The saying was coined by Jonathan Swift in his 1726 novel and remains just as relevant today in the world of parking. Acquisitions and their integration are challenging at the best of times and Australian companies expanding overseas are no exception. Bunnings’ entry into the UK with Homebase, Boral’s foray into the US with Headwaters and recently Lend Lease writing off $513m on its 1999 acquisition...

Apologies to the Bard as we take another look within the wide world of parking at electric vehicles. Regular readers may recall this was the subject of a 2017 newsletter, which took a pragmatic (and contrarian) view of the impact EVs (and autonomous vehicles) were going to have in the Australian parking market. “Closer to home the Australian Energy Market Commission (in 2012) expected 20% of all...

My school years were particularly unexceptional, as surfing was my prime focus and an education that included compulsory weekend team sport came a distant second. Surprisingly, I was introduced (begrudgingly) to the classics by Captain Alastair Courtenay, a very conservative former English soldier turned teacher. I was captivated by the myths and legends. The books that drew me in were The Iliad...

ParkScience: Hi Genie how is it going? Genie: Not bad, have been couped up in this bottle since 1990, so rested up and ready for work. ParkScience: Ever get worried you may never get released? Genie: Never an issue. Just a waiting game for human hubris, greed and poor governance to entrench itself and inflation takes hold once again. Has not failed so far. ParkScience: I thought you may have...

Regular readers of the newsletter will be familiar with ParkScience views on how COVID has fundamentally changed the commercial parking business in Australia. These were set out in  Crisis? What Crisis. No V shaped recovery for parking and COVID-19 and Parking, which have proven to be very close to what has occured.Within every marketplace there are contrary positions and views, and we...

One of my favourite books growing up in late 1960’s Perth was The Magic Pudding – written and illustrated by Norman Lindsay. It was a road story with a rag tag bunch of very Australian characters trying to prevent an even motlier crew trying to steal their Magic Pudding. The pudding (who was more cantankerous than the Gallagher brothers) would simply reform, no matter how much was...

Dave Warner from the Suburbs was the iconic front man for the band of the same name around the Perth pub scene blending biting social commentary with the theatrics of Johnny Leopard on guitar. His iconic song, Half Time at the Football analysed the everyday thoughts of players and spectators at the tipping point in the game. ParkScience has dusted off the 1970 Gold Top and will endeavour to provide...

"There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know." Donald Rumsfeld A consistent theme of my newsletters over the past three years has been risk as it relates to the parking industry, especially for those...

No V shaped recovery for parking. The analogue reader may remember the 1975 Supertramp album, which was rushed out after their 1974 success, Crime of The Century. It was a salient lesson for the band in moving too quickly to capitalise on their new found success. Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error. The April newsletter had almost 5,000 downloads and created a lot of discussion about...

In this edition we will look at the unprecedented and sudden downturn in volumes across carparks in Australia and how COVID 19 will fundamentally change the commercial landscape for parking operators and owners. Authorities are trying to flatten the curve of infections to allow our medical system to cope. Isolation, quarantine and social distancing are important elements in containing the epidemic....

Where to from here?The Australian market is somewhat unique, with A REITS owning the majority of the commercial carparks in capital cities and their secondary markets, including North Sydney, Parramatta and Chatswood. They usually require a lease from an independent entity to conform to tax laws relating to trading trusts.

The majority of my work centres around carparks, their design and access systems.In recent times a new string has been added to the bow, with ParkScience engaged by Wilson Parking to obtain development approval for a two level 4,000m2 office to be built on top of the successful 602 bay Eureka car park adjacent to SouthGate in Melbourne. 

Following the last newsletter on history never repeating, WeWork’s IPO has been cancelled and SoftBank have had to inject further funds into the business as investors shied away from the top line growth strategy. It has been an interesting rollercoaster for We Work since its commencement in 2012 with the valuation moving to $10 billion in 2016, then to $42billion in January 2019 and now down to...

I tell myself before I go to sleep... Neil Finn wrote these words in 1981 on that great album Waiata, which I have recently rediscovered. Aptly the B side was “Holy Smoke”. So, what has this got to do with ParkScience and the weird and wonderful world of parking you ask. It had me thinking about my early days in parking, moving to Sydney in the heady days of 1988 before FBT, Parking Levies and...

One of the most interesting carparks we have worked on recently is the redevelopment of the existing Warrick Lane, Blacktown open air carpark into a mixed use commercial and public open space transformational project with Blacktown Council taking on the role as Master Developer. Development will be staged with Council providing the initial infrastructure, including a 473 bay 4 level underground...

It was a little like a John le Carre novel – George Smiley meeting his old nemesis Karla after the end of the Cold War. As to who is who, I will leave it up to you to decide. I met David Knight (Group General Manager Secure) recently in Brisbane to catch up after learning he was leaving Secure Parking, having started some 33 years ago. He was employed by Garth Matthews and expertly trained in all...

Westpac are in negotiations with BaseUp for the implementation of their cloud-based technology for Westpac staff parking.The updated BaseUp system utilises a geo fenced area immediately adjacent to the entry or exit reader that allows a smart device to communicate to the reader to activate the gate, without a customer having to press a button on their app to open the gate. Essentially...

Warehouse conversions are commonplace around the globe for residential and commercial property – but this must be a first. Around the corner from my hotel in Amsterdam was a canal conversion – that’s right – a canal that is being converted into a carpark! The De Pijp district was built in the late nineteenth century with narrow streets and no cars. Whilst the Dutch love their bikes (and no carbon...

This is a new term describing the transformation of the property industry – not just parking. Proptech is the convergence of property and technology. It is about leveraging new technology into the property ecosystem. Click on the link below (subscription required) if you have not read the recent article by Folkestone's Adrian Harrington in The Australian on prop tech and how it is changing the...

Artificial Intelligence and parking? This was not even a blip on the radar five years ago. AI are in a similar field to ParkNow with a variety of white labelled products for smart devices and in car displays. They have a substantial presence in Germany with a proven product. However, the product that caught my eye was for on street parking or open-air parking lots. A single sensor...