Census results: who we are in North Sydney / Full local events and sports coverage
July/August 2022 Issue 15
News and views for North Sydney’s residential and business communities
www.northsydneysun.com.au
Councillor push to develop integrated tourism strategy for lower North Shore North Sydney councillor Godfrey Santer wants the district to develop a high level tourism strategy, preferably in conjunction with neighbouring councils such as Lane Cove and Mosman. “Tourism doesn't seem to feature very prominently in North Sydney's outlook towards life and business. And yet, is there a better view of the harbour than the one from North Sydney?,” he asks. “The Tunks Park walk, the Balls Head Point walk and Berry Island via Smoothey Park, all those walks, and they're absolutely magnificent. Smoothey Park, for example, has got remnant coastal rain forest and Aboriginal carvings underneath sandstone rock piles, which you’ve got to climb into to get to see and must be thousands of years old. They’re not sign posted or protected in any way.” Santer continues: “There’s not much of that rain forest left in Australia after 200 years of European settlement. And at the end there are mangroves. And you walk down a rocky path and they’ve got huge sandstone overhangs with beautiful ferns, and there are little waterfalls. You go be-
hind the waterfall and there these incredible rock carvings. Foreign tourists particularly would love to see that. We need to kind of develop that Aboriginal viewing experience, both to show the greater recognition of our Aboriginal heritage, but also to yield an economic return.” Santer believes that a North Sydney tourism push would get more bang for the buck if done as part of an integrated strategy with neighbouring councils, an example he said works in practice with Orange Council which joins with Cabonne and Blayney Councils on the Orange 360 tourism campaign, something he saw first hand at a recent LGNSW conference there. Santer said each LGA has “different things that are attractive and they complement each other. And by combining, they’re both able to develop a more comprehensive total tourism product to the potential consumer and the finance, they can pool their finances for their benefit.” Santer has extensive experience in the tourism industry as a former deputy CEO of the Australian Tourism Commission and says that key to a suc-
North Sydney councillor Godfrey Santer (inset) believe that the lower North Shore can capitalise on its views, its history and its infrastructure to develop a tourism strategy
cessful campaign is the “packaging” of tourism experiences to operators such as cruise lines and the like. One starting point is the view of the Sydney skyline from North Sydney, something he said is poorly catered for currently. In reference to the many high rises in the North Sydney CBD, Santer remarked: “At the moment what they’re doing with their top floors
is reserving it all for air conditioning equipment and microwaves and antennas. And that seems to be a terrible waste of the best view that Sydney has to offer.” He thinks the Council can play a role in encouraging the development of more high rise and rooftop bars and other venues with views of ConƟnued page 3
State MP Felicity Wilson seeks to clear up confusion over tree replacement at Warringah Freeway works By Grahame Lynch State member for North Shore Felicity Wilson has moved to clear up what she says is misunderstanding and misinformation about the removal and eventual replacement of trees to assist the development of the Warringah Expressway Upgrade and the Western Harbour and Beaches Link Tunnels. The removal of hundreds of trees from Cammeray Park is fuelling local opposition to the tunnels and threatening to become a major issue at next year’s state election. There are more tree removals slated for other upgrade zones including the High Street intersection at North Sydney. What makes the issue most vexing is that there is strong support for the upgrades as well as the third stage of the development—the Beaches Link Tunnel— in the Mosman half of the
North Shore electorate. According to Wilson, “I think people always have a point when trees are being removed because nobody likes it. Nobody likes to see it happen. And I think a lot of people are genuinely shocked when they see trees being removed and they question why? And that’s perfectly fine.” “But I know that we’ve done a lot to communicate everything that’s going on. So if you live near an area where the works are happening, you’ll have ongoing letter box drops about the types of work happening, the times those works are happening, some of the details around if there are services affected and if trees have to be removed. But we have really strict statutory approvals where we have to identify any environmental impacts, including tree impacts, and we have to
abide by the approvals we’re given.” Wilson said the key requirement is that removed trees are replaced at double the rate of removal within 500m. “The statutory requirement in the planning approval to replace any removed trees at a ratio of two to one. So I know that means that for a period of time, we won’t have those trees in place. But once the works are done, we’ll have a doubling of the number of trees that did have to be removed. And we’re also committing to make sure that we’ll either maintain or enhance the canopy across North Sydney,” Wilson said. REACTION UNDERSTANDABLE “So I can understand if there’s an emotional reaction to seeing a tree ConƟnued page 2
“Nobody likes it when trees are removed” - state member Felicity Wilson