Rally for Millers Point

There is still community in Millers Point in Sydney. People are still fighting. Rally to save Millers Point. Fight against consigning it to the wealthy only.

Rally for Millers Point

POSTED BY COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 0SC ON MARCH 04, 2016

Join the people of the Millers Point as they march to save their community.

Saturday 19th March 12.00 - 4.00 pm

WE WILL MARCH FOR MILLERS POINT

We will gather on the forecourt of the Fire Station in Kent Street 

and march down Kent Street to the Village Green.

Below is a report from Patricia Corowa on the current state of affairs in Miller's Point, Sydney.  Many people have left.  Many, like Patricia, are still there but are being disturbed every night by the noise and carelessness of the security workers in the half-empty suburb.

There are about 70 of us left here now. Most of the infrastructure, apart from the gentrified restaurant and coffee shop in the Lend Lease development of Barangaroo, has disappeared. One bus that runs every half hour.. No post office.. No butcher shop.. No Bakery.. No servo.. No affordable supermarket.. Lotsa pubs of course, mainly for the yuppy set and their late night disgusting behaviour.. lotsa cars parked, some double, even triple and motor cycles of the workers on the Lend Lease developments and other NSW government restoration, maintenance and repairs of public properties where the tenants have been forcibly removed and are now being made ready for sale.. As you know I am a relatively recent resident compared to many others who have been born here or lived here for generations and decades in the purpose-bullt workers' housing; and are now grown old, with age-related unwellness and vulnerabllity. My Great Grandparents lived in The Rocks in 1881 and that's why the area was a preference when I applied for public housing in 1986, but was given the first and only offer here in 2012 on a current lease that is until 2022.. one of the reasons why I do not consent to the NSW governments' removal of the people and sale of the properties, apart from my age, and other extenuating circumstances.. As the notice indicates, the remnant of us continue to fight the capitalist delusion and folly of the NSW Government, do not consent to what they are doing to public assets, and are determined not to surrender..

Ironic twist in sale of Millers Point’s historic Darling House

The crown jewel of Millers Point is being sold off
There’s been a surprise development in the controversial sale of the historic Darling House, which was auctioned off last week for $7.7 million.

There was little known about the new owner of the former community aged care hostel – other than that they were “a local” – but it has now been revealed it was bought by a company with big plans: to turn it back into an aged-care facility, albeit a more upmarket one.
Provectus Care, which markets itself as “premium aged care” and runs half a dozen “boutique facilities” across Australia, outbid two other serious contenders at auction last Thursday evening.

Millers Point’s Darling House at 8-12 Trinity Avenue sold last week for $7.7 million.

Darling House closed down last year when the NSW government scrapped a $5-a-week rent agreement it had made with the community-run organisation 20 years earlier.
Managing director of Provectus Care Group Dr Shane Moran, the son of nursing home tycoons Doug and Greta Moran, said he was keen to restore the Victorian Georgian house as an aged care facility.
Dr Moran is no stranger to Sydney’s heritage buildings, having moved in 2011 with his family into Swifts, a neo-Gothic castle in Darling Point that his had parents spent a decade renovating.
Dr Moran said he had known about Darling House since it was set up for aged care and was surprised it had closed down.
“The aim is to bring it back to rehouse the elderly who were thrown out unceremoniously 18 months ago.”
“It has to be a commercial venture but it is not going to be an over the top venture,” Dr Moran said.
Members of the Millers Point community were surprised by the announcement.
Chairman of the Millers Point Resident Action group John McInerney said that while he wasn’t opposed to a new aged care facility he was angered at how the community had been manipulated by the NSW government.
“The fascinating thing is that the government has taken a community facility, cashed it in for $7 million odd dollars and has now made it inaccessible to the bulk of residents around here,” Mr McInerney said.
“Government housing tenants get old too you know.”
Dr Moran said that while he hadn’t worked out the costs, he was hoping for a broad range of residents.
“There is still government support for residential aged care and hopefully we will still be working with the community,” he said.
“It could suit someone working in the city with an elderly mum or dad who could pop in every other lunch time or it could suit someone who has been living there all along.”
Dr Moran expects to spend “a couple of million to refurbish it properly, at first glance” and to make sure the original Georgian features are restored.
“It’s pretty ordinary inside. It has had a lot of wear and tear since it was renovated in the 1990s.”
The initial plan is to make room for 12 or 13 low-care residents.
News of Darling House’s future coincides with a new batch of government houses listed for sale.
A further 12 properties in Millers Point will be auctioned off at the end of March through McGrath Estate Agents.
So far the government has raised more than $100 million from the sales of state-owned properties in Millers Point.
The proceeds from the sales are being reinvested into 1500 new dwellings for people on the social housing waiting list, with 100 homes already completed.
Millers Point: a community under the hammer