Blowin’ in the wind
ANEW resident settling in at Roches Beach Living at Lauderdale recently asked neighbours where she could catch a bus to the city.
She was advised the nearest bus stop was opposite the Lauderdale pub.
“But you better take a rope,” one kindly neighbour quipped, with just the hint of a smirk and a roll of his eyes.
You see, Bus Stop 79 is a sign post stuck in the bitumen on the verge of South Arm Rd.
Like the US flag on the moon, it’s a lonely symbol of humanity among the magnificent desolation.
There is no shelter at Bus Stop 79 and a bitter wind blows wild from kunanyi/Mt Wellington straight across Ralphs Bay to freeze dry any hopeful bus riders.
With many Roches Beach Living residents in their 70s and 80s, some now less sure on their feet, the bone-chilling gusts pose a life-threatening challenge.
Hence the suggestion that the new resident should take a rope to harness herself to Bus Stop 79 so as not to be blown into oncoming traffic.
Icy gales and the fear of being run down are just the half of it.
To get to Bus Stop 79 Roches Beach Living residents have to plough through uneven turf to find a footpath to walk for about 200m before crossing the road at the Lauderdale Tavern in the hope of getting across South Arm Rd.
Crossing this arterial route is impossible at certain times.
South Arm Rd traffic is bumper to bumper at morning and afternoon peak times, full of monster SUVs, with bullbars and Hannibal Lecter grills, driven by well-to-do tradies who are quick to anger when their speedos drop below 70km/h.
The nimblest pedestrian struggles to cross, let alone someone who doesn’t move as fast as they once did.
When it’s raining, the turf on the walk to the sealed footpath becomes a bog. A brolly helps in keeping dry but puts any at Bus Stop 79 at risk of being blown into a scene from Mary Poppins.
Mirth aside, it’s bloody dangerous.
Just last month an elderly pedestrian was killed after being hit by a car in Woongarrah, on the New South Wales Central Coast.
The month before an 81year-old was killed crossing at an intersection on Sydney’s North Shore.
And in March an 81-yearold was killed on a pedestrian crossing in Melbourne’s northeast.
WE hear plenty about important issues like elder abuse but, for many older people, being able to catch a bus and cross a road are more relevant to their daily lives.
Seemingly mundane issues like being able to go comfortably to the city or the theatre, the cinema, the footy, or to libraries or to visit friends and relatives are what makes life worthwhile.
These day-to-day issues are especially relevant in Tasmania, which has the nation’s oldest population with almost one in five people older than 65.
The elderly among the residents of Roches Beach Living are just a small portion of the 11,000-plus who are older than 65 and living in Clarence.
Clarence is one of the state’s older municipalities but has nothing on Glamorgan Spring Bay, where 32 per cent of people are over 65 — virtually one in three residents.
The proportion of Tassie’s population aged over 65 rose 3.4 per cent from 2011 to 2016, compared to 1.7 per cent nationally, double the rate, and by 2030 one in four Tasmanians will be 65-plus.
Sorting out everyday things like bus stops — relocating them or building bus shelters or rerouting buses or whatever — will become increasingly important because fixing them allows older citizens to contribute and be part of our community.
The experience they possess is more critical to society’s wellbeing than ever.
Those in their 80s and 90s have lived through war and its wretched fallout — family tragedy, senseless destruction and misery.
They have witnessed the rebuild, the aspirations of the 1950s, the social change of the 1960s, the prosperity of the 1970s, the excesses of the 1980s, the arrival of computers in the 1990s, the global take-up of smart phones in the 2000s and the explosion of social networking this decade.
Smart hi-tech homes for older people are all the rage in aged-care circles but what about smart communities where people can stay connected to the city and society.
We should strive to lead the world in finding and exporting solutions to enable older people to be productive, not forgotten, citizens. Many nations face these issues.
Aged-care providers already contribute $17.6 billion to Australia’s economy.
More than 2300 people are employed in the Tasmanian aged-care sector, which turns over more than $127 million annually, and it is estimated 4000 more nurses and care workers will be needed in the next five years. This is a growth industry.
Let’s bring citizens in from the cold of Bus Stop 79.
We hear plenty about important issues like elder abuse but, for many older people, being able to catch a bus and cross a road are more relevant to their daily lives.