Public parks under attack

by Peter Mac

In a series of decisions affecting inner-city quality of life, a 
number of government authorities appear intent on alienating 
public parks and recreation areas by the insertion of facilities 
for other purposes, and forestalling the conversion of unused 
government land to use as parks or for other communal 
purposes.

This follows a pattern of moves to acquire public parkland in a 
piecemeal fashion throughout Sydney in recent years.

The McDonald's fast food chain is still attempting to establish 
an outlet and carpark at the start of the drive leading to 
Sydney's historic Centennial Park.

Two years ago Marrickville mayor Barry Cotter attempted to lease 
part of Steele Park to a private "Club Med" type sporting 
organisation.

Part of the open space of Rozelle Hospital, a great favourite 
with local people for recreation purposes, was recently found to 
have been secretly promised to a private group for a private 
development.

The State Government continues to allow private parking at Moore 
Park, despite the recent provision of a major bus station.

The Government has also alienated two hectares of Moore Park for 
expressway provision, handed over 24 hectares of the former 
showground to Fox Studios, and sold off one hectare of nearby 
Queens Park.

The Olympic Coordination Authority (OCA) proposes to establish an 
800 vehicle carpark in Rushcutters Bay Park during the Games.

Moore Park and Centennial Park will probably suffer a similar 
fate.

The Maritime Reserve in Rushcutters Bay was transferred to the 
State Government in 1979. However, the OCA intends to not only 
build a hardstand and marina within the reserve, but also to 
leave it as a permanent facility after the Olympics, despite the 
objections of local residents.

The OCA and the State Government have forced through a proposal 
to construct a temporary 10,000-seat volleyball stadium at Bondi 
Beach, which will alienate 20 percent of Australia's most famous 
beach, despite the objections of the local Council and residents.

A very frustrated Mayor of Waverley Council, Paul Pearce, 
described the imposition of the temporary stadium in this 
locality as "a pretty dumb idea".

One recent proposal is to replace a local bowling club with a 15-
space car park in upgrading works to the old Victoria Park Pool 
in the inner suburb of Chippendale.

The Park attracts some 250,000 visitors each year, and some 
160,000 of these visitors swim at the pool. The local people who 
are the main users of the pool are mostly poorly-paid workers.

However, their access to the pool is made difficult by the 
absence of adequate facilities to cross City Road, which divides 
the houses from the Park, and which carries an extremely high 
volume of traffic (some 100,000 cars movements per day in 1996 at 
the nearest major intersection). 

Despite a 50 percent increase in the local population over the 
last three years, and the existence of ample under-used 
carparking facilities nearby, local demands for a safe and direct 
means of crossing City Road to the park have been consistently 
refused by the Roads and Traffic Authority.

The Authority replied that it was "not in a position to allocate 
funds", and that a pedestrian crossing would slow traffic and 
result in "reduced vehicle capacity along City Road". Tough luck 
for the residents!

A further development concerns the proposed Sydney Harbour 
Federation Trust. This government organisation has the objective 
of overseeing matters affecting the Sydney Harbour foreshores, 
including the proposed transfer of redundant Commonwealth Defence 
lands adjacent to the harbour to the State Government.

They include the Naval dockyard facilities of Cockatoo Island, 
the former munitions base at Spectacle Island, the former School 
of Artillery at North Head, and the former artillery complexes at 
Middle Head and Georges Heights.

The artillery complexes in particular have never been intensively 
developed, have stunning views of the harbour and contribute 
greatly to its magnificent landscape.

Most of the Defence areas around the Harbour are of major 
historic importance.

Commonwealth-owned sites which have not been scheduled for 
transfer to the State Government, but whose future is under a 
cloud, include the Garden Island Dockyard, and the former 
submarine mining base at Chowder Bay.

The beautiful artillery lands at Georges Heights and Middle Head 
have been the subject of widespread public demands to convert 
them to use as public parks and open space, and there have also 
been calls for the adaptation of the naval islands to public 
recreational use.

However, before the legislation has even been passed by 
Parliament, funding for the formation of the Trust has been found 
to be inadequate. This has led to suggestions that the shortfall 
will have to be met by the sale of land!

With regard to the legislation for the establishment of the 
Federation Trust, the community group Friends of Cockatoo Island 
have stated that: "So many aspects of the Bill are disturbing 
that we believe we should fight very hard to have the whole Bill 
thrown out. As it stands it leaves us worse off than before and 
it could well turn out to be a complete disaster."

The group has also drawn attention to the failure of the 
legislation to even define the areas of its particular concern, 
such as the Harbour Defence lands. They have also noted other 
major deficiencies in the legislation, i.e. its failure to 
guarantee public ownership after the Trust's ten years of 
operation, the overriding powers of the Federal Minister for the 
Environment, and the failure of the legislation to mesh with 
State planning laws.

The alienation of public parkland is not, of course, unique to 
New South Wales. (Consider, for example, Victorian Premier Jeff 
Kennett's outrageous acquisition of part of Melbourne's Albert 
Park for a motor racing track.)

But the Sydney parks developments, and the failure of governments 
to provide space for parks and communal use, constitute an 
particularly insidious and vicious attack on the quality of life 
of Sydney residents and the access to these areas by local 
residents and the Australian people.

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