Bondi PO returned to sender

Bondi PO returned to sender
Image: Australia Post selling out Bondi Photo: Supplied

By Paul Paech

While the rolling surf breaks coming in from the south stay the same from year to year, it’s the constant development of the buildings on the other side of Campbell Parade which renders Bondi almost beyond recognition.

In a welcome decision for locals, Waverley Council’s Development Assessment Panel (WDAP) has sent ambitious plans for Bondi Beach’s Post Office back to the developers with a demand that they give more attention to the heritage values of the site.

“We’re very pleased that the Panel rejected the recommendation from Council’s own planning department that the project be given the green light,” said Bondi resident Tim Murray.

He argues that the questions raised by the Panel about the property’s heritage values will prove difficult for the owner to address.

“It’s not a win yet,” said Mr Murray, who is spearheading resistance to plans to replace the single-storey brick building with a four-storey block of flats and two levels of below-ground parking.

“But the Panel has proved to be a welcome ally for the local community which really loves and values its own community post office which has been busy ever since it opened way back in 1922.”

Bondi Beach’s Post Office is included on the Commonwealth Heritage list, which identifies natural, historic and Indigenous places of heritage significance.

Mr Murray speculated the Panel’s rejection of Council’s assessment shows that heritage is not just a low-priority box that can be easily dismissed.

He said his experience living in China had opened his eyes to the need to protect the heritage of properties before it was too late.

“Sydney’s recent building boom has shown residents how quickly local character can be damaged and even destroyed,” Mr Murray argued, adding that Council has a clear legal obligation to give heritage matters more serious consideration.

“Developers typically regard heritage as a minor annoyance, but WDAP has raised the bar with this decision,” he said.

“Council is saying that unless property developers engage seriously with a listed site’s heritage issues, their proposals risk rejection.”

At the WDAP meeting, Waverley’s Deputy Mayor Dominic Wy Kanak told the Panel the proposal failed to give sufficient protection to the valuable evidence of Bondi’s Aboriginal culture likely to be uncovered by the excavations.

“With such a high likelihood of unearthing historic Aboriginal heritage, it is risky to hand responsibility to developers who argue that removing trees from the Public Domain is ‘decluttering’.”

Cr Wy Kanak added “This type of development mentality does not give us positive hope the Bondi Post Office developers will properly exercise the onus of responsibility in identifying what might be important archaeological finds during the construction excavation.”

“Under those circumstances, developers never going to identify anything that might interrupt their work,” he said.

Tim Murray is calling on the Minister of Communications and Australia Post to conduct an investigation into the nature of the deals which have been done with regards to the site.

Mr Murray said the Post Office belongs to the Australian public, yet, unlike sales of other large development sites in Bondi, there had been no transparent public auction of the Post Office.

At the WDAP meeting, developers Taylor Constructions (currently excavating the nearby site between Gusto’s and Ravesi’s on Hall Street) revealed they had already bought the site.

Taylors paid $15 million for the site in May, yet Mr Murray claims public title records indicate that Australia Post only received $10 million.

“I want to know what happened to the other $5 million” he said, adding “Australia Post seems to have issued an earlier option to a private individual at no cost, which was then sold on just a few months later for a cool $5 million profit.”

“$5 million represents an astonishing 50% on top of what Australia Post actually got for the property,” said Mr Murray, wondering aloud if any public tender process was used.

Mr Murray claims after the initial option deal the head of the Australia Post General Property Division – which had arranged the deal – then took up a job with CBRE, the property agent which had clinched the sale.

“One sharp-footed businessman has managed to get away with cool $5 million in flipping this public property,” he said, “and one of Australia Post’s senior real estate managers has now jumped ship to one of the agents involved in the sale.”

As the Post Office is within the electorate of Wentworth, Mr Murray is also calling for its Federal Representative, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, to “step up and tell us what he knows about these on-the-nose property deals that would rob Bondi’s vibrant local community of this pivotal public building and business.”

Faced with a rapidly cooling market for new flats and forecasts that development applications for blocks of flats will drop by 50% over the next 12 months, Taylors will now have to decide whether to address the WDAP’s objections or take the chance of going straight to the Land & Environment Court.

After last week’s fiery WDAP meeting, a member of the development team told a resident they needed a stiff drink.

Following the Panel’s decision, they may well need to head into the waves to wash off their their disappointment.

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