shanemelbourne

Replies to Comments Paulobergonci : Thanks for the comments Paulo! Just checked out your CJ and I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone “carving” out open fields and then placing farms in them quite like you.... it’s almost sculptural. As a big fan of all things South American and having been to Sao Paulo/Rio before, I think I’ll be following your CJ too! hahei : Hi Hahei, I hope this CJ brings back a good memory or two of your stay in Australia and although it will be inspired mostly by my home city/state of Melbourne and Victoria, I’ll try and incorporate ideas or storylines from other Australian cities too where possible. vivapanda : I really like historical CJs too. My favourite “Historical” CJ from many years ago was “Digby : East Coast Region” (does it even exist on Simtrop now?) and I think that has inspired all my creations ever since. My favourite CJs are those that tell a story and I guess that is what I’m going to try and create here... perhaps not with bike lanes though for at least a 100 odd years. . Your bike tour method of highlighting parts of your city is something I’ll keep in mind... nice work on that one! Schulmanator : You have time to comment in between your CJ updates?... Impressive! *laughs*. I hope you enjoy this CJ, my passion is urban planning/design/history so my CJ will take a different course to many on here but it won’t quite be the eye-candy/OMG that is Schulmania unfortunately lol. Regardless of that, here’s hoping the story makes up for the lack of eye-candy... hahaha skyscraper241 : Thanks for your comments “Benny” , I guess my CJ will start very small scale and build up much further down the track. As I get more involved in CJ-ing, I’ll built up more of an inventory of custom content but for now, I kind of like the maxis content for its simplicity which I find befitting of a small “nowheresville”. The other benefit is that maxis content is generally "building style" specific so you don't get too many modern glass buildings popping up in the early 1800s if you only select Chicago building style. I’ve had a bit of an aversion to large amounts of custom content for the stability issues it causes SC4 so I’ll look to introducing it gradually. That said, you’ll start to see a bit more variety in Flinders Harbour as it develops and gathers steam – I’ll take your comment as a challenge Flinders Harbour 1818 Demographics Population : 1,444 Flinders Landing 1,226 Sealers Cove 218 1818 : Map of the District of Flinders Harbour with main settlements May 1816 : The Visitors On a cool and foggy autumn morning, 3 ships from France sailed up the Grenville River and anchored just offshore at Flinders Landing. Fearing an invasion, the local regiment of 20 redcoats and many settlers hastily gathered near the docks in expectation of trouble. Luckily for the settlers, the ships were on their way to Port Jackson to stock up on supplies but decided to stop short when they saw a fishing vessel heading back into the harbour as supplies of water and food were running critically low. Although much animosity was directed towards the French due to the recent Napoleonic wars, the retail district around the docks made a handsome profit in trade of food, rum and assorted other novelty items like stuffed Koala and Kangaroo skins. After anchoring in Flinders Cove for 5 days, the French departed to a wave off from over half of the townsfolk and many a happy shop keeper. The French ships anchored in Flinders Cove June 1816 : The Response Although the visit of French ships was perhaps the biggest event to happen at Flinders Landing since it was settled, the redcoats and colonial administration in Port Jackson took alarm at the French presence in the area and the inability to defend these new outposts against any potential aggression. Message was sent to London about the incident and asked for any assistance that could be afforded in bolstering the settlements in New South Wales and Van Diemens Land. October 1817 : A Message and Gift from London On October 20, a fleet of 10 ships entered the harbour bearing great news for Flinders Landing - King George declared it an official town of the Empire and administrative capital of Flinders Harbour District by letter patent. Of even bigger news to Flinders Landing was that several of the ships in the harbour contained materials for the construction of a Town Hall and a watch tower to look out over the Grenville River entrance to Bass Strait as a protection messure for the town. Construction of the Town Hall was completed by February 1818 and the watch tower completed by May of that year. The small peninsula on which they were constructed became known as Tower Hill. Tower Hill showing the newly constructed watch tower and Town Hall. Further expansion of settlement at Flinders Landing By late 1818, Flinders Landing had grown to over 1200 citizens. Many of the localities took on names in honour of the British aristocracy, Governors of New South Wales and one for the family who originally settled that part of Flinders Landing (The Mors). Of particular note were the two newer settlements at Grenville Town and Georgewater as they had a small commerical area to serve the local inhabitants. A map of Flinders Landing showing settlements and important features Georgewater is on the right of the picture, and the locality of Pitt Junction on the left. Grenville Town December 1817 : The Development of Sealers Cove and the Seal Trade. Since the first explorations of Bass & Flinders along the coast of Bass Strait near Flinders Harbour, the abundance of seals in the area was well known to bands of whalers, pelt and fur traders operating the southern oceans. In early 1817, a small settlement grew up in a cove near 2 islands just off the coast that were heavily populated with seals and herons. The establishment of the fur trade and a small soap manufactory at Sealers Cove proved a big boost to the local economy and the trade of food, fibre, furs and soap between the two settlements proved beneficial for both. The Seal Islands in Bass Strait, just south of the entrance to Sealers Cove. The small settlement of Sealers Cove, showing the docks, soap manufactory and fur traders sheds.

Where did you see this? I doubt we would be limited to only 10 cities. I saw the 4 to 10 cities in a region quote in the gamespy preview (available from simtropolis' homepage or view below)... 4 to 10 cities in a region is mentioned in the paragraph below the "coal enterprises building" picture. http://au.pc.gamespy.../1221798p1.html

Great region to work with... should be interesting to see how the city develops when the river plains fill up and you build communities in the hills. nice job so far!

Nice looking casino resort town agnostiskbarn. One suggestion would be to turn off the New York & Chicago building sets and just have Houston & Euro Contemporary sets going as they'll give a nice modern look to your apartment buildings for a City of 2014. Otherwise, can't wait to see where you go with this CJ and loved the temperature map in Entry #1... looks more like a map of the Eurozone debt crisis ... hahaha

I saw the same 200k population limit per city and the alarm bells went off with me. As a region only has between 4 and 10 cities (was it from the same article?) that would make a theoretical max population of 2 million with each city having to have the maximum of 200k. The glass box engine is designed to keep tabs on each sim so I doubt that there would be an overflow population beyond 200k.

Your bike network rocks... nice work!

Total eye candy! very nice looking.

Ditto this, a really nice journal!

Flinders Landing Settlement : 1815 The first 2 years of settlement at Flinders Landing saw the establishment of a small village surrounded by farms. The population had grown from the original 307 settlers to 458 due the arrival of a small band of people from a failed settlement in the Port Philip District further to the west and the birth of many children. As there are no medical clinics and only one doctor for the whole settlement, many newborns were lost. One of the main complaints of the settlers in 1815 were the lack of facilities. Port Jackson was several hundred kilometres away and the other main settlement of Hobart suffered the same problems as Flinders Landing. The abundant supplies of timber in the district proved bountiful for the settlers. The housing and most of the main buildings were able to be quickly constructed and the clearance of the forests allowed for the establishment of farms. Most of the housing developed close to Flinders Cove where the ships pulled in. A small commercial area developed on the road to the docks to service the ships coming to port. After a few incidents at Flinders Cove, where one of the settlers (Sally Colbraith) from the Port Philip District fell and slipped in the mud while trying to disembark and a few kegs of rum for the redcoats were lost overboard, it was decided that Flinders Landing needed a dock. A small timber dock was built in Flinders Cove to improve the unloading of supplies and passengers. Unbeknown to Sally, they still laugh at her misfortune down at the beetroot stall on Cove Street where she is referred to as "Swamp Creature Sally". The redcoats also demanded a place be built to serve as a police barracks and public administration building so in 1814, a small wooden public administration building was built close to the docks to house these functions until a permanent facility could be established. Being close to farmer paddy's potato field (over the road) was also convenient as he was always complaining about his potatoes going missing so being close to the scene of the crime made the redcoat's job just a little bit easier.

The Year is 1813 The settlement at Port Jackson (Sydney) in the colony of New South Wales has been successfully established and after early problems, convicts and free settlers are beginning to arrive from England to establish outposts in other parts of the great southern land. In 1799, Flinders explored the southern coast of New South Wales and discovered the strait between Van Diemens Land and New South Wales, which he subsequently named Bass Strait in honour of his friend and fellow explorer George Bass. As part of this journey, the southern coast of New South Wales was explored and potential sites for settlement recorded. The southern coast contained many bays and harbours and of a notable mention was of a harbour "with many an island, that could host a thousand ships in safety and provide all the essentials for a settlement, such as fresh water and good soil for agriculture". Location of that harbour on the southern coast of New South Wales Upon return to England in 1810, Flinders spread word of the fertile plains and potential for settlement of the southern coast. In 1812, a party of free settlers set sail from Portsmouth, with plentiful supplies and the aim of setting up an agricultural outpost at the harbour they named Flinders Harbour. In March 1813, after a tortuous journey of 5 months, the fleet of 6 ships arrived at Flinders Harbour. The passage of Southern Ocean and Bass Strait was marred by gales and high seas, but the colonists finally made it to the shelter of Flinders Harbour and anchored just off the shore inside the harbour in a small bay surrounded by tall stands of exotic trees and untouched wilderness. Suitably impressed by the small harbour, the Lieutenant Grenville ( a cousin of the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) proclaimed the site "A good place for a village" and landed with a fleet of soldiers on the southern banks of the harbour near a small cairn set up by Flinders on his previous journeys. A working party was sent to explore the local terrain to map out important features. A small boat was sent further into the harbour to check out the local water ways and reported back that as the landing site was surrounded by water on three sides, it was a defensible position against possible attack from native persons while providing ample fresh water and fertile soil. After a meeting with the colonists, the site was agreed as the place of settlement and the settlers disembarked ship and set up camp at what was proclaimed Flinders Landing. -------------------------------------------------------------- About this CJ My aim with the CJ is to emulate the growth of a colony in 18th century Australia. It is loosely based on the region of Gippsland in Eastern Victoria (although the map is not from that region) and I'll try to incorporate the politics and factors for growth of Australian colonies if and when I can.. although I plan to take plenty of liberties with history (as you'll see in the post above). Although I will mostly be using Maxis content, I will add custom content if I find it is necessary for adding a level of realism that would otherwise be lacking. I don't have the time to create my own custom content or spend hours working out the dependencies for extensive use of others custom content, so you will unfortunately see some really wierd stuff like shops with giant twirling pizzas and car parking circa early 1800s.... I guess that is the limitation I (and hopefully you) can learn to live with.... hahaha Credits Base Map : St Johns by Bmag_20 (Can be found here on Simtropolis) - Although I've gone and terraformed it slightly . Other pics (Historical) : Wikipedia commons (non-copyrighted) Custom content : A huge thanks to all the people who've created custom content, you make Simcity what it is, you are the reason we are getting Simcity 5 and you are the reason i'm still SimCity4-ing 10 years since release! Mega thanks to all!

Dunkley came back into the contest as there was a miss-count on a batch of votes. ps: If the greens lower house member signs up with a minority coalition party (as Bob Brown is not ruling out), it will be their Meg Lees (Democrats) GST moment and the end of their support.

Pretty as a postcard... some nice work there

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this building before, but I had the "pleasure" of viewing it on a recent trip to Macau. If you think Chicago's dildo looks bad, think again...

pics aren't showing for me either! interesting concept though.

Love your work on the GLR Ajay. As Cjah said before, the custom content is excellent and lends a lot of variety to your city. Looking forward to some more updates and seeing how the city is progressing. Keep up the good work. ShaneMEL

Nice quiet seaside village there Ajay... Am looking forward to seeing the GLR update. Hope is doesn't give you too much grief putting it into the CBD after it's already built up... The results should be interesting ShaneMEL

Great work Jacqulina! What a fantastic castle you've created. I dread to think how much time you must spend putting all this together. All I can say is you've created something special! ShaneMEL

Hi Ajay, Nice update with very sprawling suburbs there. Especially like the small hilltop village... very scenic. Do you get much in the way of traffic problems seeing as you mostly have roads in the West Valley downtown area? ShaneMEL

Having just seen this CJ, I was surprised by your choice of terrain. Such hilly terrain was one hell of a challenge. Fascinating CJ anyway so congrats on what you achieved with it. PS: Not having read lots of CJs, The dam you created was spectacular as I'd not seen one before in SC4. Does the dam provide power and water or just power? Anyway, good luck with your next CJ

I want your sidewalks/footpaths! A nice blend of old and new in the historic area. The airport is also impressive. looking forward to further updates.

I love the way your city looks. The pics of the golf course housing estate is very typical of Melbourne and the red roof houses in the same picture remind me so much of Sydney. I'll have to keep an eye out for this CJ! PS: the only thing you could do to make this CJ more like Queensland is to built some canal estates... Like what i'm seeing so keep up the good work!

Echuca, Australia - Monte Carlo on the Murray... lol

Having been to the US and Europe, I think Euro Architecture is more interesting than the US version. Europe is more willing to experiment with "interesting" designs and has a much more varied architecture that spans many more years. Europe has the old and the ultra new. The US has more recent styles with Simcity4 like "Houston" Architecture but not moved on with that while Continental Europe has perhaps taken it a step further with buildings without the box like modern skyscraper look, but with curves and fascinating shape and texture. That french building with the "whiskers" on top is quite bizarre but interesting at the same time. Other examples of the ultra modern look that perhaps hasn't made it across the atlantic are the guggenheim in Bilbao and a few buildings I had seen from Milan (?) that bend and twist unlike designs from modern american cities. (please correct me if im wrong.. i've just not seen ultra modern building designs from the US that stand out as being other than square or round vertical towers - except the early plans for the new WTC in NYC..). BTW : I love the "Gherkin" in London as it's a bit cheeky for London Architecture... I don't like the patterned glass as it makes it look like a tunnel borer . The building to the (2nd) left looks like a modernised version of the Spiral Minaret and London's "Supertall" looks like a (squat) transplant of Grollo Tower, which was planned for Melbourne in the 1990's. Thankfully, it was never built!