However, much starker changes are in store
for the site.
The Redfern-Waterloo Authority is planning
a business and residential zone between the arts precinct and Redfern railway
station, and medium-density housing at the Erskineville end.
Yesterday the authority’s chief executive, Robert Domm, said: “In the second half of this
year, with RailCorp’s agreement, we hope to take as many of those large blocks
to the market as possible.”
Developers will be able to build
residential blocks up to 10 storeys high.
Work will start next month on a 12-storey
building for Channel Seven and Pacific Magazines in the Australian Technology
Park. A $6 million
pedestrian bridge to span the rail tracks will be finished by next year.
The community group REDwatch fears that
some heritage buildings, such as the large erecting workshop in the Eveleigh
railyard, will not be saved.
A REDwatch organiser, Geoff Turnbull,
criticised the Government’s decision to sell the old Redfern Public School
site to help fund the development.
Darlington Public School
was only taking children from within the area, he said. “In the next few
years, within its feeder zone, you will have the CUB development, the Block
development and the CarriageWorks development.”
[REDWatch Clarification – The Former Redfern
Public School Site was not sold to fund the Eveleigh development. It was sold to
the Federal Governments Indigenous Land Corporation because it was considered
surplus to NSW Government requirements. The RWA initially proposed the site be
used for a housing development. The community facility proposed by the ILC
is widely regarded as a better outcome for the community. REDWatch argued however
that the Redfern Public School site should not be sold but rather kept in NSW
Government ownership so the land could be re-used in the future for a school to
meet the needs of the increased population proposed for the area. The current pressures
on the Public Schools at Darlington and Erskineville
will substantially increase with the proposed doubling of the areas population].