r 35th Annual General Two Major Development e Proposals Threaten Glebe b Meeting of The Glebe Society Inc m e Notice of meeting t p Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of The Glebe Society e Incorporated will be held at 11am on S / Sunday 19th September 2004 at Benledi t (next to Glebe Library) 186 Glebe Point s Road. The agenda for the meeting is u published on page 4 of this Bulletin. g Nominations for Committee The proposed Slipway building would be the size u Office bearers of the Society and other of the white area. Photo: Bob Armstrong A members of the Management Committee will On Thursday 5 August, over 150 local be elected at the AGM, and a nomination residents filled the upstairs meeting room in form is enclosed with this Bulletin. Mem- the Glebe Town Hall to discuss two major 4 bers are encouraged to consider the proposals for developments in Rozelle Bay. 0 benefits of active participation in the One is for the proposed Sydney Slipways 0 Society. Nominations close on Friday 3 boat repair and maintenance facility, which September 2004. 2 apart from other adverse effects would mar / Invitation the view of the Anzac Bridge. The other is a 7 facility for dry storage of 850 vessels on the All members of the Society are invited to northern side of Rozelle Bay proposed to be the AGM, and financial members are built where the existing tall grey coloured entitled to vote. Hobbs shed stands. Awards As these proposals would be on land within A special resolution will be put to the AGM. the Leichhardt Council area, the Mayor of This motion emanates from the Glebe Leichhardt, Alice Murphy, and two of her Society’s Awards Subcommittee which Councillors were there. Two City of Sydney recommends that Ted McKeown be Councillors, Robyn Kemmis & Verity Firth, awarded Honorary Life Membership of the also attended, as the developments would Glebe Society. affect their residents just across a narrow The Awards Subcommittee also recom- bay, in Glebe. mends that Alison McKeown be awarded the Glebe Society Commendation. Some good news was given to the Meeting Guest speaker by Jane Spring, President of the University of Sydney Women’s Rowing Club. This was We are delighted that Dr John Hood has the decision of the Minister for Transport, accepted our invitation to speak to mem- Michael Costa, to scrap the Bank Street bers, following the conclusion of the formal powerboat ramp under the Anzac Bridge in meeting agenda. John is a member, a former Blackwattle Bay (Herald, 6 August, page 5). anaesthetist at the Homoeopathic Hospital in Glebe and has researched the history of However, the Sydney Harbour Draft Madame Kirsova, who endowed children’s Regional Environmental Plan still permits playgrounds in Glebe and other underprivi- boat ramps, as well as commercial marinas, leged suburbs in the 1940s. to be developed in Rozelle and Blackwattle Bays. Refreshments will be served at the conclu- These developments, as well as the sion of John Hood’s talk. proposed boat repair facility, would make all types of navigation in the narrow Bays more Continued on next page... A publication of THE GLEBE SOCIETY INC PO Box 100 GLEBE 2037 Australia www.glebesociety.org.au ...Continued from page 1 hazardous, especially near the The Glebe Society bottleneck entry of the old Glebe Glebe Point Residents Group Island Bridge. Save Rozelle Bay Association Such developments are especially dangerous for the two rowing clubs Final motion of the Public Meeting, held at the Glebe and numerous dragon boats that Town Hall, 160 St Johns Road, Glebe, NSW, on Thursday 5 train on the Bays. These hand August 2004 (passed unanimously). propelled craft are easily flooded or This meeting of residents of Glebe, Annandale, Balmain, Ultimo, Pyrmont and capsized by the wake of motorised White Bay calls on the Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Natural vessels as well as being easily hit, Resources to require the modification of the proposed Development Applica- for rowers and canoeist sit much tion by Sydney Slipways for a boat lift and repair operation in Rozelle Bay so lower in the water and are often not that it will operate within normal business hours only, and so that no building seen until it’s too late. on the site, by reason of its position, scale, form or height, will impair the view of and through the Anzac Bridge, or visually impact on the Bridge or For these reasons and many more, preclude unrestricted public access to the immediate foreshore area. the packed public meeting called on the State Government to remove the This meeting declares the pre-Development Application notification and W1 Maritime Waters Zoning from consultation with respect to this proposal to be totally inadequate and both Rozelle and Blackwattle Bays. unacceptable. In order to ensure both pre-and post-DA notification and This would result in developments consultation is adequate, this meeting requests the Minister to remove the such as ramps and marinas not assessment process from Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority in its entirety being permitted, as they are and invest it in the local government authority within whose boundaries it incompatible with the safety of the lies, in this case Leichhardt Council. In addition we request that this be done current users. with respect to all subsequent DAs for Rozelle and Blackwattle Bays. Furthermore, this meeting notes, the Draft Sydney Harbour Foreshore In addition, the public meeting Regional Environmental Plan and Draft Development Control Plan include requested the scaling down and Rozelle and Blackwattle Bays in Zone W1, which permits development of redesign of the boat repair facility commercial marinas and powerboat ramps. This zoning is totally at odds with because of its impact on that the current recreational, commercial and industrial uses of the Bays and is Sydney icon, the Anzac Bridge. completely unacceptable to residents. These motions were carried Therefore this meeting insists Blackwattle and Rozelle Bays be removed from unanimously and forwarded to Mr the W1 Zoning, and the draft planning instruments be amended so that Craig Knowles, Minister for development of marinas and powerboat ramps in the Bays is specifically Infrastructure, Planning and Natural prohibited in both the REP and DCP, and that any future development in the Resources, to require all proposals Bays be required to be assessed by the appropriate local government to be assessed by the Local authority. Councils, to ensure the community is properly informed, consulted and considered in relation to development proposals for the Please contact Mark Dent on 9566 2555 or Bays. The Councils, who are [email protected] if you really want accustomed to consulting with to work at helping us save our bays residents, are in a far better position to make a decision, rather than a decision being made by the Sydney Dragon Boats Destroyed The Slipway is a Health Harbour and Foreshore Authority Hazard (SHFA), which is too closely The groups represented at our identified with exploiting the meeting on 5 August included While my GP was testing my blood waterfront for commercial gain. Dragon Boats NSW. Soon after the pressure, she asked me what the meeting, we were shocked to hear Glebe Society was doing. When I By entrusting assessment to Local that their fleet of 18 Dragon Boats, started to describe the proposed Councils the rights of existing users stored in the grounds of the Sydney slipway, she told me ‘your blood of the Bays and nearby residents Secondary College at Blackwattle pressure is going up while I watch - will be better protected and the use Bay, was destroyed by fire. we can’t use that reading’. of Sydney Harbour shared more The Glebe Society sends its commis- - Edwina Doe fairly. erations and best wishes to the - Neil Macindoe and Mark Dent Dragon Boat teams. 2 The Glebe Society Bulletin Following a visit by Gemma The Mitchell Street Hall was identi- * In 2003, the Department estab- Cooney of the Department of fied as a meeting place for community lished an Aboriginal Elders Meeting Housing to a Glebe Society activities, with the Department Place in a refurbished terrace house Management Committee significantly upgrading the hall to at 113 Mitchell Street, Glebe. The Meeting in June, her provide local community groups with Department is working with the colleague, Ally de Pree- facilities including a fully equipped Inner West Aboriginal Community Raghavan, sent us this report kitchen and servery, computer desks Company Ltd and local Indigenous of the many activities the and equipment and an upgraded tenants to establish the meeting Department of Housing is co- courtyard. A growing number of place as a base for cultural and ordinating in Glebe. groups and initiatives are taking full community activities. IWACC has advantage of the great facility recently received a grant from the The Old Fire including: Aboriginal Housing Ofice to start the Billlabunga Project, to provide Station * Middle Aged Dames (MAD) an Aboriginal Elders gathering and which was formed in February 2004, art group on a fortnightly basis. in response to a local woman who A hub for the community, identified the need for a friendship In addition to the variety of initia- among a number of exciting and activities group for middle aged tives that are based at this new community initiatives….. women living on the Glebe Estate. community Hall, the Department of This group recently applied for a City Housing continues to work with of Sydney Council Local Community tenants on a range of community Grant to undertake a Furniture issues including the Glebe & Recycling Workshop & Old Fire Balmain Neighbourhood Tenant Station Courtyard Project.