Save the Heritage and The Community of Millers Point, Dawes Point & The Rocks before it’s all GONE.
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Housing security matters for older Australians like the residents of Millers Point, Sydney, who fear having to make way for development. AAP/Hugh Peterswald
Whatever one’s opinion on the Intergenerational Report (IGR), it is undeniable that Australia faces challenging economic and personal realities over the next 40 years. Treasurer Joe Hockey has emphasised the IGR highlights the need for Australia to respond to demographic changes. Proposed responses include extending the average working life and increasing participation by Australian seniors.
On April 14, the Senate Economics References Committee is due to deliver its report on affordable housing. This report is expected to highlight shortfalls in affordable and age-appropriate housing.
These major demographic and housing issues are closely connected. The challenges they present must be tackled against a background of deteriorating economic conditions and an oversubscribed health system.
The issues the IGR raises are many and varied. They are also subject to a plethora of contingencies. However, one issue that cannot be denied is the inescapable impact – one way or another – of an ageing population on Australia’s economic future.
The danger is that the government seems to be emphasising (albeit crucial) issues such as employment and health without taking a broader view of factors, of which housing is pivotal, that will nourish and buttress these aspirations.
Housing is tied to health and productivity
If Australian seniors are to remain healthy and work longer, the importance of appropriate housing cannot be underestimated. Much attention is being paid to the rising cost of health care for an ageing population. However, the nexus between secure accommodation and better health and financial outcomes for older people, the broader community and the economy is largely overlooked.
If older Australians are more secure in their accommodation, they are more likely to remain employed and in good physical and psychological health. All of the consequential benefits of this flow to the economy and the nation as a whole. Therefore, improved provision of affordable senior housing is vital to enable people to remain employed into their 60s, 70s and even 80s, and thereby lift Australia’s productivity and sustain economic growth.
To pursue these goals in the IGR, the government’s attention must extend to ensuring an adequate supply of affordable and suitable housing for seniors. The population of older Australians is naturally diverse, so individual housing preferences vary significantly.
The major asset of most Australian households is the family home. For seniors, housing equity makes up approximately half of their wealth. However, research to date suggests few of these households are drawing on this wealth during retirement.
Insecurity has multiple harmful impacts
For older people who do not own a home and must find affordable accommodation in a competitive market, life can be particularly daunting. As social policy researcher Bruce Bradbury has noted:
Australia is unusual in that economic exclusion among the elderly is closely linked to a lack of home ownership (or access to public housing).
Seniors have different housing requirements to younger people and families. Older Australians often require smaller and more accessible housing located close to services, care and support.
Transitions in later life are complex. These transitions, it has been observed:
… challenge older adults to make projections of a future self and to anticipate their emotional, medical and financial needs.
Housing with good access to shops and services becomes even more important to Australians as they age.AAP/Melanie Foster
Older people who are secure in the knowledge that they can stay in their accommodation for an extended period – or permanently – exhibit demonstrably better physical and psychological health than those in less stable accommodation. Insecurity in one’s home environment heightens the risks to physical and psychological health in the short and longer term, including feelings of powerlessness.
Insecure accommodation may also impact on older people’s social situations. They may become reluctant to engage in their local communities. If they have to relocate, they may lose support and friendship networks.
The prospect of possibly having to move weighs heavily on older people. This is especially so where options for accommodation elsewhere are limited.
Finally, significant economic costs are attached to the heightened risk of physical or psychological illnesses.
Beyond the headlines, a concerted strategy for an older – but healthier and more productive – population must be crafted. A focus on secure, affordable housing for seniors is a cornerstone for any such aspirations.
Selling assets for income is like losing your virginity; you can only do it once, so you really, really want to pick your moment. All parents, I imagine, tell all children this. So why hasn't anyone told the government?
It's four years since Barry O'Farrell pranced into power plumed with sunlit promises of planning reform. For the first time in NSW's 223 years, city-making had become an election issue - as though we'd finally got that abuses of power crystallise into permanent snafus in the city fabric.
Cultural institutions are a city's eye teeth, giving shape and personality.
O'Farrell tapped this new NSW awareness. He promised to make developer donations illegal, rewrite the planning act, close legal loopholes like the infamous Part 3A and end the conflicts of interest built into government planning processes.
None of it eventuated. Developer donations were simply channelled underground through special party-constructed sewers. Part 3A was replaced by countless other apertures for ministerial "discretion". The new planning act was asphyxiated by the community distrust that this catalogue of cave-ins only accentuated. And the conflicts of interest became, if anything, more entrenched.
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And the snafus? I give you James Packer's towering casino on public land, fast-tracked to heaven. Darling Harbour, also on prime public land but shaped to rock-bottom commercial motives. The Boxing Day truncation of Newcastle's main rail line for development purposes, and its never-never replacement by a tram that (according to a leaked Cabinet minute, December 9, 2013) undermines the public interest in both cost and amenity.
There's more. Mining and CSG licences across much of the state's food-production land. The fire-sale of Millers Point public housing and of our glorious Bridge Street sandstones. The flogging of poles and wires. And the sale of the Powerhouse Museum site for yet more rubbish apartments.
Only the Jenolan Caves sale may not materialise although, well, wait and see.
This mentality, so characteristic of government now, is not just morally but economically vapid. You keep it, there's an income stream, a culture source, a way of growing food. Sell and it's gone. As Marie Bashir said recently, we must fight "the sale and destruction of our farmland for mining."
Yet whenever I point to this deliberate destruction of our assets and institutions I'm accused of playing politics. "Another stupid leftie," was a typical tweet by one David Armstrong (@truth9876) after I critiqued Abbott's attack on the Human Rights Commission. "Pointless arguing with stupid lefties, curse of Australia."
Armstrong's coinage was manifestly tautological. For him, as for most of the winged-monkey troll-squadron, "stupid" and "leftie" are synonyms. Yet I query them. "Stupid", perhaps, depending on circumstance. But leftie? What part of protecting your assets equals "leftie"?
Interestingly, one of the few who understands that conservation is, well, conservative is Fred Nile. On coal seam gas, and on the rail-line truncation, Nile and I are as one. He wants a five-year CSG moratorium, to cover existing operations as well as new licenses until it is proven safe for both water and food production.
On the Newcastle rail line fiasco, the select committee, chaired by Nile, on The Planning Process in Newcastle and the Broader Hunter Region, recommended earlier this month "that the NSW government immediately reinstate rail services that have ceased and infrastructure that has been removed from the Newcastle heavy rail line."
The Nile report also underlined the many and deep-seated conflicts of interest inherent in NSW urban planning regimes, in the context of which gaping ministerial discretion and rampant asset sales are especially sinister. The forest of secret conflicts means you never quite know where the government is coming from. It's that trust thing.
"There is," Nile wrote in his foreword, "an irreconcilable conflict of interest in the relationship between UrbanGrowth NSW and the Department of Planning and Environment whereby the NSW government is both the landowner, via UrbanGrowth, and the planning consent authority, via the department. This conflict is unacceptable…"
This same conflict deforms and contorts the proposal to "relocate" the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta, allowing redevelopment of its Ultimo site, which UrbanGrowth is even now eyeing up for sale.
Certainly, Parramatta should have a major art institution. No question. But the Powerhouse has a massive, never-seen collection, easily enough for three or four museums. But it is impossible to feel that the decision is being made with the city's best interest in mind.
The Ultimo site is expected to fetch $150-$250 million, depending on planning constraints. These constraints should properly be set by the city council, but they won't be, because the state is exempt. Effectively, it sets its own limits.
This means that here, as on the UrbanGrowth-GPT site in Newcastle, as on Barangaroo, there is direct incentive for the government to maximise heights and minimise heritage protections. A direct incentive to betray the public interest.
It's no accident that this proposal coincides with the emergence of the city's southern end as its new energy centre. For six decades, as skyscrapers dragged the energy north, the area around Central stagnated. But fallow years are seldom wasted. Here, they nurtured a genuine arts and sciences precinct, with UTS, TAFE, the ABC and the Powerhouse all in a heap.
Now - reinforced by Central Park's miraculous new porosity, UTS' massive campus investment (including the Gehry) and the Goods Line walkway - that hub has started to pull back. City-south is booming.
The government has already reaped massively from this shift. The $2 billion Darling Harbour redevelopment is funded by four student-housing towers at its southern end and a twin-tower hotel to the west – all on public land.
But cities are cumulative. That's why great cities are old cities. Sure, the Powerhouse needs a revamp. But it has a new management team (under a year old) and a huge opportunity to about-face, physically, opening to Darling Harbour. It's a time for burnishing and refinement, not a knock-down.
Cultural institutions are a city's eye teeth, giving shape and personality. Sydney doesn't have so many creative precincts that it can afford to play fast and loose. The cherry, once lost, is lost forever.
The first state-owned property at Millers Point sold for $1.91 million
It's one year since the state government began the mass sell-off of all social housing in Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks, and moving low-income, elderly and vulnerable people away from their homes and supportive communities.
There is a long history of public housing in Millers Point and surrounds with the Maritime Services Board providing homes for waterfront workers since the early 1900s, then giving properties to the then Housing Commission to house public housing tenants.
In just 12 months the government has dismantled this safe and cohesive community, relocating over 300 tenants; the fewer than 100 tenants left are supposed to be moved this year. What was a rich, living, cultural and social heritage precinct now has more than 200 homes vacant.
Millers Point provided connection and support to tenants – it was not a large estate with social problems. As we warned, relocation caused significant anxiety and social isolation, particularly in older tenants fearing separation from long-time friends and community. Some tenants were hospitalised and some died, and many blame the stress of being forced to move.
Over the last 12 months I've worked with the community to propose alternatives including allowing frail and elderly residents – those most likely to suffer from a move – live out their tenancies in line with the government's "ageing in place" policy. Properties could be sold once they passed away, but the government refused this compassionate approach.
Yet fewer than 10 properties have been sold, and more than 60,000 people are on social housing waiting lists. This is wasteful and shameful. Surely the most vulnerable tenants could have stayed in their homes?
Former Millers Point tenants now live in over 200 social housing properties in other areas. No new properties have been built as a result of recent sales and there are no plans to reinvest funds in new properties. This undermines the government's claims that the sales will result in more social housing – so far there are fewer homes and no tracking of where funds are going.
Much of Millers Point housing is purpose-built low cost including small units, "walk-ups" and one bedroom apartments. These will be sold for high-end redevelopment. Nearby at Barangaroo, developers want their already small affordable housing requirements dropped. It is no wonder this looks like "social cleansing".
The process raises broader concerns over government policy to sell off inner city functions, services and assets including CBD government offices, harbour land and now the Powerhouse to make the city little more than developer-designed luxury apartments. Great cities are socially diverse and this requires a broad housing mix.
Vulnerable people with complex health and welfare needs or who are frail and aged, who cannot afford market rent or to buy a home, need secure housing close to support services, jobs and transport. It is bad economic and social policy to push these people to the city fringes.
Social housing plays a vital role in all civilised societies. This mass sell-off is a heartless grab for cash at the expense of our most vulnerable people and our city. Alex Greenwich is member for Sydney.
Labor and the Greens have criticised the NSW government's sell-off of public housing, which they say will decrease the state's capacity to house the homeless.
Up to 50 people attended a rally outside NSW parliament on Tuesday protesting the sale of public homes in the inner-Sydney suburb of Millers Point.
Opposition housing spokeswoman Sophie Cotsis labelled the government's decision to evict people from their homes "appalling" and "disgraceful".
"The government has stopped increasing the number of social housing dwellings over the last four years," Ms Cotsis said.
She said a Labor government would immediately stop the housing sell-off but declined to outline her party's policy for increasing overall public housing capacity.
"We have a housing deficit and there is no reason to sell properties when there are 60,000 people on the waiting list," Ms Cotsis said.
In 2014, the government signalled plans for a major overhaul of the public housing system, which included selling properties in prime real estate locations.
Family and Community Services Minister Gabrielle Upton said last year the present system was unsustainable and the sales would be reinvested back into the system.
"For every house sold in Millers Point, you could build three houses in many other suburbs in Sydney," she said.
Greens member for Balmain Jamie Parker slammed the major parties for neglecting public housing.
"It's a disgrace that in one of the richest countries in the world, that we are leaving people in slum-like conditions," Mr Parker said.
Wendy Campbell, of Woonona East near Wollongong, said she was being relocated because her house was close to the beach and was "worth too much".
"I'm being forced to move from a property which is home. I'm Aboriginal and it's about the land under my feet. That is home," she said.
What it’s really like to be forced out
Amidst Housing NSW’s glossy brochures and promises of better opportunities in a new home, Millers Point residents have heard many stories that tell a different tale about what being relocated is really like. Some were initially positive about moving and for others the idea was palatable as they were hoping for a house without steps or somewhere bigger, to be closer to family or with a yard for their dog, but even for these people it seems, forced eviction has being a very negative experience. The new house often has problems apparent only after moving in and some have been surprised at what it means to be in a place where no one knows your name. For those for whom Millers Point was very important for their well being it seems that it has been at best traumatic, sad and a massive change, resulting in unexpected new stresses and loss. At worst it has resulted in tragedy. Below are the first in a series of stories told as much as possible using the person’s own words.
What does having a specialist relocation officer entail?
This is the Government’s name for those charged with evicting tenants. Here is some of what we hear about having one and the eviction process:
‘They are very nice to you at first’
They tell you ‘You will only get to choose from three places, now it’s two places, you feel as though if you don’t take what is on offer you will get nothing you need’
‘One said ‘You won’t be seeing me around much longer’…I asked ‘Why?’ and she said ‘I have filled my quota’
‘A friend of mine and her child were given a four bedroom house with a yard in the inner West; much more than allowed but my family were told we could only have three bedrooms and that is barely enough’
‘She was nice but very pushy to get us out as fast as she could. She told us she would help in any way but she can’t as we are not with Housing now – you are really on your own’.
‘Moh (one of the Relocation Officers) made us stop after taking photos of us painting over the hoardings. The art work looks much better than the bare boards, especially as someone keeps ripping down the photos and stories of residents’.
‘They are much nicer to you when you’re being interviewed in front of the legal team at the “Harry Jenkins centre”.
Feedback from those who have moved:
A house with no steps, but no hot water either
‘Deidre’ moved into a house that was free of steps but discovered that she was without hot water. She came back to Millers Point for two weeks so she could shower in the community centre.
A long way from Millers Point and into community housing
Natasha and her family moved in July. “The house is really too small for the family being three bedrooms but that is all we are allowed. The relocation officer was pushy in some ways. The first house she wanted us to take was tiny but she said if we didn’t take this one, we would have to take the next one no matter what. We are with W…..community housing. It’s very different and we wish we stayed with Housing NSW but they don’t have Housing Commission out here. We have had two inspections in 9 weeks and have to ask for everything we want to do to the house. We had to pay for everything up front in terms of the move and then Housing pays you back but that is difficult to find the money. We pay more in rent, and have just got a bill for water and still have to get the phone and internet line in. We were here 8 weeks before they said they were going to paint and fix some of the house. My husband had to fix the back door as the screen was off, and we have to wait until they put up a fence up at the back. We are saving up to do the front fence ourselves as they don’t provide that.
One neighbour is rude asking for food and smokes but we have given the smokes up. The other neighbour on the other side swears, screams and their dog barks all the time. We have had to block our side of the house off so the dogs don’t go near the fence so the neighbours dog don’t bark.
One of my daughters now has to travel an 1 hr, 40 minutes to her job in the city and my other teenage daughter gave up school after all that change.
‘We moved but are not happy at all that we won’t go back to our home… these sound like silly things but we were happy with Millers Point’
Where no one knows your name
‘Wayne’ was one of the earliest to move after living his whole life in the area. Despite being one of the younger residents, he was shocked at what it is like living in a place with no real connections. He even misses the arguments he used to have with one of his neighbours and regrets moving now.
They promise the moon and don’t deliver
After feeling much stress and pressure, ‘Mercy’ moved away from where she lived just up the road from the church that is so important to her and her family and from the community where she felt very connected. She really did not want to go but it seemed promising as it meant she would be only 5 minutes from her daughter and grandchildren. But on top of what was a trauma to move, Mercy now has stressors she did not anticipate. They were given a larger house with a much larger yard but she is no longer connected to others. Public transport is harder to navigate, the bus stop is far away and she has to walk up a hill on the way home. She is in suburbia, which for many people, especially those who don’t drive, is an isolated existence. Her daughter says ‘She doesn’t have the same freedom and food shopping is more expensive as she only goes to the local centre instead of to Paddy’s markets which she did religiously every weekend for almost 30yrs’.
The house is located in a well to do suburb and Mercy feels great pressure to maintain the appearance of the property and is finding that there are more expenses such as frequent lawn mowing. Mercy who survived the Franco regime, says the eviction officers promise the moon and don’t deliver. “Hitler would be very happy with this Government” she says.
‘You will be treated with the uttermost respect’
As promised by Pru Goward on the day of her announcement. Here are some other examples of her apparent interpretation of the meaning of respect: •Communal lights have been switched off as the number of residents in an apartment diminish. •After banning tenants from common areas in Sirius, staff of Housing NSW’s contracted cleaning company held a NYE party with alcohol and upwards of 30 staff with their families in these areas. •Contractors of Housing NSW are ruthlessly removing the art displays in Millers Point despite these just being photos and stories of residents, many of which were actually collated by Housing NSW themselves. •Tenants being pitted against each other with ‘housing lotto’ so that tenants get to bid against each other, and ‘win’ properties making them feel very privileged and grateful, all while being evicted •Protest banners are also ruthlessly removed from the area even if they are on Church property or a person’s private property. None of these banners are inflammatory and are an important part of a community expressing its dissatisfaction and anger in a healthy way, after being treated with the uttermost disrespect.
If you have other stories, good, bad or otherwise please email me kelliah@yahoo.com
#savemillerspoint #wheresgabby #nosurrender #MikeScared #ausunions #nswpol #housing #socialhousing #community #publichousing #auspol #Sydney http://millerspointcommunity.com.au/they-sell-you-the-moon/
Lend Lease has submitted its revised Concept Plan for Sydney’s Barangaroo South to the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Planning and Environment, with the new proposal moving James Packer’s $1.5 billion Crown hotel resort from its approved position on a harbour pier to the no rth-west corner of the Barangaroo South site.
The relocation of Crown hotel has led to a number of other changes to the master plan, including reducing the total number of proposed buildings at Barangaroo South to 13, and increasing the maximum Gross Floor Area (GFA) of the site by nine per cent to 535,186sqm to accommodate the additional hotel rooms of the proposed Crown Sydney hotel resort.
Other revisions to the master plan include changing the heights of three residential towers (two taller and one shorter than their original designs), which have been relocated further south to allow public space to be maximised at the ground plane.
According to the Urban Taskforce, the addition of these new high quality buildings – including three residential high-rises designed by Pritzker Prize winner Renzo Piano – will be a catalyst for a new wave of taller buildings across the Sydney CBD.
“Over recent decades the height of Sydney’s towers has been constrained by planning rules but the dynamic forms of Barangaroo’s towers sets a challenge back to the rest of the city to continue to grow,” says Urban Taskforce CEO, Chris Johnson.
“The Sydney CBD has a much smaller footprint that other Australian cities so to retain its number one status it has to grow vertically. With design excellence and the use of modern technologies tall buildings can give great value to cities.
“Clearly the ground level around tall buildings must respond to the scale of people and to solar access and wind issues. The latest concept plan proposal for Barangaroo South has addressed these issues very well.”
Public space remains a priority
Artist impression of Watermans cove at Barangaroo
The revised design maintains Lend Lease’s original ambition to dedicate more than half of the 7.68 hectare site to public space, including:
a new square located at the south east corner of the site at the main pedestrian entry point to the precinct from Wynyard Walk;
a vibrant, tree-lined waterfront promenade activated by restaurants, bars and cafes that gives public access to the entire 2.2km length of the Barangaroo foreshore;
a revised southern cove, with steps going down to the water, that will provide a great place where people can gather and celebrate the harbour;
a public pier that helps frame the cove and adds further activation and interest along the shoreline and reflects the site’s maritime history;
a new urban park located at the north eastern corner of the site that connects Hickson Road to the waterfront parkland of Central Barangaroo. This replaces the slightly smaller area of park in the north western corner of the site that is now the location of the hotel.
Artist impression of new urban park at Barangaroo South
“We have ensured that all of the public benefits that we originally proposed in our 2010 plan remain in Mod 8, such as complete harbour-front access and vibrant community spaces,” says Lend Lease’s Barangaroo South managing director, Andrew Wilson.
The preservation of over 52 per cent of the site (four hectares) as accessible public space was welcomed by Sydney Business Chamber executive director, Patricia Forsythe.
“The design ensures that there is a focus on green spaces as well as harbour-front access,” says Forsythe.
“The revised concept plan shows the benefit of balancing public access with high rise development.”
The introduction of new urban spaces was also well-received by Tourism & Transport Forum’s chief executive, Margy Ormond, who said they would allow Barangaroo South to “become a ‘must visit’ destination for visitors and locals alike”.
Lend Lease's Barangaroo South managing director Andrew Wilson said the design was "elegant and simple". Photo: Peter Braig
James Packer's $2 billion development at Barangaroo would be more than double the size of the previously approved hotel over the harbour, according to a plan officially lodged with the state government.
The long-awaited revised concept plan for Barangaroo South, required to move the hotel back onshore, will increase the total floor space of the precinct by 8.5 per cent, Lend Lease said.
This is largely due to the size of Crown's casino-hotel complex, which is seeking a total floor space of up to 77,500 square metres.
The final plans for all of Barangaroo, including yet to be lodged changes to the central portion of the 22-hectare site, have a total development floor space of more than 681,000 square metres. This is more than double the 330,000 square metres proposed in the original 2005 design brief.
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Lend Lease's Barangaroo South concept plan, known as "modification 8", also sets out how the company's final residential towers will be incorporated into the reworked precinct.
Italian Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano had been enlisted to design the three towers, collectively dubbed One Sydney Harbour, with a combined total of about 750 apartments.
"A city development of three luxury residential high-rise towers in such a location is, in this climate, a rare opportunity," Mr Piano said.
Lend Lease' Barangaroo South managing director Andrew Wilson said the "elegant and simple" 250-metre, 220-metre and 107-metre apartment blocks were intended to compliment Mr Packer's 270-275 metre "diva on the harbour".
"It was very important for us that the Renzo Piano buildings, the One Sydney Harbour collection, really supported that [Crown building] rather than trying to compete with that," Mr Wilson said.
Mr Wilson said Lend Lease was hoping the concept plan would be approved "pre Christmas". The three towers and Crown complex will also be subject to individual development applications, which have not yet been lodged.
Crown Resorts chief executive Rowen Craigie said it would now begin its own planning application processes with the Department of Planning and Environment.
The Crown complex is to be located on land earmarked for parkland before Lend Lease agreed to a state government request to move the hotel over the harbour back onshore.
Mr Wilson said the "rejigging" of the site while maintaining 50 per cent of the precinct as public open space was the "big puzzle we've been trying to solve".
Lend Lease looked at five different relocation options for the hotel, including Barangaroo Central and on top one of its commercial towers, before settling on its proposed waterfront site, he said.
"It's taken a long time to do but we have to get it right, because it's going to be here for decades," Mr Wilson said.
The concept plan had also delayed due to a dispute between Lend Lease and the NSW government over the profit share agreement for the site.
"We've all agreed it's the appropriate time to lodge and move forward," Mr Wilson said.
A Department of Planning and Environment spokeswoman said it was "reviewing the modification for adequacy and making arrangements for its public exhibition in the usual way on the Department's website".
The sell-off of Millers Point has been deemed the most devastating attack on Australia’s heritage since the precinct was saved by the Green Bans movement in the 1960s.
Almost 300 heritage properties will eventually be sold under the State Government’s contested revenue raising scheme which will see social housing tenants forcibly removed from their generational homes to make way for wealthy investors.
Homes at 121 and 94 Kent Street, and 44 and 58 Argyle Place in Millers Point. Ninety-nine year leases are being auctioned for the homes to raise money for new public housing.Source: News Limited
The NSW State Government plans to sell off nearly 300 public housing properties in and around Millers Point, angering local residents and public housing residents, many of whom have been long time occupants.Source: News Corp Australia
National Trust of Australia (NSW) CEO Brian Scarsbrick warns the heritage buildings, some of which date back to 1820, are being sold with no contractual heritage protection. He sates all political parties should state their policy on this issue highlighting the nine properties which have already gone under the hammer.
“Australia’s rare heritage provides a vital ‘sense of place’ for communities,” Mr Scarsbrick.
“Selling off heritage buildings, some dating back to 1820 (only 32 years after the First Fleet arrived), with no contractual heritage protection, exposes that precious heritage to destruction and loss.”
Millers Point residents Liz Henderson and daughter Elisha, who fear being forced out of their Department of Housing home as the government starts to sell off the valuable public properties in The Rocks area.Source: News Corp Australia
“We are deeply alarmed at the damage facing the 293 State heritage listed properties located at Millers Point”
“Already a third of the properties sold in the ‘test sale’ are subject to unauthorised works and Sydney City Council has issued stop work notices.”
Director of Advocacy, National Trust, Graham Quint likened the sale of Millers Point to the historical heritage features across the globe.
Director of Advocacy, National Trust, Graham Quint said Millers Point must be protectedSource: News Limited
“You just could not imagine the area of Montmartre in Paris being sold off without heritage protection, the old town centre of Prague or Bath in England being sold off and damaged,” Mr Quint said.
“It is happening right now in Sydney’s old quarter.
“History shows that selling properties in The Rocks area on 99 year leases results in only a five per cent — 10 per cent discount and the assets can return to the public estate at a greatly increased value after the lease expires.”
Minister for Heritage Rob Stokes said he was satisfied with the process being used to sell-off the heritage precinct.
“I am satisfied that the heritage provisions currently in place are adequate, as Heritage Council approval is required for any changes that effect the physical fabric of the place, including the buildings themselves,” Mr Stokes said.
Minister Rob Stokes defends the Millers Point saleSource: News Corp Australia
The Heritage Council can refuse consent, or choose to impose any conditions to an approval, if given.
“Furthermore, Conservation Management Guidelines for the properties have been in place for several years. The Office of Environment and Heritage has also asked the Land & Housing Corporation to commission new urban design policies to ensure that any repairs or restorations that may occur in the future recognise and protect the heritage values of the precinct.
“In addition, Conservation Management Plans for the properties offered for sale have been prepared and subsequently reviewed and endorsed by the Heritage Council.
Terrace houses in Merriman Street in The Rocks, Sydney, which belong the Department of Housing. The state government is starting to sell off the valuable public properties in The Rocks and Millers Point.Source: News Corp Australia
“While s118 of the Heritage Act requires each owner of a State Heritage Register property to meet extensive standards of maintenance and repair, the Land & Housing Corporation has also inserted a further condition that purchasers must agree to a maintenance schedule for each property, a condition that goes beyond Heritage Act requirements.
“In addition to each of these protections, potential future owners will also have to meet the standards applied in the Sydney Local Environmental Plan, as well as addressing the detailed heritage issues contained within the Heritage Development Control Plan, before submitting any proposal for repair or restoration that requires Council consent.”
An old housing commission terrace is just one of several recent harbourside properties sold under the hammer as hundreds more are expected to follow.
Located in one of Sydney’s exclusive suburbs, the three-bedroom home in Millers Point is the tenth of 283 state-owned properties to go under the government’s plan to sell off heritage-listed public housing and relocate 600 tenants.
Built in the 1860s, the 47 Kent Street home was recently sold in a private sale for a cool $1.64 million – taking the total proceeds of 10 property sales to more than $23.5 million.
CEO of Government Property NSW Brett Newman said the NSW government was committed to divesting the remaining government-owned properties in the precinct over the next two years.
But Barney Gardner from the Rocks Public Housing Tenants Group told Daily Mail Australia that relocating Millers Point residents will affect the state's social housing waiting list.
The 47 Kent Street terrace is just one of several recent harbourside properties sold under the hammer
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‘How can they [government] offer us all these homes to relocate to when the waiting list is still growing?’ Mr Gardner told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Why aren’t they offering these homes to the people on the list first? I don’t understand what the rush is for when there are others who need a roof over their heads more.
‘I have lived here most of my life and if they want to evict me – they'll need to fix the waiting list first - then I’ll move.’
However, last September, the Minister for Family and Community Services Gabrielle Upton said the sale of the Millers Point properties will return hundreds of millions of dollars to the public housing system to help the 58,000 people currently on the housing waiting list.
'This is all about reinvesting money back into the public housing system by selling properties that are very costly to maintain,' Ms Upton said.
'The age and heritage nature of the Millers Point properties mean they often cost four times as much to maintain as the average social housing property.'
The government said that for every house sold in Millers Point, it can build three houses elsewhere.
Built in the 1860s, the sale of the latest Millers Point home was sold in a private sale for a cool $1.64 million
The elegant Georgian-style sandstone terrace on Kent Street is one of several recent heritage listings offered for sale for the first time in more than a century
The latest sale comes after the first heritage-listed home at 119 Kent Street went under the hammer last year for $1.9million. The second at 23 Lower Fort Street sold for $2.685million.
The elegant Georgian-style sandstone terrace on Kent Street is one of several recent heritage listings offered for sale for the first time in more than a century.
With prime views of harbour views overlooking East Balmain and easy access to the tourist hot-spot the Rocks and the CBD, the terraces are hotly sought after by developers.
But Mr Gardner, who has lived in the area for more than 65 years, said the heritage of Sydney’s first neighbourhood will be lost with the sales with critics claiming it is a 'social cleanse'.
‘The thing we’re really angry and upset about is the fact that some of these properties have been vacant for as many as seven years,’ he said.
‘There are properties on Kent Street that have been vacant for so the last three to five years – meanwhile we have all these people sleeping rough on the streets who are still waiting.’
‘The government is calling it “relocation” but I call it “eviction by dereliction”.'
The three-bedroom home in Millers Point is the tenth of 283 state-owned properties sold under the government’s plan to sell off heritage-listed public housing
With prime views of harbour views and easy access to the tourist hot-spot the Rocks and the CBD
Mr Gardner said the Millers Point residents have all been issued with an eviction notice but he hopes more people will ‘stand up and fight with us to the end’.
‘We’re delaying removal as best as we can. We’ve been here for a long time and all we’re asking is to leave us alone and let us live our lives,' Mr Gardner told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We’ve repeatedly asked the government to come down and talk to us - tell us why they’re doing this but they won’t consult us.
‘How can anyone treat vulnerable people like this? We just want people to know who we are and what this area means to us.
'I remember spending my childhood days in this area - going fishing in the harbour and doing races on the streets. It's a great neighbourhood and now we're slowly losing our homes.
'It's hard for some of the more elderly people here, they don't have the energy, but I'll fight this to the end, it's my home.'
11 Fort Street in Millers Point sold for $3.95 million in September, setting new record for terraces in the suburb
No Surrender: A mural at Lower Fort Street protesting the NSW government's moves to sell off social housing and evict 600 residents at Millers Point
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The old housing terraces in Millers Point occupy prime foreshore land and walking distance to The Rocks
The National Trust of Australia has slammed Housing NSW for selling Millers Point properties with no heritage protections.
The Trust claims three of the properties sold by the NSW Government department have had illegal construction work carried out on them.
"Of the nine test sales, three of them have stop-work orders on them which indicates protections aren't working," Director of Advocacy at the National Trust Of Australia, Graham Quint, told 702 ABC Sydney.
"The City of Sydney has issued the owners of two properties in Millers Point with notices to stop unapproved building works," a City of Sydney spokesperson said.
"The properties, at 30 Argyle Place and 119 Kent Street, are state heritage listed and approval must be obtained before works can proceed."
Mr Quint wants the State Government to stop the sales and instead, to consider offering the properties on 99-year leases.
"We want the Government to release the properties on 99-year leases, the properties won't sell for quite as much, but that puts extra protections in place," he said.
"Because they are selling them outright, there aren't those protections in place, but if you're not selling them outright you can put compliance bonds in place."
The City of Sydney (council) later confirmed only two properties had stop-work orders.
Mr Quint said the city council was effectively powerless to stop development on the heritage-registered properties — some dating back to the early 1800s.
"Even though they are on the state heritage register, if the current development control plan and zoning allows for fairly major increases in height it is very difficult for Sydney city council to object," he said.
Mr Quint is concerned not just for the individual properties, but believes the whole heritage precinct of Millers Point is under threat with 284 more properties in the suburb to be sold by the NSW Government.
"Effectively under the current zoning they can have a fairly major height addition on quite a few of the properties," he said.
An 1834 four-storey terrace at 29 Lower Fort St, Millers Point sold for $2.56 million in August 2014.
The Colonial Regency style property was offered for the first time in more than 100 years and was offered for sale with little heritage protection.
A 99-year lease on a similar property was offered by the government in 2008 and fetched $1.5 million.
The then housing minister David Borger said the property and 15 others were leased with strict maintenance provisions in the contract.
"A conservation management plan has been completed for all 16 properties for lease and it's actually a condition of the lease that the properties are restored and maintained to appropriate standard," he told 702 ABC Sydney at the time.
Hundreds of properties earmarked for sale
The 293 properties earmarked for sale are in Millers Point, Gloucester Street and The Rocks, including the Sirius building near the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
More than 400 public housing tenants have been given two years to move.
"This is a two-year process that will begin with a meeting with each household to discuss their housing needs and where they might like to go," Planning Minister Pru Goward said.
Millers Point is arguably one of Australia's most remarkable historic urban places and, for Sydney, a unique jewel.
Housing NSW
Ms Goward has said the money raised from the sale of the properties will go into other public housing projects.
"Millers Point is arguably one of Australia's most remarkable historic urban places and, for Sydney, a unique jewel," the document states.
"Furthermore, a major contributor to the conservation of its heritage significance has been that, for most of the twentieth century, it was a government-owned precinct with a stable tenant population.
"This has not only contributed to conserving the historic fabric but endowed it with a community with strong bonds with the place."
The CMG document ranked Millers Point as a priceless asset.
"As such, it is intended to guide ... a common vision and objective of maintaining this unique place and its residential community as a priceless asset of the people of New South Wales and Australia," the document states.
The NSW Heritage Council had asked the city council to review the area's planning controls.
"The proposed changes to the controls will provide consistency and certainty for future homeowners in Millers Point, while further protecting the area's irreplaceable heritage," a City of Sydney spokesperson said.
"They are designed to protect these buildings as they move into private ownership."
The changes were supported by the Central Sydney Planning Committee — a joint City of Sydney and NSW Government planning body.
The residents of the public housing on Millers Point in Sydney know their homes are valuable. For those who have lived there for most of their lives, the value lies in the community they have built and the memories they have created.
But for the New South Wales government and property developers, the value lies in the million dollar views and unrivaled location close to the centre of Sydney.
Plans are afoot to sell 293 public housing properties in the area. The money raised will be put back into housing in other parts of New South Wales – and because of the land value in Millers Point, that could mean a significant overall increase in the amount of housing available.
With 57,000 families on the waiting list for accommodation in NSW, and for Gabrielle Upton, the Minister for Family and Community services in the Baird government, that’s surely a good thing.
“It’s housing, the sale of which can release value that will mean that we can build more and better housing for people … across the state.”
But for residents like Myra Demetriou, who has lived in the area for half her life, moving out presents enormous challenges.
“I’m getting to that point with my eyesight … I’m frightened to go anywhere. … and I can’t see where things are.”
She is worried about how she would cope in a new area
“I’m familiar with everything around here and if I moved anywhere else I’d be completely lost.”
A new resident to Millers Point, John Dunn thinks there is room for compromise that would help residents like Myra
“I think the government could be the hero here to step in and say … we can keep the small, modest houses … where they’ve lived all their lives, for 70, 80, 90 years.”
He wants to preserve the unique community that has developed around the social housing, telling the Sydney Morning Herald;
“It’s really nice to live in a mixed neighbourhood … where you have all sorts of people, rather than one sort of group from society. We do want to conserve our community; it’s really being torn in two.”
So far, nine properties have already been sold, raising enough money to build 22 new properties. And while some residents have been happy to move to new buildings that are easier and cheaper to maintain, it’s not without personal cost, as life-long resident Flo Seckold knows only too well.
“This one lady moved and she said to me it’s a lovely place I’ve got … but she said it’s not Millers Point … and once I get in and close the door I’m alone. And that’s how I’d be. And I don’t want to be like that.”
Perched on Millers Point, at the gateway to Barangaroo Headland Park is the "Palisade Hotel", known as the "Jewel of the Point".
Recently refurbished to an impeccable standard this building, although a hotel with a full licence and entitlements, could also be an ideal location for that business, company or legal practice seeking prestige and locational edge.
A fantastic residence or maybe you are a restaurateur seeking a flagship location.
The views from every level of this building are stunning and from the upper levels breathtaking, a view of the Western Wall of the city seen from nowhere else, views to the Coat Hanger to Darling Harbour, the Entrance to the Parramatta River, Gladesville, and on a clear day to the Blue Mountains horizon. An unrepeated location.
- Ground floor bar opens to the walkway on the park side of the building title
- The basement, closed off office, cellar, food preparation storage etc, as well as the toilet amenities
- 3 floors of accommodation. 6 suites each with 2 bathrooms and rooms that can be keyed off
- Stunning views from each suite. The front suites have balconies overlooking the Harbour Bridge
- Upper two levels. Each have an outdoor area, lower level, a balcony, private dining space (seating approved for 18), bar, male and female bathrooms
- The upper of the 2 levels connected by a stairway is the restaurant, kitchen and outdoor space
- Both levels have stunning views and seating for approximately 100
The New South Wales government has announced plans to sell off the Ultimo site of the Powerhouse Museum, part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, and use the money to fund a new museum in western Sydney. The last part is positive – the rest would be a mistake.
It is commendable that the government is proposing major cultural institutions in western Sydney, particularly in centres like Parramatta. As David Borger, Western Sydney director of the Sydney Business Chamber, has argued persuasively in The Sydney Morning Herald, there has been chronic underinvestment in the city’s populous west.
But to sell the Ultimo Powerhouse is wrong-headed – a mishmash of wedge politics and bad policy. Governments should understand that cities take decades and centuries to evolve, and that such rash decisions are at the expense of future generations.
A city of mistakes
As reported, the Ultimo site would go to developers for an optimistic A$200 million or so, most likely for apartments. However, the Powerhouse’s rare grandeur makes it manifestly unsuited to such a conversion. It’s ideal for its current purpose – as a major museum or other cultural institution.
To gut such a public asset would perpetuate recent blatant mistakes such as Darling Harbour and Barangaroo. In such characteristic parts of the city we need a balance of public and private. Yet increasingly government is missing in action, wantonly trading prized public places and forgoing the role civic elements play in intelligent city making.
Look at the smash-up at Darling Harbour. Why fashion a dumb, disposable city, where speculation is prioritised and where a slew of major public facilities are treated as discount commodities? As the best contemporary urban projects demonstrate, building a vibrant city balances economic decisions with thought-through cultural, social and environmental priorities.
For Sydney, Barangaroo represents the nadir. On 22 hectares of public land stretching along 1.2 kilometres of our city’s most available waterfront, the favoured developers have been gifted seemingly unfettered rights to build as they please. James Packer’s proposed tower, stuffed with a hotel, casino and units, poses as the pinnacle of greed.
It should not have been like that. In our international competition-winning design for the Barangaroo site in 2006, we proposed that the entire foreshore be inalienable public parkland, linked to the city by a network of generous public streets and new public transport. But this plan was soon sold out by dubious ministers and their inept agencies, bent on promoting development interests at the public’s expense.
Get the balance right
People are attracted to places that mix public and private spaces and activities, a theme explored in our book Public Sydney. Instead of the sterile concept of a CBD (central business district), the city centre is really our social heart, all the better for being a magnet for events and demonstrations, the centre of politics and religion, our most historic place and the epicentre of public transport. There’s plentiful research that supports culture’s role in making cities attractive places to be.
Too many government advisers dishearteningly lack public imagination – the ability to conceive and articulate engaging ideas to make a better life for all. Instead, a stymied agenda is held captive by cartels of self-interest that so dominate many aspects of life in Australia, be it the media, banks, airlines, supermarkets or infrastructure.
On urban issues, the real estate industry’s spivs and spruikers declaim that development drives all. But why let their spin profit at our expense? People make the city and it belongs to us – people involved in all modes of exchange, in living, walking, creating and visiting public places. Developers reap their benefits from places already teeming with life and enriched by public transport, institutions, spaces and natural beauty – that is, underpinned by public investment.
The Powerhouse Museum, part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, belongs to a culture and science precinct in Ultimo.
Some suggest that the Museum’s Ultimo location is inconvenient. While Harris Street remains dominated by traffic, access is improving with the construction of the Goods Line pedestrian corridor and the extension of the nearby light rail line through the inner west.
There should be a great synergy of important institutions along Harris Street with the Powerhouse, the ABC, the University of Technology Sydney and the TAFE coming together to form a science, design, media and education precinct. Fantastic connections wait to be made between those institutions. Removing the museum would delete a crucial part of that grouping.
Couldn’t the museum be in both Parramatta and Ultimo? The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences collection has well over 500,000 objects, with only a fraction on display. Surely there’s enough material for an expanded Powerhouse with two genuine bases, each with its particular focus. After all, many such major institutions around the world occupy multiple sites in inventive ways.
Sell, sell, sell – why this obsession?
The major political parties seem wedded to an ideologically driven obsession to privatise public spaces – including the Powerhouse Museum site in Ultimo, other harbour-front sites, Bridge Street’s magnificent array of sandstone heritage buildings, public housing at Miller’s Point. Such sales are peddled on the thinnest of short-term economic analyses, discounting the broader values of such assets over longer time frames.
Public assets are hard won and once sold, or leased, near-impossible to reclaim. Surely the well-documented unpopularity of asset sales is because the public intuitively understands that you don’t willingly flog your assets at bargain prices – rather, you patiently save for them. That attitude should prevail for unique treasures like the Ultimo Powerhouse.
Some in government seem to think that beautiful buildings on prime public land seem to be somehow wasted on us citizens, we who are the actual owners. But why vest the privileged parts of our city as playthings of the affluent, exclusive enclaves of high-priced consumption? We should instead proclaim our rights to the equitable, sustainable, democratic mix of the open city.
Philip Thalis is architecture faculty industry advisory group member at University of Newcastle. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Alex Greenwich, The Independent Member for Sydney, has slammed plans to relocate the Powerhouse Museum from its base in Ultimo and sell off another inner city public asset.
Mr Greenwich said:
"This is clearly another sell-off of inner city assets to raise government funds at the expense of the community and city liveability, and without community discussion.
From Millers Point housing to sandstone heritage government office buildings, one-by-one the government is relocating inner city functions and services and selling assets for redevelopment without needed open space and community facilities.
The Powerhouse site is adjacent to Australia’s most densely populated suburb and the area doesn’t need more residential development. I fear the site’s open space will be seen as another “development opportunity” when it is needed now more than ever to provide space for recreation and community gatherings.
The Powerhouse must remain on its purpose-built site with improved connections to Darling Harbour and the CBD.
While I support expanding the Powerhouse collection and functions to Western Sydney, it belongs in Ultimo adjacent to the hubs of tourism, cultural institutions, Darling Harbour, higher education and Sydney’s tech start-ups, which link with its core purpose."
Mr Greenwich can be contacted on 0458042342 for further comment.
