Concrete quarrels

Concrete quarrels
Image: Glebe Island, originally a rocky outcrop, is a major industrial zone on the northern shore of Rozelle Bay. Photo: Alec Smart

BY MICK DALEY

The future of Sydney’s working harbour has been a controversial issue of late, with massive residential construction threatening to overwhelm its viability. Steered by the government-owned Urban Growth Corporation (UGC), these developments have reduced the working harbour to 39.7 hectares.

But it appears that lack of government oversight, compounded by the differing agendas of successive administrations, is creating inevitable confrontations in user amenity.

Greens MP for Balmain, Jamie Parker, said that inadequate planning is to blame for the cascading problems.
“The bays area has been mismanaged by state government after state government,” he told City Hub. “And that’s one of the reasons why the current government gave this whole Bays Precinct to Urban Growth; so one body could be charged with managing that whole area.
“It hasn’t been particularly effective, considering that Westconnex has now taken the whole Rozelle good yard area and Sydney Ports has been really adamant about ensuring that Glebe Island remains industrial use.”

Nowhere has this issue created more controversy than in the suburban conglomeration at Pyrmont, adjacent to Glebe Island, zoned as an industrial facility for over a century. Sydney’s Port Authority are proposing the construction of a major ship loading depot and the movement of Hanson Concrete to the island, with industrial activity on a 24/7 basis.

A report in the Domain’s Commercial real estate publication has documented white-hot anger from residents who claim they were assured by developers they were buying into a purely residential sector.
Originally an industrial hub itself, Pyrmont boasted only 530 dwellings in 1991. That figure has swelled by a factor of 12 in recent decades.
The residential redevelopment of the current Fishmarket site will presumably amplify new buyers’ dissent against the functions of the working harbour.

But the facts seem to be against them. Glebe Island, along with White Bay and Rozelle Bay, are still zoned waterfront industrial. Sources claim that apart from the loading facility, Glebe Island is proposed as the major transport hub for all the tunnel digging and aggregate from the Metro and Westconnex excavations.

A Port Authority spokesperson told the City Hub, “There is a crucial need for Sydney to import critical construction materials due to the depletion of local sand supplies. Glebe Island is in close proximity to CBD construction, urban renewal and a construction boom driven by $70 billion of major infrastructure projects.”

She pointed out that a single vessel will replace up to 1500 truck movements.
“The proposed short-term facility would … feature internal truck receival and delivery facilities to reduce noise emissions. It would operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week as required.”
The Authority, she said, is currently seeking community feedback on the proposed facility.

UGC sent City Hub the following statement: “The Bays west area is envisaged as a mixed-use precinct with a focus on high value ‘jobs of the future’ and the working harbour. UrbanGrowth NSW is working with industry, community and government partners to determine appropriate uses for the area.
Port Authority is responsible for the development of its own facilities at Glebe Island.”

Alex Greenwich, Independent MP for Sydney, says that the Pyrmont community has received mixed messages from the government as to what the usage of the site would be.
“I myself along with residents have met with representatives of the Premier’s office urging them to have a more coordinated approach … to make sure we get the balance right.
“People understand that we have a working harbour and that does come with noise, congestion and other impacts. But when we see something that’s going to be so intense and has come for many people out of the blue, that obviously raises red flags.”

Elizabeth Elenius is a long-term resident of the area and member of local community groups Glebe Island White Bay Community Liaison Group and Pyrmont Action. She says that Pyrmont residents have been misled by government and developers.
“You don’t surely think people make real estate decisions on what a government facing election might or might not promise? That would be foolish. What you do is you buy property on the basis of what’s in the documents relating to the land,” she told City Hub.

“I live in the building closest to the proposed facilities and when I bought it ten years ago Glebe Island was an active port. It always has been a port and will be a port for the foreseeable future.
“This will have an impact on me personally, but if people want peace and quiet they go and buy somewhere in Wahroonga or Turrumurra. Not beside a busy port.
“This is Sydney’s last deep water area. The island is also a facility for receiving gypsum and sugar and other essential goods. I don’t believe that anyone has the right to object to the facility per se and the best we can do will be to ensure that the conditions are very high standard and are monitored.”

Jamie Parker says part of the problem is that residents tend to get considered last.
“When these developments happen they’re of a very poor quality like we’ve seen with the White Bay cruise ship terminal. It’s had an incredible impact on resident’s health and amenity. It should be possible in 2018 to make an industrial facility on an island to have minimal impact and that’s what needs to happen.”
The Port Authority seems intent on such an outcome, with its Review of Environmental Factors surrounding the Glebe Island facility.
Submissions can be emailed or posted to Port Authority of NSW, PO Box 25 Millers Point NSW 2000.

Elizabeth Elenius says a member of her group will be suggesting a unique solution.
“It is that a condition be made that they line the rooftops of their (proposed) building with solar panels and have an electricity generating facility available to the ships and other industries around. It would give the community back something from an amenity they might feel they have lost. It would be environmentally an absolute landmark for the government and certainly my organization will be putting in a submission to that effect.”

You May Also Like

Comments are closed.