Coastal planning principles released today by NSW Planning
Principle 1 – Assess and evaluate coastal risks taking into account the NSW sea level rise planning benchmarks.
Principle 2 – Advise the public of coastal risks to ensure that informed land use planning and development decision-making can occur.
Principle 3 – Avoid intensifying land use in coastal risk areas through appropriate strategic and land use planning.
Principle 4 – Consider options to reduce land use intensity in coastal risk areas where feasible.
Principle 5 – Minimise the exposure of development to coastal risks.
Principle 6 – Implement appropriate management responses and adaptation strategies, with consideration for the environmental, social and economic impacts of each option.

Full document: Adapting to Sea Level Rise NSW Planning Guidelines

Link to submission to developmental proposal to fill and cap Southlands.  This 18ha site in Banksmeadow is floodplain, orginally melaleuca swamp (see photograph at left)

The Prime Minister and local member Peter Garrett announced today that Lots 2 and 4 of Malabar Headland have been handed to the NSW Government to be incorporated into the NSW National Parks Estate.  Today’s media release appears below.  A Land Use map of the Headland shows that Lot 4 - 15 ha has been previously zoned residential and Lot 2 - 54ha zoned National Park.  

At the conclusion of the Media Release is the statement - The plan is for the entire Malabar Headland site to eventually become public space.

Other users currently at Malabar Headland include Sydney Water - Link to Booklet on Malabar Plant    (Malabar is the largest sewerage treatment plant in NSW), Malabar Riding School and Anzac Rifle Range.

In last Spring’s Issue of Environmentally Speaking the feature article was about the future management of Malabar Headland in the context of the how National Parks “manages” the park estate at La Perouse - here is a link to that issue.

This is a link to a 2007 pre-election issue of the Southern Courier where Malabar Headland featured - it makes for an interesting comparison.

(more…)

The NSW Government announced today that  the Kurnell desalination plant has been formally handed to its operators $89 million under budget.

The plant has passed all of its performance tests and is operating at full capacity, six months after being first switched on.

The plant’s power needs are reportedly offset by wind energy, from a new wind farm with 67 turbines at Bungendore.

It is one of the largest plants of its type in the world, and has been undergoing rigorous testing while gradually ramping up to its full capacity of 250 million litres a day.

Photo taken May 28 at the opening of the Lowy Cancer Research Centre includes Frank Lowy, Premier Keneally, Prime Minister Rudd, UNSW Vice- Chancellor Hilmer.  

The bulk of the funds for construction of the Lowy Cancer Research Centre came from the sale of land in Little Bay.  The 11.42 ha Little Bay site, orginally part of the Prince Henry Hospital estate,  was gifted to the University for the building of a medical school.  The University never built its school but did operate animal research labs.  Playing fields were located on the site and the first building to generate green power in NSW - Solarch - was built there. In early 2007 the local community was advised at a precinct meeting that the site was to be redeveloped into 150 town houses.  In the same week Solarch was burnt down.  In January 2008 UNSW sold the site, with the ‘townhouse’ approval, to developer Charter Hall.  Charter Hall resubmitted a development plan for a project which can achieve 4 times the density and despite  opposition from Randwick City Council was supported in the Land and Environment Court.  Link to previous story

The Lowy Cancer Research Centre was built at a cost of $127 million - $10 million from the Lowy Foundation, $13 million from the Federal Government, $18million from the State Government and $86 million from UNSW and the Children’s Cancer Research Institute (the Institute has contributed $26 million to UNSW research since 2004). 

The University also sold out its lease at the Prince Henry site even though the previous local member, Bob Carr, assured the community that the University would remain.

AN emergency training exercise in Sydney’s Botany Bay ended with real casualties when volunteers needed medical attention after awaiting “rescue” in chilly waters.

Exercise Splash was designed to test rescuers’ ability to save lives if a plane from nearby Sydney Airport should ever ditch into waters off Port Botany.

But 12 of the surf life-saver volunteers who had been pretending to be aircraft passengers stranded in the water were treated for hypothermia and sea-sickness.

“Twelve people were assessed by ambulance officers for hypothermia,” a New South Wales police spokesman said today, adding that five were taken to hospital. (more…)

extract from Tony Fitzgerald’s address to the Accountability Round Table, 11th March 2010, Monash University - full text

………….. I propose to say something more – for the last time – of my pessimism about the increasing domination of Australia’s public life by the small self-interested groups who control the major political parties, who increasing seem unconcerned that their political authority is held for the benefit of the Australian public & that their duty is to govern in the public interest, not for political advantage.

A harmonious civil society rests on essential pillars, including individual freedom, non-discriminatory equality, the rule of [just] law, the distribution of power & effective checks & balances. Moreover, as Chief Justice Warren of the United States Supreme Court pointed out many years ago “Law ….. presupposes the existence of a broad area of human conduct controlled only by ethical norms and not subject to Law at all.” That aphorism sits uneasily with the realities of 21st century Australian politics.

However, until official misconduct becomes sufficiently egregious & notorious to overcome community cynicism & generate public outrage, few Australians seem troubled by, or even interested in, structural & systemic flaws in our political process & public administration. Citizens who are not directly affected by a law or official action or decision are generally more concerned with day-to-day financial and other personal considerations than with the misuse of power or the impact of injustice on others.

This general apathy is not really surprising. (more…)

Our Federal,State and Local Government Representatives and the areas they represent:

Kingsford Smith (NSW)

The Hon Peter Garrett AM, MP (Labour)

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts,PO Box 6022,House of Representatives,Parliament House,Canberra ACT 2600, Tel: (02) 6277 7640,Fax: (02) 6273 6101  peter.garrett.mp@aph.gov.au

Maroubra Office:Level 6 Maroubra Gateway Building,806-812 Anzac Pde,Maroubra NSW 2035;Postal Address:PO Box 249,Maroubra NSW 2035

Tel: (02) 9349 6007 Fax: (02) 9349 8089

Electoral Division of Maroubra (NSW)

The Hon Mr Michael Daley, MP ( Labour)

Title: NSW Minister for Police

Online: Michael.Daley@parliament.nsw.gov.au
Maroubra Office: Level 7 Maroubra Gateway Building, 806-812 Anzac Pde, Maroubra NSW 2035

SOUTH WARD COUNCILLORS:

Councillor Robert Belleli (Liberal, Deputy Mayor)
C/- Randwick City Council;  robert.belleli@randwick.nsw.gov.au ; 9314 3961/0407 466 174
Councillor Charles Matthews (No Parking Meters)
C/- Randwick City Council;  charles.matthews@randwick.nsw.gov.au ;  9962 4724
Councillor Alan White (Labour)
11 Lindsay Street, Phillip Bay NSW 2036, alan.white@randwick.nsw.gov.au , 0407 251 534/ Fax 9311 2819

Randwick Council’s Draft City Plan, Annual Report 2008-9, and State of the Environment Report 2008-9 are available at this link.

Some interesting figures from the Annual Report:

The estimated current gross replacement cost of Council’s public infrastructure assets and buildings is approximately $962.914million (less than the cost of the Port Expansion).

The Southern Courier is paid $337,958.23 for the Mayor’s column and other advertising.

Council provides subsidies (rent and maintenance) of over $1million a year, with almost 15% of that going to Surf Clubs and Offshore Rescue.

The upgrade to Randwick Library cost $411,520.67 and the annual lease for the property costs $208,420.30

$10,771,219.08 is paid to WSN Environmental Solutions for collection of waste. While Sydney Ports picked up $482,515.05 for the lease on the now defunct Waste Recycling Centre at Port Botany.

Paying for past sins - the cost of remediating the dump site at Frenchmans was over $1.8 million and Statewide Civil was also responsible for Prioneers Park, the Clovelly Walkway and other works totally $3,265,565.90. Statewide were also the contractors for the Yarra Field and Military Road upgrades. Link to Frenchman’s Project.

Legal Services cost $526,158.27 in addition to court charges. Prince Henry’s 2-8 Pine Street, was the most expensive costing $123,877 in the Land and Environment Court. Pity our representatives weren’t available to negotiate for the promised Medical Centre and Shops then the money could have gone to enhancing public facilities in the area instead.

In the City Plan the La Perouse Precinct area is, according to Council, distinguished by the following: (more…)

The Laperouse Museum (depicted in Pamela Griffiths etching) will be closed from 21st October to 9th December for repainting. The Cable Station, built in the 1870s under the direction of James Barnet will be given a contemporary look and the unique stenciling and paint scheme sympathetic to the 19th century building and the Laperouse collection will be painted over with variations on Beige with names such as ‘China Beige’, ‘Sandbar’, ‘River Reed’. The Museum is now referred to as the La Perouse Museum and Gallery. The Gallery feature will reduce space allocated to the Laperouse Collection. These decisions were taken without market research, a business plan and with the La Perouse Headland Conservation Plan of Management after more than two years still not finalised.  (See below: early depiction of celebrations at the Monument, The Unknown Pacific Room and the Mural in the Vanikoro room):

The Museum was established in 1988 as a Bicentennial Gift from France to Australia. In the following year Australia presented a bust of Laperouse, by Ante Dabro, as a Bicentennial Gift to France. There have been many exchanges associated with this site but the most memorable was in 1825, when Governor Brisbane, also a prominent Astronomer, granted land to the French explorer Hyacinthe de Bougainville for the construction of a monument to Laperouse and a Tomb for Friar Receveur, a chaplain and scientist with the expedition. The Museum collection and these two monuments distinguish the La Perouse Headland internationally.

La Perouse is the most significant site in Australia for the French and the international significance derives from their meeting here with the English on the 26th January 1788. Laperouse had set out in 1785 from Brest and landed in Botany Bay on the very day that the English were leaving to settle at Farm Cove. The meeting between the members of the expedition and the English in Botany Bay has been compared to the Russians and Americans meeting in Space during the Cold War.(Photos below of different rooms in the Museum and details of stenciling).
While camped at La Perouse, the French established the first Observatory, first Garden, celebrated the First Christian services, and made the first Geological observations. Until the establishment of the Laperouse Museum few Australians knew about this particular event. During the 1990s the Museum was a focus for further research into the Laperouse expedition, the meetings between the English and French during the six week encampment, as well as broader themes of exploration of the Pacific. But in 2002 the State Government adopted a Plan of Management for Botany Bay National Park which took a different approach to the interpretation of historical events in Botany Bay. Botany Bay has been a site of exploration featuring two of the most famous figures of the European Enlightenment, Cook and Laperouse and today is home to the largest airport and the second largest container port in Australia. But the history and present context is lost on National Parks who now insist that the site be known as the first meeting place of cultures. Interpretation in brochures, display boards, and websites promotes this theme. The latest brochure for the Park has all but erased the names of Cook and Laperouse(except where referring to places). There is no mention of Receveur. ** The front cover of the brochure states that the park “continues to hold special significance for Aboriginal communities”, a sentiment that could be expressed all over Australia. There is nothing unique in this but the French-British Meeting is unique as is the Cook Landing. The real first meeting of cultures and the first relationships between Aboriginal and British colonists occurred on Sydney Harbour. However, Sydney Harbour National Park retains the name of the man who ordered the First Fleet to Australia but Botany Bay National Park is now called Kamay Botany Bay; Kamay being a reference to the ‘Spear People’ who lived around the Cooks River.

The interior design and painting of the Laperouse museum was planned and executed by Guy de Compiegne, architect, Stanislas de Hauteclocque, art gallery owner and art expert, and Francois Olivier, artist specialising in murals and trompe l’oeil.

The significance of Laperouse and the Headland is outlined not on the National Parks website but on that of the Powerhouse Museum.

Links to: Laperouse Collection

Receveur

Dagelet’s letter to Dawes

In addition a publication about La Perouse history which National Parks refuses to distribute at the Museum because not everyone was ‘consulted’ : At the Beach

**Last year the two major items associated with the Receveur story - the Altar Stone used for the first Christian Services in Australia and for celebrating Receveur’s Funeral Mass, as well as the Eucalyptus Tree Trunk - were returned to France by National Parks without replicas being taken for display. This was done a few weeks before World Youth Day.

 Report on Climate Change Adaptation Strategies prepared by Sydney Coastal Councils in conjunction with CSIRO and University of the Sunshine Coast. Case Studies in Sydney were Mosman, Sutherland and Leichhardt.  The two areas identified as most threatened municipalities in a CSIRO study were Botany and Rockdale.

The report makes six key recommendations for councils:
• “Know Your Enemy” – improve understanding of social and ecological vulnerability
• “Plan for Change” – build climate change into planning frameworks
• “Get Smart” – develop education and outreach programs
• “Act, Watch and Learn” – monitor, evaluate and report
• “Put the House in Order” – develop internal and external arrangements
• “Money Talks” – enhance revenue streams to councils

Further information on the study:

Beth Beveridge
Climate Change Adaptation Project Coordinator
Email: beth AT sydneycoastalcouncils.com.au