Would-be Montague residents not warned about development noise

By Katie Johnson

As one of the highest-growth areas in the Southern Hemisphere, the Montague Precinct is currently a sea of development.

Long-time residents in the area are accustomed to hearing drilling around the clock, but for new renters or buyers, many aren’t expecting the noise.

Montague Community Alliance convenor Trisha Avery said that potential residents should be warned that they will be moving into a development precinct.

“It’s interesting that when people move into the area they weren’t aware they were essentially moving into a building site,” Ms Avery said.

“Builders and development leaders aren’t doing their due diligence by warning would-be residents about the noise which many residents aren’t coping with.”

In November last year, Southbank News reported that residents in the Montague Towers were suffering from constant development noise from three surrounding construction sites – the R Iconic, the Normanby and the Oakwood.

Resident Helen Robertson said that before moving in there had been no information in her conveyancer’s report to suggest she was moving into a development zone.

“They’re working six days a week from 6am and we don’t know if they have permits for that because no one will tell us,” she said.

“There’re tremors in the building, there’s traffic chaos that the tradespeople are causing by parking in all the side streets blocking our driveways.”

Ms Avery said that the lack of consultation with a community, particularly from the Fisherman’s Bend Task Force, had been an ongoing issue for some time.

“It’s extremely hard to get any information about when buildings will be completed, what the plans are for public transport or what the population will be and for residents to know who to go to when it comes to noise,” Ms Avery said.

“After COVID there has been no consultation with the community as many jobs have been lost and portfolios have been blended together so there’s no accountability.”

In terms of how local Montague businesses had been going after lockdown, Ms Avery said they had been bouncing back surprisingly well.

“What is bouncing back is the coffee shops and cafes,” Ms Avery said.

“There are a number of new businesses including Code Black on Coventry St which is doing extremely well and the Waterside Inn which has been taken over by a new family who are doing well to target the tradies with their new offering of toasties.

“In terms of the other businesses though I’ve noticed there’s been a bit of a struggle.”

Ms Avery also said there had been a number of new car-based businesses opening up on Gladstone and Thistlewaite streets, which Montague was well-known for.

As for development, there are currently a large number of half-finished apartment towers.

Ms Avery said that Montague Square, the new residential precinct due for completion in October 2021, was well underway and was looking “very smart”.

“It looks like it could be in Docklands or Southbank.” •