BY MARCELLE HOFF
SYDNEY — On October 30, 600 people attended a rally and march from Union Square on Harris Street to Pyrmont Point to demand that the state government save the former water police site at Pyrmont from developers. Under a Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority plan, the 1.3 hectare site would house 100 residential units and offices.
A diverse group of speakers addressed the protest rally, including Sydney lord mayor Lucy Turnbull and environment activist Jack Mundey.
"The departure of the water police presents a once-only opportunity to create much needed high quality green, usable, safe, open space on this unique public foreshore land", Turnbull said. She has promised to fully support the Friends of Pyrmont Point, which organised the rally, in its efforts to have the site retained as parkland.
"The Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority are the real estate agents for the state government. We must not allow their high-handed schemes to deprive us of any more public land", Mundey said.
It was announced that the Greens are drafting legislation, similar to the Callan Park legislation, to protect the former water police site.
A petition, containing 6000 signatures, requesting that the site be kept as public, open space, was presented to Greens MLC Sylvia Hale on the steps of Parliament House on October 29 by 50 supporters of the Friends of Pyrmont Point. It asks the state government to stop high-rise development on the former water police site at Pyrmont.
[Marcelle Hoff is an activist in the Friends of Pyrmont Point. For more information on the campaign to save the former water police site as public parkland, phone Marcelle Hoff on (02) 9571 4373 or 0421 911 677.]
From Green Left Weekly, November 5, 2003.
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