The pandemic is bringing one phase of human history to an end. We must prepare for the next . . . We need councillors who understand Port Phillip as more than an economic and political unit. They need to understand it as a deeply-storied landscape.

Each spring and summer, Council allows Catani Gardens and South Beach Reserve to be fenced off, periodically, by private operators and transformed into ticketed music events. These weekend ‘festivals’ require extensive infrastructure and increasingly longer set up and pull down times. Is St Kilda’s foreshore heading in the same direction as the Albert Park Grand Prix?  Peter Goad explains the impact of the annual car race on the park.