively decide to hand over all the functions of their committee to the strata manager (for which you pay more) or they can decide not to have a strata manager at all.

Now, what’s so complicated about any of that?

If you are looking for parking or pet patrols, you are probably thinking of a building manager (aka facilities manager). They do spend time in your building – possibly even office hours – and they can, if you ask them to, check on alleged by-law or rule breaches.

They can keep an eye on maintenance, arrange for tradespeople and quotes for work and generally manage the building. But they are no more the “bosses” of the building than a bus driver is the boss of his or her passengers.

And then we come to caretakers, (aka residential managers). These are people who own a unit from which they manage the building’s facilities for a fee. Good caretakers are part of their community as well as being contracted service providers.

However, it can be problematic if the unit owners don’t get to choose their managers, are locked into contracts of up to 25 years that give the residential property manager exclusive rights to manage rentals and property sales ... but that’s a story for another time.

With all these managers, agents and caretakers around, you can see why residents blithely refer to “the strata” when they mean “someone in some kind of authority”. *The strata manager buys the drinks because he or she has the chequebook.

STRATA | HEALTH

A WHIFF OF DANGER IN THAT “NEW FLAT” SMELL In addition, always also use fans and keep windows open as much as possible to ventilate freshlypainted rooms.

It’s fresh, it’s clean, it’s untouched but, explains Title health editor Tania Flack, your brand-new home could give you a very real headache

New carpet or vinyl flooring is another danger and one further compounded by the glues and adhesives used to lay it. Varnish for polishing floorboards is also a source, as well as sealants, grouting between new tiles, wallpaper and cleaning chemicals.

Buying a new apartment or townhouse, or renovating an existing one, is one of the great joys of life.

There’s nothing quite so inviting as freshly-painted walls, varnished floorboards or new carpets, and blinds or curtains made especially to match your decor.

But the pleasure can, for some people, be fleeting. While at first there’s that beautiful “new home smell”, it can also have unintended effects: a few days after moving in, many people report headaches, nausea and feeling light-headed.

So, what’s going on?

If you can smell even a faint chemical odour in your new, or recentlyrenovated, home, it’s likely that there’s some degree of offgassing (or outgassing) happening – chemicals such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) being released into the air.

VOCs have a high vapour pressure at ordinary room temperature, so various common substances used in home decorating, furniture, office equipment and cleaning chemicals can be released into the environment. These chemicals can be overwhelming, particularly in apartments where there’s poor ventilation or when the apartment is locked up all day while its occupants are at work.

The health effects of VOCs include eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches and lethargy. Sick Building Syndrome is the term commonly used to describe a range of health

76

But, again, you can reduce your exposure by choosing low-VOC adhesives and products and using fans and opening windows for several days to thoroughly air the apartment before moving in.

“A “Afew fewdays daysafter after moving in in to to aa new new moving house many many people people house report nausea nausea and and report headaches. headaches.So, So,what’s going on"” what’s going on"” problems associated with poor air quality, including outgassing from VOC exposure, and the type and severity of symptoms can vary according to the composition of the chemicals and the length of exposure.

Most well-known brands of paint contain petroleum-based VOCs, and because paint covers such large surface areas in the home, it can be the source of high levels of VOCs. The good news is that there are companies who specialise in low or zero VOC paints in a range of modern colours; particularly important to consider if you’re planning to decorate a nursery, since children are even more susceptible than adults.

Formaldehyde is one of the bestknown VOCs. This is commonly used in the production of furniture, plywood, particleboard, foam insulation material and some synthetic fabrics. Exposure to high levels of formaldehyde over a long period of time may have serious health effects, and the World Health Organisation recognises it as a carcinogen.

As a result, you should leave brandnew furniture – especially if it has been delivered wrapped in plastic – in a garage, the apartment building’s storeroom or in your car space for a week or so before bringing it into your home.

New office equipment, electronics or other plastic products made with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) can release phthalates, which can cause hormonal disruption, too. So like other furniture, let them offgas elsewhere before bringing them inside.

Remember, if you can smell it – however much you like that “new” odour – it’s still emitting chemical vapours and can be doing you harm.

Tania Flack is one of Australia's leading naturopaths and nutritionists (www.taniaflack.com)

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