Marsden's Bacchus Marsh Florist & Nursery has been in the same family for 55 years since its inception in 1958. This longevity is the attribute provided by the quiet achievers, giving towns that quiet stability we seek when we think of "the urban village." The Bacchus Marsh Florist & Nursery was started by Yvonne and Lyle Marsden. They grew flowers, trees and many edible products on their property. They sold their house in Masons Lane to start their venture in Main Street, Bacchus Marsh. For years they lived in the back of the shop with 3 young children, Alan, Steven and Bryan as they grew their business working 7 days a week.

This enabled them to purchase 10 acres of land from Main Street to Pilmer Street, where they expanded their nursery and added a sand & soil yard and successfully operated for many years. Yvonne added into the business a florist and gift shop. Their son Bryan and wife Kerryn now run the firm with daughters Jaimee and Zoe. Long time residents will remember many of the times Marsden's have been there from the beginning, with flowers and plants for many openings and events: the Rotary Art Show, the RSL ANZAC marches, football matches, school functions, the birth of a Darley child, the wedding of Bacchus Marsh couple, the repose of a Parwan grandparent, the grand opening of a public building, the dedication of a church, the foundation stone of a new Maddingley factory at all these events, Marsden's flowers, plants and balloons added that extra touch.

The oriental lillies, singapore orchids, roses etc. have adorned many a function Most recently, Marsden's supplied the floral tributes at my father's funeral in May 2013 at Ballan.

A well known Melbourne and Kew auctioneer & estate agent and member of the Liberal Party since 1950, Calvert C Clarke passed away at the age of 98 3/4 after spending most of the last twelve years at the Ballan homes of my twin brother, Anthony, including the Dome.

The Marsdens have looked after Rotary, the RSL, the CWA, the local Hospital, all the schools, Bacchus Marsh & Darley Football & Cricket Club, CFA & Fiskville, the Bowling Clubs, the Moorabool Shire, Tabcorp Park, Melton Shire and high schools, with prized bouquets and donations. They sell the Lions Christmas Cakes and the RSL Anzac biscuits as well as putting them into their Christmas hampers.

Of course, the little things about a shop create the interest. The animals outside amuse the children and the young-at-heart. The cows, sheep, horses & pigs (Especially when they're wearing their football hats & scarves), as well as some very well loved chooks, giant rabbits and one friendly shop cat, Mr Jingles, set up so that the kids can hand feed them, really give you that country feel. Long term involvement in a town like Bacchus Marsh invariably means a family will also be contributing to the construction of the town.

The Marsdens have built several shops in the Main Street, developed their farm, and, even extended to promoting Bacchus Marsh through their strong involvement with Tabcorp Park. My earliest memory of Bacchus Marsh was as a nine year old in 1960 stopping at George's Fish Shop in the main street, when the main street was the highway. We where on the way with much of our family, to visit two elder brothers at St Patrick's school in Ballarat. Like Marsden's, George's is a quiet achiever still here serving the public.

The importance of 'Planning' and 'Change' have often been adopted by longer term residents, without even really understanding the great philosphies behind these terms. The book "How buildings learn: what happens after they are built" by Stewart Brand explains how land and buildings adapt and change to different uses as society and the town evolves. The Marsdens have actually adapted these principles through their buying of the land, onward development of the farm, and later development of shops. They even have been embracing the emerging business sector of 'knowledge-based-businesses' as defined by Professor Hefferan of the University of the Sunshine Coast. These are firms like computer developers, solicitors, graphic artists, project & estate designers and real estate agents - many of whom are tenants in Marsden buildings.

These knowledge firms require many more features from a building, like high levels of internet connectivity, increased social amenity for the knowledge employees and better transport and parking. The Marsdens even provide social amenity with the cafes in their shops and good parking. These services need to be provided, while at the same time realising that the building is always in a 'spiral of dilapidation' (Brand S).

According to Stuart Brand: While the building may sit on Layer One, the virtually unchangeable land, the building, as Layer Two might be designed for a 300 year lifetime as a structure; its skin or outside fabric as Layer 3 might last 30-40 years; the internal services, Layer Four, like air conditioning units and internal communications, might need replacing in 15 years; the space plan or fitout, Layer Five, might change each 5 years, or, at least at change of tenants; the stuff like moveable chattels, Layer Six, moves in and out of the building very frequently; finally the people making up Layer Seven, occupying the building and visiting or coming in-and-out on a daily basis have personal tastes, attitudes, preferences and physiology.

Our friends over at the Village Shopping Centre would have graphs and timesheets for years in advance, catering for all these seven Layer aspects within their "Property & Asset Maintenance" schedules. Many other larger building around town would have replacement schedules. Even some home owners have a maintenance timeframe. (Brand S, p.13)

As well as presenting costs, many of these maintenance items present the opportunity to upgrade the building to the then, new, 'state-of-the-art' practices. The Marsden buildings and the Village Shopping Centre are ideally located to attract knowledge based businesses if the maintenance and development schedule has them firmly in mind. Especially the future use of the Marsden acreage. Having them in mind means to understand that "As well as a range of external forces such as globalisation, changing technologies and competition, these (knowledge) firms fundamentally use offices in new ways, emphasising team behaviour, social capital and networks in their contemporary business models." (Hefferan, p. 211) The built environment can be of greater functional value to these types of firms than simply providing passive space as a platform for business. Rather, accommodation can now provide an environment for business, providing a place that meets both group and individual worker requirements for creative, interactive work space, an image to present to the external world and, finally, a statement on the character, ethos and philosophy of the firm." (Hefferan, p. 212)

Making a Finer Business Centre in Bacchus Marsh While the compulsory 'Building Energy Efficiency Certificate' currently only applies when office space of more than 2,000 sqm is made available for lease or sale (Nabers homepage), smaller establishments should be aware that many prospective tenants and purchasers will be viewing their buildings through a similar lens. When doing maintenance and improvements on the timetables suggested by Brand, the introduction of efficiencies to try to match the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) ratings will do much to improve the building's attractiveness to tenants and hence create improvement in value. As the rating includes energy, water, waste, indoor environment and transport (Nabers Fact Sheet 4), it covers not only the building's generation of global warming CO2 emissions, but also the liveability as would be perceived by the occupants. How the Bacchus Marsh and Ballan property owners might proceed with NABERS is illustrated by Peter Szental's work.

The leading building in Australia, as at 13th May 2012, is the 2004 retrofitted, 1970's constructed, Szencorp Building at 40 Albert Rd, South Melbourne with 6 stars for energy and 6 stars for water. By collecting rainwater and recycling grey water, Szencorp reduced water purchase from the industry standard of 1,175 litres/m2 per annum to a buy-in of just 101 litres/m2 per annum (Szencorp, p. 7). Given that this is a four storey building with effectively 1/4 the roof collection of a single storey building, this is a remarkable level of efficiency. With the installation of photo-voltaic solar panels, lighting upgrades and system improvements, the electricity purchase have been slashed 71% from 238 MWh to just 76 MWh, and even this is purchased from green energy source. Their gas purchase has also dropped 22%. (Szencorp, p. 5 & 6) For a building where staff are happy and productive add the other stated benefits: "The Szencorp Building's internal air quality is equivalent to rural air" - "Reported overall productivity increase of 13%" - "Comfort, overall design and health were all rated above average" - "Waste generated is 94kg per year per staff member, 54% lower than the established benchmark of 173kg per person per year for commercial buildings" - "77% of employees drive a car or motorcycle to work, 18% take public transport and 5% cycle" (Szencorp, p. 8)

If Szencorp can do this with a 40 year old building, then there is enormous scope within Bacchus Marsh to do similar upgrades to existing buildings. There are small cost upgrades which make a difference. Installing a water tank just below the gutter line will provide gravity fed water to office kitchens and business toilets. Installing hemp-crete insulation will reduce heating and cooling costs (see advt under 'Agricultural - Machinery / Services' for Textile and Composite Industries P/L). Installing solar cells with battery banks and inverters for 240 volt and even some direct 12 volt lighting rather than using electricity company buy-back procedures. Making the building more employee friendly can be done by installing showers & lockers for bike riders, getting rid of 'no skateboard' signs as skateboards are the vehicle of choice of many young workers and young customers, ensuring ramp access to all floors for disabled person's vehicles.

When building a three storey multi-use building, think about having ground floor shops, middle floor office and top floor small flats. Put this on 60% of the land with a three storey carpark on the other 40%. The car spaces are at the right levels for each use, and the ramps can be used by disabled persons' vehicles, bicycles and skateboards as well as by cars. Roof the top of the carpark to pick up all the rainwater in tanks on the top level from both the carpark and the multi-use building. There is no need for expensive lifts, and no need for expensive underground parking which can fall victim to flooding. There is also, right now, a major opporunity within Bacchus Marsh to erect an iconic building in Graham St, with the aim of attracting knowledge-based firms.

The site faces East and North, the two most auspicious directions for successful business. While studying the "Maharishi-Vastu" building design system from India, I wanted to find evidence both for and against a basic Vastu assertion that businesses in buildings facing South and South West were generally not as successful as businesses in buildings facing East and North; and further that the direction of the front door of the home of business owner would have even an bigger effect. I know this may sound strange, but I did find a lot of evidence supporting the Vastu assertions. I studied the direction of 600 clients, finding those in North, East, and West facing buildings, and additionally those living in homes with front doors facing these directions, ran their businesses efficiently, while businesses run from NE, SE, S, SW, NW where not quite as efficient. I am happy to email the full report to building owners in the Moorabool area.

Phone: 1800 680 830 or Email: mail@pocketbooks.com.au

The World's 'healthiest building' at 2000 Tower Oaks Blv Washington has been built to Vedic-Vastu architecture standards: This 19,000 sq m corporate office "... achieved LEED® Platinum certification, and incorporate(d) the most advanced green experimental technologies along with principles of Fortune-Creating(sm) Vedic Architecture." (Toweroaks, p. 1) On 24th April 2012, The Victorian Minister for Planning, Mathew Guy, issued a Press release saying that over the next twenty years, the Moorabool Shire is expected to attract significant growth. The population of Victoria is expected to grow from 5.6 million in 2011 to 7.3 million by 2031.

During the same period, the Moorabool Shire is expected to grow from 29,409 persons to 43,437 persons. Long term residents, like the Marsdens, and other acerage land holders, will be the moderators who will promote real gains to the Bacchus Marsh community from this population growth. These concepts relating to "the Urban Village" (like Bacchus Marsh and Ballan) are explained in the books:

- City Comforts: How to build an Urban Village, by David Sucher

- How Buildings Learn: What happens after they are built, by Stewart Brand

Regards,

Gerry Clarke,
B.PED.