Redfern/Waterloo
is home to a good slice of Sydney’s
indigenous population, the Block, high-rise public housing and the Rabbitohs.
This is no greenfield
or brownfield development site and this time the emphasis is on high-tech
commercial as well as residential development.
There are
big plans for the area. Applying ministerial planning powers to eight strategic
sites is expected to generate more than 400,000 square metres of business
space, creating employment, and up to 2000 new homes. Channel Seven has
committed to the largest commercial development in Redfern in a decade.
The Redfern
Waterloo Authority has put together $300 million in new investment, including
direct state funding of $76 million, for a community health centre, a
pedestrian and cycle bridge to the Australian
Technology Park
and affordable housing for Aboriginal residents.
There will
be a new town centre around an upgraded railway station and further adaptation
and re-use of heritage railway buildings.
“Redfern
will be restored to a beautiful and historic inner-city village,” says Sydney’s Lord Mayor,
Clover Moore.
The
publicity and celebrity agent Max Markson, who has moved his operation into the
clock tower in the old post office, says Redfern is “the next big
thing”.
Amid all
this planning activity City of Sydney
is trying to rebuild Redfern’s heart and soul. The council is outlaying $42
million for streetscape improvements to the main thoroughfares of Redfern and
Regent streets and to Redfern
Park. Workmen are busy
putting powerlines below ground, removing concrete walls, widening and repaving
footpaths, installing new lighting, “smart poles” and street
furniture and planting trees.
The council
has introduced an Aboriginal employment scheme to involve indigenous
apprentices, trainees, labourers and tradesmen in the street upgrade.
“We’re taking the stigma away from Redfern and giving it a facelift.
“You’ll
see a new Redfern soon with new shops and restaurants. Redfern has really
turned a corner,” says a local bricklayer, Jack Dunn, who lives at the
Block.
On the
social front the council is sponsoring a midnight basketball competition at the
new Alexandria Park Community Centre to keep young people off the streets,
other activities at the new community centre and a public art project.
The
midnight basketball is based on a US scheme that had success in
diverting young people from crime and anti-social behaviour. Matches are played
on a Saturday between 7.30 pm and midnight.
More than
1000 people a week are visiting the new community centre. Programs include
health and fitness classes, hospitality training, breakdancing and art
workshops, elders’ lunches, an IT room and after-school and holiday care.
Other
offerings include an Aboriginal men’s art group, a recording studio and an
online talent agency, Lights Camera Action, which has placed more than 250
people in theatre, film and television.
As part of
the streetscape works Cope Street Reserve has a new sculpture by Susan Milne
and Greg Stonehouse, inspired by the bowerbird, which borrows blue objects
during courtship. Earlier this month residents were invited to bring a
favourite object for inclusion in a glass cast to be set in the footpath.
The council
is also working with the Redfern Chamber of Commerce to get art into shopfronts
and schools in time for the completion of the upgrade work.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/big-plans-for-redfern/2007/04/16/1176696757669.html