On 11 July, an event was held to raise funds “for a
sustainable Carlton and United Breweries
development (in Chippendale),” City of Sydney
Deputy Lord Mayor and Greens Councillor Chris Harris said. The Chippendale community raised
over $1,000 for Mr Drake-Brockman’s litigation against Foster’s and Mr Sartor.
At the fundraiser, Chippendale resident and sustainability
consultant Michael Mobbs said: “In a sense, we’ve won by putting this on the
agenda. Even if we lose the court case, we’ve won. We’ve put this on the agenda
in a way that makes the Minister uncomfortable.”
Mr Mobbs has helped Mr Drake-Brockman, in addition to
others, including Cr Harris, whose offce organised the fundraiser.
Another speaker, Cate Faehrmann, the Nature Conservation
Council of NSW’s Director, congratulated Mr Drake-Brockman “for his initiative
in bringing deserved attention onto the State Government’s calling in of the
development for the CUB site.
“Tonight is about yet another unsustainable development that
Sydney can’t
afford to have,” Ms Faehrmann said. “It’s about the fact this current State
Labor Government doesn’t get that we must, we absolutely must, plan our
buildings and cities sustainably, if we are to have any hope of ensuring an
adequate clean water supply and a safe climate for future generations.”
Jack Mundey, Green Bans legend, said that in his experience
since the 1970s, “extra-parliamentary action by concerned residents,
environmentalists and community activists is essential if overdevelopment is to
be thwarted.”
Mr Mundey said that he believed the court case (which took
place on 25 and 26 July) could spark that action.
An audience member, who said she represented six people
unable to attend, said that she thought the CUB site “was lost until I found
the letter-box drop” (about the fundraiser by community group FoCUS, Friends of
Carlton United Site). “It’s given us heart.”
Source: South Sydney Herald July 2007 http://www.southsydneyherald.com.au/