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Resilient urban systems:
a socio-technical study of community scale climate change adaptation initiatives
4.3
Living with alternative systems
Phase 2 consisted of qualitative research involving households in the pilot study communities. A total of 20
householders were interviewed at 16 households in WestWyck and Aurora. Interviewers were focused on
understanding:
• Adaptive (and maladaptive) practices and strategies households and communities have developed in
response to changes to systems of electricity and water provision;
• Householders’ perceptions of adaptation and resilience in relation to energy and water;
• How householders perceive and manage risks and vulnerabilities within those systems; and
• How vulnerabilities could be reduced and resilience improved within those systems.
4.3.1
Householder backgrounds
A preliminary understanding of householders’ backgrounds and reasons for moving into their current home
provides context for the subsequent discussion and outcomes of this research.
Aurora: A total of 13 householders were interviewed at ten households, 12 of whom were under 54 years of
age and eight of whom were under 45. Nine of the ten households had moved from suburbs within a 15km
radius of Epping, some closer, and six households were families with young and school age children. Only
four of the ten households described themselves as being of Australian heritage. The remaining six included
Indonesian, Macedonian, Greek, Dutch, Italian and Canadian.
At Aurora, householders were attracted by the affordability of the homes, the proximity of parks, play areas
and schools for children, and familiarity with the area, with family and friends often close by, as the following
quotes illustrate:
“Yeah, because (it’s) closer to school. And then we look around (for) the closest and
(most) affordable for us” (A11)
“The predominant decision was the price.” (A13)
“It was a six star energy rating, that was one of the drawcards you know with electricity
and... they were saying it was going to be cheaper, all our bills will be cheaper.” (A6)
Affordability I would have said. Initially it would have been the only… house and land
package – because I grew up in Epping – that would have been affordable” (A1)
“More about the... gardens and the playgrounds and those sorts of things because I think
that’s a big thing for people who come here.” (A9)
“I wanted it to be close to family because we’ve got a little boy and my mum takes care of
him a lot. So that was another thing definitely.” (A3)
“We thought this was going to be a good place for the kids to grow up.” (A5)
WestWyck: In contrast to Aurora, five out of the seven householders interviewed at six households in
WestWyck were over 55 years of age. Only two households had moved from neighbouring suburbs and
there were no children resident at any of the interviewed households. All interviewees at WestWyck, bar one,
describe themselves as being of Australian, New Zealand or Anglo cultural heritage.
Interviewees were attracted to the community by its alignment with their lifestyle values and ethics,
accessibility (inner Melbourne) and the social component of this ‘instant neighbourhood’ (W7). As these
residents explain: