According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the demolition is
part of a $1.7 billion development which will replace the industrial buildings
and car yards around Green Square
station to create a civic centre as big as Martin Place, with apartments,
supermarkets and shops.
The incinerator, formerly a waste plant, was closed down in
1996 after 30 years of community campaigning. Since its closure, it had become the
subject of intense real-estate haggling as developers, councils and residents
debated over how the vacant inner-city property could be used.
Colin James, a Sydney
University lecturer and
architect, who has long campaigned against the demolition, is disappointed at
the loss of the building. “It’s a great tragedy. It’s one of the best things
that Green Square
has going for it,” he said.
Mr James has long argued that the incinerator could be used
to provide cheap accommodation for artists and students in a city with
sky-rocketing rents. “I would still argue that it could have been used for
accommodation. Buildings should be recycled not destroyed. What a shame!” he
said.
In 2002 the owners of the building, Waverley
and Woollahra Council, had allowed a development application for use of the
site by CRASH – the Construction Industry’s relief and assistance fund for Sydney’s homeless.
The move was initially welcomed by the then Mayor of
Waverley, Paul Pierce, who was quoted as advocating short-term squatting on
unutilised properties, given the “obvious homelessness problems in the inner
city”. He later recanted, arguing that the CRASH application had no merit as
the “applicant wasn’t the owner” and the building had no “architectural merit”.
The CRASH application was also met with censure from the
Mayor of Woollahra at the time, Andrew Petrie, who argued it was capricious for
the councils to retain a disused incinerator which adversely affected the value
of their land.
Residents’ concerns have also been cited as having an
impact. Local resident, Col Charlton, a Waterloo
businessman, who campaigned for the incinerator’s 1996 closure is pleased to
see the building demolished.
“I’m glad to see it go,” he said. “It’s an ugly thing
anyhow. It should have never been there in the first place – certainly it
should not have been in the middle of the city.”
As for the building’s accommodation potential, Charlton is
ambivalent. “I think there would be some residual stuff. When it was running it
was giving out poisonous gases,” he said. “It wasn’t designed as a building for
accommodation. It doesn’t sound good for accommodation in my view.”
Source:
South Sydney Herald February 2008 – www.southsydneyherald.com.au