Andrew Sadauskas
It was a cold Thursday morning when I set out on my quest. My mission? To find the heart of Melbourne’s housing affordability and traffic problems. My quest took me to the middle of Melbourne’s great southeastern sprawl, which now stretches as far as Pakenham.

After a morning spent hunting for it on Melbourne’s public transport, I reached my unlikely destination: the carpark behind the Village Green Hotel, in Brandon Park.

On its asphalt surface stand the cars of about a dozen gamblers, who can’t resist their early morning gaming fix, and little else. Buried under its acres of asphalt, where the morning puters have parked, are several acres of land where houses don’t stand. Across the ever congested Springvale Road stands Brandon Park Shopping Centre; a shrine to the 1980s that Centro’s cash-strapped management now almost certainly regret buying.

If the Coliseum symbolises Ancient Roman cruelty, what does this carpark say about us? Are we addicted to the car like those punters at the poker machines inside? Are we willing to lose the house for our habit?