As well as the massive changes being wrought by the Redfern
Waterloo Authority and City of Sydney Council at
Redfern Park, there are two huge new residential
developments currently being processed – the CUB site is imminent and the huge Green Square
redevelopment is moving along.
We are also interested in the fate of the small community
organisations that have had to move due to the sale or changes in use of
Government property and to the local tenants of Housing NSW properties that
have been demolished. There are also the existing community groups trying to
work well in the face of constant restructure and review – both real and
threatened. It is just as well we have the vigilant Redwatch Residents action
group and Geoff and Lyn Turnbull’s excellent associated email as well as the
new South Sydney Interagency.
What
is the Redfern Waterloo Authority up to?
The impact of the Redfern Waterloo Authority is still huge
as it drives redevelopment of Redfern Waterloo, Eveleigh and Darlington.
Their latest newsletter is trumpeting the movement of Channel 7 onto the ATP
site, the upgrade of Redfern Station, increase in koori jobs.
It is only when one ducks under the spray of spin and hype
and knows something about what is really happening, that the actual situation
becomes clearer. The RWA website still has the temerity to talk positively
about its consultation with the community, when most local people and community
services have given up trying to interact in any meaningful way – noting that
the insulting attitude to community organisations used in the Morgan Disney
Report in 2004 is still being used in the Human Services Plan Stage 2 released
recently.
The funding of the RWA in the latest state budget gives
another view on what changes will actually happen because there is money
attached. There is $4.648m for the redevelopment of the community health centre
at the former Redfern police station and courthouse. There is also $3.7m in
“funds for the Redfern-Waterloo Authority to construct the North Eveleigh pedestrian bridge and improve the
precinct”. RWA’s operational funding for 2008-09 is $5m.
We cannot see any budget for the Human Services Unit, which
was said to be disbanded as of June 2008. If so, who will implement the Human
Services Plan Stage 1 (recently evaluated) and Stage 2 as released in mid July?
Given the minimal rate of improvement achieved so far, perhaps little will be
lost.
North Eveleigh and Sydney
University
Another area soon to be turned on its head is North
Eveleigh, which is the latest part of the Redfern Waterloo ‘great flog off’. The redevelopment
plans need to be looked at in the light of the Sydney University Expansion Plans. These show
the university reaching across to North Eveleigh
and trying to pretend that they will not swallow up everything in between. The
plan intends to make the university less inward focused, by removing walls and
putting a friendly face towards the street to attract ‘the community’ to use
the ever increasing precinct, for improved safety. This could include putting
shops into the new Union
Building. Not content
with overrunning Eveleigh, the university planners want to expand west, from
Harold Park to Rozelle. Weaving in and out of these plans is the latest study
on the traffic implications of this huge redevelopment on narrow inner city
streets.
Carlton United
Brewery (CUB) site
“The Hanging Gardens of Broadway”
Residents have been battling with developers over this huge
new development for years. The new developers, Frasers, have come up with many
changes that encouraged residents to think they had been listened to.
These include a six star green precinct that has
tri-generation, which produces electricity on site and uses the power
production to provide both heating and cooling throughout the site. Water
harvesting both from rain water and sewerage are parts of the environmental
package which may see the site export some services to the surrounding
community.
There have also been improvements to traffic and parking.
The road defined grid pattern has been removed and most vehicles will enter an
underground car park close to the boundary of the site, leaving the public part
of the site for people. The number of car spaces is reduced from 2,300 to 2,000
with the car parking available for residents, commercial and entertainment use
rather than sold off with units or offices. Future provision for charging of
electronic cars and car share places is factored in.
Publicly accessible space has been increased by 33%, with a
new square made possible by moving one of the buildings and raising the floor
space in the commercial development on the corner of Abercrombie Street and Broadway from 40%
to 50%. Frasers have purchased the balance of properties in Kensington Street
and are proposing to turn this area into an ‘edgy’ entertainment precinct.
Leading architects are creating designs for the tower opposite UTS, which they
say is evocative of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
The payback for all these goodies is the provision of a 6%
increase in floor space. This stunned residents who had continually criticised
the high density as a major flaw. Frasers said that the increase may not be all
used, but that they need it to cover some of their increased costs. The
question remains whether the increased density is an acceptable price to pay
for the improvements.
Housing NSW
Trying to assess the amount of change in Public Housing
properties in South Sydney and in particular the
large estates in Redfern and Waterloo
is not easy. This is because the changes are about the nature of tenancies and
therefore the people being housed, rather than the buildings. As Shelter NSW so
rightly puts it “The public housing sector in NSW has been through a time
of dramatic transformation, with the introduction of the NSW Government’s plan
for reshaping public housing and the implementation of community renewal and
regeneration projects, the NSW Housing and Human Services Accord and other
programs. The increasing prevalence of housing stress and homelessness has
further accelerated the challenges facing the public housing system”.
The most obvious evidence of the huge changes is the ground
zero where several high-rises stood on the corner of Morehead and Walker
Streets.
We understand this was supposed to be a private-public
partnership, but the private investment has not been forthcoming so Housing NSW
will foot the bill. Certainly, the sign on the site talks about 106 new seniors
living units and family terraces delivered by the NSW Government – Building
Stronger Communities and no other funder is mentioned. Also worrying is the
moving of the PCYC on the corner. Since the ground is swampy and the building
is sinking, getting a private firm to take on this problem is not likely. On
course, we are mostly concerned about the resident’s experience of these
changes. Some long -term residents have alternate accommodation and have been
promised that they will return, while others have been moved permanently. The
fact that the RWA has not got involved in making changes to any public housing,
suggests that the changes planned by Housing NSW are going in the direction
that the RWA wants – that is addressing the negative impact of Housing NSW
concentrating significant numbers of increasingly high need people in Redfern
and Waterloo. We are not being told how this is being done. A visit late last
year by the Housing Minister, saw the Chamber of Commerce asking for sensible
measures such as making sure ‘The Accord’ actually provides services to older
people and people with mental health problems; that police are able to deal
with drinking on the street and at Waterloo Green; that there is good property
and ground maintenance on Housing NSW properties and ensuring new developments
are consulted about and are integrated into the broader community and
businesses.
Community services moved off sold government property
Redfern Community Health Centre
The Redfern Community Health Centre has been moved from the
old Rachel Forster Hospital
site which the RWA has recently sold for a private housing development. It will
eventually go into new premises on the former Court House and Police Station
site which has not yet begun construction. Because of the sale, the Redfern
Community Health Centre has had to move from the hospital site and make
alternative arrangements for what is expected to be about 18 months until a new
centre is built. Other community groups who used the facilities at Rachel
Forster have also lost their meeting place.
The Mental Health Team and Community HIV/AID Services have
relocated to 155 Pitt St
Redfern. The Community Nursing team has relocated to Building 11 on the Royal
Prince Alfred Hospital Campus. (Thanks to Redwatch for this information)
It is interesting to note the importance of the Community
Health Centre in delivering
health services to the Aboriginal community set out in the
RWA Human Services Plan Phase 2. Let’s hope the disruption of moving the
service will not get in the way of achieving the Human Services Plan.
Aboriginal Supported Playgroup
One of the services that was moved when Redfern Public
School was sold, was the Gamarada Learning Centre, which is an Aboriginal
supported families and children’s playgroup run on Montessori principles. The
parents and volunteers have found it hard to find a new place to meet their
requirements since they left in 2006. They need to be in a public school to
make links from the preschool into the early school experience, which requires
co-operation from the Department of Education locally for premises. They were
offered a space in Bourke
Street Public
School, which was too small, so went looking for
alternatives and finally had to use a temporary space at the PCYC as part of a
multi-purpose room. A larger space was found in Bourke
Street Public
School so they have settled there, although the Aboriginal
people for whom the preschool is intended live in Redfern and Waterloo.
There is still the question of whether we need a public
school in Redfern, given the projected growth of population.
South Sydney Community Aid
This organisation shows the resilience that allows community
organisations to survive despite huge odds – especially when those odds are
created by a government authority that was supposed to be improving the human
services situation in Redfern and Waterloo.
After being required to leave Redfern
Public School, they had a
desperate search for suitable premises that included considering having to pay
for market rent in commercial premises. Thank goodness for the City of Sydney Council who allowed them to use Alexandria
Town Hall. This provided
suitable office and meeting room space. The Centre is now able to use the
excellent upstairs facilities when not booked. Anyone who has attended the
recent events – their 30th birthday and the Refugee Week morning tea are in no
doubt that the Centre is delivering excellent services to the local community –
just that they are no longer in Redfern or Waterloo
– they are in Alexandria.
Keeping up with the changes
One of the best things about South
Sydney has always been the involvement of local people and
community organisations. Although there is a fair amount of disadvantage, it
has been balanced by the opportunities for people to stick together and help
each other.
This ‘social capital’ is still evident in South
Sydney, but has not been supported through the huge changes we
have described. Large government interventions and large community-based human
services do not on the whole build social capital – they might offer
consultation (which is really giving information about their great plans) and
certainly do not take kindly when locals say they do not like the changes.
Community organisations respond by keeping their own
organisations strong, trying to interact with the change agents in a positive
way when they see something positive being done – and just as helpful though
not always see that way – saying when they see a mistake is being made.
REDwatch
REDWatch is a community group that covers the Sydney suburbs of Redfern Eveleigh Darlington and Waterloo. The local
residents and workers who form this excellent resident action group say they
exist “to monitor Government involvement in our area and to push for
outcomes that benefit the community and not just the government”.
REDwatch uses information distribution, especially email, to
make sure residents and service providers are informed of the latest movements
– current development plans, government reports, requests for submissions and
‘consultations’. Government knows that REDwatch is on top of all the changes
and that they will be called to account.
South Sydney Interagency
There has been a recent revival of the South Sydney
Interagency, which in the past has been run by South Sydney Council. Regional
Council has taken on the role of facilitation and at least 60 services that
either are based in South Sydney or provide services into South
Sydney are on the contact list. The first meeting was opened by
the Director of NCOSS and we have already had a consultation with them about
needs in the area. The Interagency provides the opportunity for services to
inform others about their work, discuss common issues in South
Sydney and invite resource people to talk to us.
Waterloo
Green
The Housing Community Assistance Project (HCAP) worker,
based at the Factory Community Centre, is working with local tenants on the
housing estates to get something done about issues that are concerning them.
They are focusing on The Waterloo Green Project, where they are calling in
local services, council, the RWA and police to get some results around the
problems of drinking, noise and lack of safety on the open space between the
hi-rise buildings. This effort is building on the work done previously by the
Community Safety Taskforce led by council. For some reason, it has been
extremely hard to get solutions to this issue, that needs a combination of
upgrading the locality physically, policing on Housing NSW property and getting
drug and alcohol services. They have just put out a report card on all the
strategies to date.
Losing the history
Residents are starting a campaign for a better outcome for
the Eveleigh railway workshops significant site. They feel it is vital that
cultural and historical aspects of the community need to be respected and
maintained during any period of change, to give meaning and context to the
present. This was a feature in early plans for the Australian Technology
Park, but new plans being
put out by the Redfern Waterloo Authority will spoil the historical precinct.
The site will have buildings between four and sixteen stories (equivalent to
the TNT Towers), parking for almost 2,000 cars,
construction of over 1,200 dwellings for 2,400 new residents and unsympathetic
reuse of heritage buildings, including an apartment building on top of the
historic Paintshop which would require demolition.
The former Eveleigh Railway Workshop complex is locally,
nationally and internationally recognised for its history and heritage. It
played an instrumental role in the development of the country’s rail network
and was the site of the commencement of the Great National Strike in 1917.
Structurally it provides a fine example of 1880s Georgian architecture,
described by the Smithsonian Institute as one of the rarest and most intact
industrial precincts in the world. But it does not turn enough bucks for the
RWA, so will have to be ruined in the cause of development.
Source: Inner Sydney
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