Clover's eNews – Issue 486 – Friday, 5 March 2010
| Celebrate Pyrmont and Pirrama | Live Exports Senselessly Cruel | Barangaroo Plans on Exhibition | Housing NSW Camperdown Project | Bypassed by Buses |
Celebrate Pyrmont and Pirrama
The City's $26 million rescue of public land on the harbour foreshores at Pyrmont and our $7 million revitalisation of the Harris Street village centre will be celebrated from 11am to 1pm next Saturday 13 March.
In 2005, the new City Council paid $11 million to buy the former Water Police site from the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA). We allocated $14.8 million to consult, design and create a new 1.8 hectare park that responded to community aspirations for public open space.
Next week's celebrations will include formal naming of the new park and the adjacent park as "Pirrama Park". The combined parkland is four hectares and represents 850 metres in our planned 14 kilometre foreshore walk along Sydney Harbour.
The park's name recognises the First Australians who called this area Pirrama. The name is recorded in maps and journals of First Fleet naval officers who documented Sydney Harbour and is one of the few traditional Indigenous names directly attributed to a particular locality in our area.
The park's award winning design, developed by consultants Aspect Sydney, Hill Thallis, CAB Consulting, Connell Wagner and TLB Engineers, also celebrates Pyrmont's history. New native plantings, including eucalypts and banksias, help restore biodiversity to this once heavily vegetated peninsula, while sustainable solar panels and rain water capture help secure its future.
Sandstone artefacts in the interactive playground reflect former quarries and the promenade marks the original shoreline. The boardwalk within the park is named "Stevedore Walk" to commemorate Pyrmont's maritime workers and industries.
The land where the park now sits was purchased from the Macarthur Estate in the early 1900s by the Sydney Harbour Trust to be used for wharves and associated facilities until the areas transformation from redundant industrial site to high-rise residential development.
The Water Police were temporarily based on the site from the mid 1980s, with the area designated for development by SHFA. In 2003, Independent Councillor Marcelle Hoff helped form Friends of Pyrmont Point, which led the community and union campaign to retain the site for open space.
Awards for the new park include:
2006 Parks and Leisure Association Australia commendation for innovation (Community Consultation and Planning Process)
2007 Australian Institute of Landscape Architects NSW Planning Award for Excellence
2009 Parks and Leisure Association Australia Certificate of Recognition in the Play Space Category
2009 Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia Public Doman Award National Winner for the Best Overall Project
Next Saturday's festivities will also mark Harris Street improvement works from the foreshore to Pyrmont Bridge Road, with new paving, trees, decorative lighting and street furniture.
The revitalisation of Harris Street was identified as a priority project in the City West Local Action Plan process undertaken in 2006. Following intensive design review and consultation, the City identified this work as a first priority to strengthen Harris Street's role as the "village" main street.
The celebrations begin in Union Square at 10am with entertainment to mark the start of the Pyrmont Art Festival, which I will open at 11am. Roving entertainers will perform along Harris Street Grab and participating local businesses will be giving away free coffees.
There will be entertainment in Pirrama Park from 11am and I will formally open and name the park at 11.30am.
Information
Pirrama Park opening and official naming: Saturday 13 March, 11am-1pm
Pyrmont Art Festival: Union Square, Pyrmont from 10am
Related information: | Heritage | Open Space & Recreation | eNews |
Live Exports Senselessly Cruel
I am hosting a forum next Wednesday at Parliament House to highlight the ongoing inhumane and economically damaging live animal export industry in Australia. I invite you to join me from 10am Wednesday 9 March at the Parliamentary Theatrette.
Australia is the largest exporter of animals for slaughter in the world, sending four million live sheep to the Middle East every year.
Sheep condemned to export suffer a long harrowing journey. They travel about 14 hours on crowded trucks to ports where they suffer heat stress and are unable to get up when they fall. They are then kept at holding facilities for five days to get used to the food pellets they will be fed at sea. The sheep are then crammed on ships at three sheep per square metre to travel for up to four weeks where they suffer heat stress, starvation, and diseases like scabby mouth, pink eye and salmonellosis. The number of sheep that die on the journey shockingly was over 40,000 in 2008.
For the sheep that do survive the trip, a terrible fate awaits in the hands of countries that have no, or do not enforce, animal welfare laws. They can be handled and slaughtered in ways that not only are illegal in Australia but would shock and appal most people, like slaughter without stunning.
Most animal cruelty is linked to profit but independent reports show that live exports harm the economy through loss of meat industry work, like packing and abattoir jobs. Australia already exports chilled meat to all countries that import live sheep and meat exports could easily replace live exports, adding value to the Australian economy through meat processing work while ensuring better treatment and humane slaughter.
In Parliament I asked the Minister for Primary Industries questions about supporting the meat processing industry over live exports. The knowledge that live exports are not only cruel but also cost the economy means everyone should support their end.
I encourage you to attend Wednesday's Humane Chain forum to highlight the ongoing inhumane and economically damaging live animal export industry, which will include recent documented evidence of cruelty along the live export supply chain.
Information
Forum: 9 March, 10am to 12pm, Parliamentary Theatrette; RSVP: jessicaborg@wspa.org.au
My questions www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/la/qala.nsf/18101dc...
Related information: | Animal Welfare | Informing and Involving | eNews |
Barangaroo Plans on Exhibition
"Stage 1" plans unveiled by the Barangaroo Delivery Authority (BDA) and now on public exhibition respond to many public interest issues that I pursued as a member of the board, but changes are still needed to achieve a world class outcome.
Barangaroo is one of the most significant sites in Sydney and its redevelopment is an opportunity to help realise Sustainable Sydney 2030. I've worked to ensure that it will include sustainable transport and development, achieve design excellence, provide affordable housing, retain an active harbour frontage and integrate with the City.
Senior City staff, consultants and our public space expert Jan Gehl have worked with me to provide suggestions to the Board. The BDA has now engaged Jan Gehl to work towards greater pedestrian and cycling accessibility, public spaces where people want to spend time, and a world class foreshore promenade.
At my invitation, Barangaroo also joined the Clinton Climate Initiative "Climate Positive" program, launched at the C40 Summit in Seoul in May 2009. The program works with large-scale urban projects that reduce climate impacts below zero and provide a positive climate benefit to surrounding urban precincts.
Commitment to this program has helped achieve a proposal that is carbon neutral (through energy-efficient design and renewable energy), water positive (with on-site water collection and treatment) and zero waste (reducing, reusing and recycling).
The BDA announced Lend Lease as the preferred developer in December after an intensive competitive tender process. Based on the tender review, Lend Lease has received and agreed to a detailed list of design principles for further work, many of which relate to connecting with the City and creating vital people places.
Light rail serving the development and the Walsh Bay area is a welcome aspect of the Government's Transport Blueprint.
Information
Related information: | Planning & Development | eNews |
Housing NSW Camperdown Project
Council is considering a request from Housing NSW to revise planning controls for its site at 23-45 Pyrmont Bridge Road, Camperdown, and will seek further information from the Department and public comment on the proposal before making a decision.
In November 2009, Housing NSW lodged a Development Application (DA) to demolish four heritage listed residential buildings and construct a six storey affordable housing building known as the Camperdown Project ("Common Ground") at 23-45 Pyrmont Bridge Road, Camperdown.
Because this is a "Crown application" from a state authority, Council cannot refuse the DA and can only impose conditions if the Minister agrees. I hope that the Department's willingness to put the DA on hold will provide opportunities for more effective consultation and a good outcome.
If approved, the proposed project could provide 104 affordable housing units towards the Sustainable Sydney 2030 target of 7959 additional affordable housing dwellings.
This area of Camperdown has significantly changed over the past ten years from industrial to high density residential. The current planning controls no longer reflecting the area's characteristics and the City of Sydney is already considering updates in preparing a new City Plan.
The physical shape of Housing NSW's proposal reflects the area's intended future development and few concerns were raised about the built form when the original proposal was on exhibition. However, residents raised concerns about loss of open space, heritage and social impacts, which still need to be addressed through any future DA process.
On Monday, Council's Planning, Development and Transport Committee will consider placing Housing NSW's proposal on public exhibition. The recommendation before Council seeks additional public consultation and further information on Housing NSW's support services delivery model, such as how tenancy management, concierge and support services will operate.
Information
Council report at: www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/Council/MeetingsAndCom...
Related information: | Community Services | Planning & Development | eNews |
Bypassed by Buses
The Government has announced new bus services for Region 6, which covers the Inner West and Southern suburbs.
Most changes apply outside the Sydney electorate and City of Sydney area, with welcome new services between Hurstville and Burwood, Kingsgrove and Drummoyne, Hurstville and five Dock, and the CBD and Chiswick. A new Prepay L39 service and 439 service will run between the CBD and Mortlake.
The Government appears to have ignored requests for improved bus services to Pyrmont, Ultimo, Millers Point and Walsh Bay. There are new timetables for the 443 Pyrmont to Circular Quay via the casino and 448 QVB to Pyrmont service.
Several bus services will be cancelled, including 432 and 434 bus services, which will be replaced by additional 431, 433 and 441 services. It looks like the 352 and 355 bus services will not be made full time.
My submission to the Region 6 Bus Review last year argued for more integrated bus services designed to meet future needs, more sustainable buses appropriate to the inner city, bus bicycle racks to integrate with cycling, companion animals allowed on buses and real time information for passengers. Sydney bus services have not kept up with community needs. While MyZone is one step ahead to linking transport, truly integrated ticketing is still some time off.
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