Ladies and gentlemen

It is my pleasure to once again present the annual report of the Parks and Playgrounds Movement. The Movement has been proud to play its important role in the life of the lower Hunter community for almost half a century.

In the tentative years before the movement was formally under way it was difficult to get people to serve as officers. It seems still to be the problem however we have been fortunate to have people like Joe Richley and Tom Farrell, Rod Earp, Don Barnett, Arthur Monro, Mavis and Wilf Dews, Peter Podmore, Dick Woodgate and Don Morris and others who were long serving and active committee members and leaders that have made their mark in conservation and park matters.

Special appreciation at this time needs to be given to our long serving secretary Greg Wright and treasurer Jack Shield and to our Deputy Leader Pat Hyde.

Parks and Playgrounds Movement is probably the longest serving conservation organisation in NSW.

Whilst the Movement began formally in the Hunter as the Northern Parks and Playgrounds Movement the Parks and Playgrounds Movement of NSW had been operating in Sydney from 1930 until 1960.

When I think of the effort given to the conservation issues and concerns of the past fifty years and contemplate the problems looming ahead I realise it is time for the Movement to renew it base support and encourage young and energetic spirit into the movement.

A United Nations Report on population last week warned that more people in the world are using more resources with more intensity than at any other point in human history. The world population has doubled in the past 40 years to 6.1 billion and is predicted to rise to 9.3billion in the next fifty years.

The challenge of the next 50 years to make real, the concept of a mature Ecologically Sustainable Society and a world that is better for our effort.

The movement has spent considerable effort this year in fostering the concept of community lands. We are aware that the general public must lay claim to their community lands and encourage their councillors to fulfil their obligations as trustees or they will be privatised and the intergenerational equity squandered.

Community Land is not just parkland it is public land and the concept was introduced into the Local Government Act with the purpose of improving the management of public land including parks. The legislation has a reclassification process, which should not be used by councils to escape public scrutiny in the management or disposal of public land.

Public land is either categorised Community Land or Operational Land in accordance with Clause 6 Schedule 7 of the Local Government Act 1993.

Community Land is:

Operational Land on the other hand is land that is temporarily held by council and can be sold at any time - The Australian High Court in the reasons for judgment in the Bathurst Council V PWC Properties P/L September 1998 provides a precedent that must be followed.

Parks and Playgrounds Movement wants the reclassification process to be triggered only if the elected Councillors are convinced in open council that the rights of the beneficiaries (the general public) are protected and that the reclassification is not for private gain.

Members must work to enforce the ethical standards of trusteeship at local and State governmental level.

Parks and Playgrounds Movement has requested that the Minister administering NSW Crown Lands to revoke the 1965 lease of the Newcastle City Bowling Club and return the land to King Edward Park and people of Newcastle.

Newcastle Bowling Club, which has been occupying the leased area of the Newcastle City Bowling Club, has been in financial trouble and in the hands of a Receiver for sometime. The Receiver recently placed it in liquidation.

King Edward Park is Newcastle’s premier coastal parkland dedicated for public recreation 1894

The official lease for Newcastle City Bowling Club was only granted in 1965 with the condition that the leased area be used for “bowling club buildings and recreation, bowling greens”.

The land is crown land and is zoned for open space and recreation.

The Movement must stand firm to stop the privatisation of this strategic part of King Edward Park.

The protection and retention of a significant heritage landmark structures such as No4 Blast Furnace with its stoves on the BHP site is essential if future generations are to understand the importance Newcastle as Australia’s largest industrial manufacturing complex from 1915 to the Second World War.

The Movement addressed Newcastle Council on matters arising from the Steelworks demolition D A 00/0818. Councillors were given a copy of our letter to the BHP General Manager, Mr Paul Anderson, outlining our vision for an Iron and Steelmaking Theme Park within the Multi Purpose Terminal on the former steelworks site.

Newcastle Council unfortunately seems to have little regard for the significance of BHP and its contribution to the fabric of Newcastle or of how our industrial heritage can be used to enrich the future city.

The demolition of heritage items should be the subject of an Environmental and Heritage Impact Statement with documentation showing the amelioration of the impacts proposed.

It is hard to understand why Newcastle Councillors want to keep their ideas for a world-class cultural precinct at Civic a secret. The cultural and administrative focus that has been evolving at the Civic area over the years.

The 1929 opening of the City hall and the Civic Theatre and the 1957 opening of the War Memorial Cultural Centre were tangible steps.

In 1949 the Northumberland County Council released plans for the Cultural Centre and Civic Square including the enlarged Civic Park, a Burwood St roundabout and parkland wedge through to Hunter St. (Now the Tax and Telstra buildings)

Parks and Playgrounds Movement released its plan for the Civic in 1968.

We wanted the King and Darby Street road widening abandoned and car parking removed from Civic Park and Wheeler Place closed to traffic with a plaza.

We also wanted a practical plan for the redevelopment from Auckland St through to Darby Street using the existing urban fabric and including internal car parking. We wanted a view and access corridor from Hunter St to Christie Place under a redeveloped Energy Australia building.

Grandiose schemes of recent years required too much demolition without good purpose and have been unsuccessful and costly to the ratepayers.

The Movement’s scheme was most effective and worked well where it concepts have been advanced but it needs to be revamped taking into account the changed circumstances.

Council’s latest plan seems to be speculative and needs to be fleshed out within the evolutionary heritage framework of the area. The Movement could make a positive contribution in this regard.

Newcastle Council received a grant $38,000 from the Federal Government for the development of a Heritage Tourism Master plan for the Coal River Historic Site. This project evolved from the Movement’s Coal River Prospectus we prepared for Lord Mayor John Tate two years ago.

Council commissioned Cynthia Hunter to complete the first stage and has produced an excellent historical report identifying the Coal River Convict Sites.

The Lord Mayor Ald. John Tate called a meeting of stakeholders in October this year and I was pleased to represent the Movement. It is unfortunate that the project has not been completed at this date. The bicentenary of the establishment of the permanent settlement of Newcastle is in 1904 and much remains to be done if our Coal River project is to become a reality..

We need to connect more positively with our heritage and be proud of it.

A city that doesn’t understand its heritage doesn’t know where it is or where it’s going.

Oldtown Newcastle is the premier heritage town and has a unique place in Australia’s history but we haven’t seemed to realise it yet.

The Heritage Masterplan that we want must create a platform for many future action.

The Masterplan is needed to ensure management is coordination between Council & Harbour Authority & Commonwealth and State Governments, and to provide a vehicle for further funding and development.

Heritage Submission To Draft LEP for Newcastle

The Movement was fortunate to be able to submit additional Heritage Items to the Newcastle Draft LEP. The items listed in our detailed document were researched and photographed by committee member David Griffin. Council’s previous Heritage Study had been incomplete and was missing many items. We appreciate David’s time, effort and expense in preparing this important document.

Draft amendment Lot 1/1007615 33 Coal & Allied Land Tank Paddock

We asked Council in our objections dated 5/71999 to refuse this draft amendment.

We believe that a local environmental study under the EP&A Act should have been prepared for this sensitive area before any resolution to prepare an amendment to the LEP was contemplated. The draft DCP for this area needs to be a legal part of the statutory plan and capable of implementation.

The proposed urban area would have a significant impact on to the SEPP14 Hexham Wetlands.

Rail Corridor Newcastle

The potential of rail services to Newcastle Station was again shown recently when the Knights victory parade was held and there were thousands of supporters on the foreshore many of whom had travelled by rail to be part of the celebration.

Property speculators who always call for opening up the city to the harbour are really calling for the building out of the harbour as has happened at Merewether St.

However the railway authorities also need to show responsibility and respect to Newcastle Old Town, the Foreshore and the people of Newcastle and the region.

Parks and Playgrounds Movement has shown over many years and at great cost to members what can be done by tending and planting a garden beside the railway in land made available to the Movement by Peter Turner when he was City Rail Manager. This trial has shown clearly what can be accomplished within existing limits and the problems that need to be addressed in the future.

The foreshore plan for Newcastle was adopted in 1981 showing a landscaped rail corridor and it is more than time to have the landscaped rail entrance to Newcastle completed.

We were appalled when the high fence and razor wire entanglement was installed and are pleased that they were removed when we complained but we want the rest of the ugliness removed and heritage fencing erected as has been done up to the Market St signal box.

We have spent hundreds of hours on this issue and we know the most economical way to keep the corridor neat and tidy. It seems that no one in authority really cares or is listening.

Honeysuckle’s Black Wall Of Becton

The back wall, the black wall and the blank wall of Becton: what ever you call it means the same- Honeysuckle and the Minister for DUAP and DUAP itself have disregarded their own Regional Environmental Plan (1997) that was to provide a clear view corridor along Merewether Street from the CBD.

The Minister has taken a narrow legal view that he can consent to anything in a 3(a) zone and disregard the REP ‘Central Honeysuckle’ which contains many objectives and qualifications including the Public Domain Concept Plan. These were all disregarded in this consent process. Premier Bob Carr has cemented the deception by turning the first sod for the Becton Hotel that will block off the waterfront from the city.

Much of the foreshore open space at Central Honeysuckle is under water and Newcastle ratepayers could ultimately be responsible for expensive sea wall and boardwalk maintenance.

We wanted the Minister to consider the Becton development at arms length using his power under Section 119 to hold an inquiry. We were unsuccessful.

Cottage Creek Cemetery

Newcastle’s early Cemetery near Cottage Creek in the Honeysuckle development area is a vital link with Newcastle’s convict settlement and needs to be fully investigated before the site is bulldozed or built out. Newcastle as a city has much to learn about its early beginnings and its heritage from this regionally significant site and the heritage issues should have been investigated before the site was sold for development.

Human remains were exposed when test drillings were made earlier this year and the police notified.

Honeysuckle wrongly asserted that all bodies had been removed from the site early last century.

The cemetery site would contain a large number of unmarked convict and earlier settlers burial sites and there are about 1300 bodies still in the area, which must be regarded as one of Newcastle’s most significant heritage places.

Wallsend Brickworks Park Plan of Management

Parks and Playgrounds Movement was pleased at the good response to the Workshop conducted by the Newcastle City Council on Wallsend Brickworks Draft Plan Of Management.

Along with most of the people attending the workshop we were opposed to the reclassification of the Victory Parade Land for possible sale. The Movement is opposed to the sale of lands identified for parkland and held in trust by Councillors for the benefit of the general public.

We find the concept of selling parkland to pay for the development of parkland as objectionable.

Full Council resolved in 1992 that all the lands within area known as the Brickworks, be parkland open space. This means that the land is Community Land and any proposal to sell the land would require the reclassification to operational land.

We requested that the Council place more emphasis on the heritage of the area and include heritage interpretation as an integral part of the park design. This would include understanding the 19th Century industrial activities associated with the site. ( New Tunnel Colliery, Jesmond Colliery, the branch railway and sidings and the Purified Coal & Coke Works on the opposite side of Newcastle Road)

We are adamant that the remnants of original vegetation be retained.

Destruction of Wallsend Landmark Fig Trees

Parks and Playgrounds Movement were unsuccessful in halting the destruction of the landmark Fig Trees at “Fig Tree Corner” Cowper Street Wallsend in January but we did bring their destruction to public attention. We asked the Lord Mayor Councillor John Tate to halt the destruction to no avail. Members of the committee had inspected the trees last October and we are anxious to speak to Council concerning the maintenance of the trees and the landscaping of the area.

Newcastle Council had for many years made great efforts to protect its public landmark trees and we are anxious that the destruction of the trees be reviewed in a sympathetic manner. The Movement wanted Council consider an alternative approach and a professional Landscape plan for the Openspace 6(a) area at Wallsend former rail station site.

I must report with regret that under the cloak of a green propaganda, Newcastle has allowed the destruction of many significant landscape trees in the city at Pacific Park, Glebe Rd Merewether, Northcott Drive, Kotara and at Waratah just to mention a few.

Further tree destruction is now occurring in the city on former Water Board Land in Park Av Kotara and at Muraban St. Adamstown.

Green Point Foreshore Reserve

Council must give firm direction to the future management of Green Point Foreshore Reserve. A plan of management was adopted 1997. Over 40 years of work by hundreds of people especially supporters of the Parks and Playgrounds Movement has gone into the establishment of the reserve and it is important that poor management not spoil it.

We were dismayed that Lake Macquarie Council has not strenuously backed its plan in regard to the shared Fire-trail/Cycleway/Service Road/walkway in the official plan. It is funded and could have been completed this year had Council firmly backed its plan of management.

The movement seeks your support to uphold the official plan of management.

Council has now been diverted from implementing their well thought out and widely supported official plan. It has embarked on the costly and ultimately frustrating task of driving a three metre wide swathe through the heart of the bushland reserve, destroying the bushland, constructing unnecessary bridges and abandoning the fire-trail and service road link which was an essential part of the official plan.

The fire trail Cycleway route also functioned as a service road connecting all local access points and providing for emergency vehicle access.

Council should not have endorsed the alternative route.

The official plan of management route presents the opportunity for an attractive landscaped transition zone between the reserve proper and the residential areas.

The official plan also makes available the core of the bushland to be served by graded walking trails.

For the sake of the future management of Council’s Green Point Foreshore Reserve the Parks & Playgrounds Movement appeals to you to support the official plan of management –1997.

We have written many letters to Councillors and others on this matter but hundreds of letters are needed from supporters to Council.

Fernleigh Track

Parks and Playgrounds Movement is concerned that the no work has been completed on the Fernleigh Track cycle path up to this date. Work on the cycle path should not have been halted because of the closure of the Fernleigh Tunnel in 1996.

Whilst we concede that the tunnel is an important link in the complete length of the cycle path it is disappointing to note that other sections of the track have not been completed using the funds that are available from the two councils and from government grants.

The Fernleigh Track cycle path from Belmont to Adamstown is widely supported in the community and can be completed regardless of whether the Tunnel is opened or not.

We are strongly opposed to the insertion of an expensive concrete liner through the Tunnel that would deface the heritage quality of the historic brick construction.

The Movement has written to the Lake Macquarie Council, the Newcastle Council and the Heritage Council of NSW requesting that all Councils recognise the heritage values of the Fernleigh Tunnel and of their importance in improving the amenity and visitor appreciation of the Fernleigh Track.

The Fernleigh Track cycle path offers good grades and traverses scenic areas from Adamstown to Belmont including Glenrock SRA and the Belmont Wetlands that cannot be matched by any other cycle path in the district.

The Movement is disappointed that the Cycleway Movement has not campaigned clearly for the regional cycle routes like Fernleigh Track and the Croudace Road regional route. It seems to have been content to support the damage of the Green Point Reserve with an unplanned cycle route rather than working for the regional cycleways adopted in 1997.

Lake Macquarie Draft Local Environmental Plan 2001

This LEP is on public exhibition now and members should study the maps to see how their parks are affected by the plan. Make sure that they still exist.

The Movement wants the zoning of the eastern motorway easement made openspace and the former Flaggy Creek Reserve 1950 handed over to the National Parks and Wildlife Service for addition to the Glenrock SRA. The Draft Plan has the motorway zoned 7(2) for acquisition by the DUAP. The Motorway if built will devastate the sensitive coastal lands from Jewells Wetlands to Glenrock in a way that is even worse than the Charlestown Western Bypass. This is an urgent matter that we all must address.

The Movement believes that the LEP must state clearly how Council will maintain and protect the Public domain lands and the Lake for which it is the trustee and custodian. We don’t want to see public lands held in trust by the councillors reclassified and sold off for private sale.

The plan should show clearly the lands in public ownership.

The public domain includes those areas of primary responsibility to Council, community lands, parks and reserves. The success of the plan will largely be determined by the way the public lands are protected and managed into the future.

We need to look for healthy growth and a sustainable maturity for the future city of Lake Macquarie.

The principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development should provide procedures for the effective integration of economic and environmental considerations as well as providing for conservation and intergenerational equity. ESD must drive any Local Environmental Study or Local Environmental Plan of the future.

Belmont Sands and Wetlands

Will the Government resume the BHP land at Belmont? Will it be dealt with as part of the BHP exit strategy from Newcastle? We are not in the loop and all we can do is ask questions.

BHP acquired title to the Belmont properties (Originally approx. 1,500ha), from the New Redhead Estate and Coal Company Ltd in August 1964 for the sum of 54 thousand pounds 12 shillings and 6 pence.

Since 1925 BHP had leased the property from New Redhead Estate & Coal C/Ltd for coal mining. Redhead Coal Mining Coy Ltd selected the lands for mining in 1871 and transferred the property to the New Redhead Estate and Coal Mining Coy Ltd in 1899 in consideration of the sum of 28 thousand pounds.

The whole area was formerly part of the original grant for a Mission to the Aboriginal people of 10,000 acres granted to the London Missionary Society by Governor Brisbane in 1825.

The BHP wetlands and adjacent areas amazingly still have high conservation value even though they are partly surrounded by degraded sand pits and mined areas.  About one third of the current BHP property is suffering from sand extraction and without rehabilitation.

There has never been an EIS or valid consent produced for the sand extraction which is still continuing despite the 1993 registration requirements of SEPP37.

The BHP property including the frontal dune system was mined for rutile and zircon in the nineteen sixties and re-vegetated with extensive Bitou bush planting on the advice of the Soil Conservation Service at that time.

There is now an urgent need to bring the sensitive Belmont Wetland areas under protective management and there is also a need for BHP and the sand extraction Industry to restore the disused sand pits and haul roads.

Lake Macquarie Council had begun litigation to bring the last extraction site under planning control but unfortunately they are about 20 years to late. Council decided this week to seek an out of Court Settlement.

Lake Macquarie Council’s attention is drawn to the current subdivision of land at Wallarah Peninsula, which has facilitated the transfer of important conservation land to the Minister operating the National Parks and Wildlife Service. This is the sort of solution that may be needed at Belmont but because of the zoning a much better deal should be possible. It should also be possible to obtain the rehabilitation of the area before any BHP land in the lower Hunter is developed.

Wallarah Peninsula

The Hon. Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning has made the plan and it now supersedes the original Gordon Pacific zoning plan.

Parks and Playgrounds Movement objected to the way the Wallarah lands were subdivided with easements in favour of the development across the proposed National Park Lands.

The creation of future easements before the detailed Masterplans have been determined will make it difficult for future National Park managers to have the normal rights of ownership over their land.

It is misleading to state that the subdivision does not involve any physical works because the easements proposed will have immediate legal force and could be acted upon. The easements being proposed are for drainage works, access roadways and service corridors, which are physical entities.

The Movement reluctantly supports the concept of the new LEP because the previously gazetted LEP had created extraordinary management and conservation problems for the future. We have asked Council that we be represented in the development of the Masterplans for the development areas and members will have to be on guard to protect the Mawson Lookout and its openspace area.

Fame Cove and Fame Cove Mountain land

The uniquely beautiful Fame Cove on Port Stephens is privately owned land essential for conservation and must be acquired. The Hon. Dr. Refshauge proposes a Regional Environment Plan for the area but this will not save Fame Cove it will allow development. Only acquisition can save Fame Cove.

The Planning Minister took planning control from the Great Lakes Council to protect Fame Cove land on the 2/12/1998 because of its state significance.

The 400ha site has been officially earmarked for conservation for over 20 years and must be acquired now.

v     It is a pristine environment on the northern shores of Port Stephens threatened by development. Part of original AA Coy Grant 1/11/1824.

v     It’s a deep water protected anchorage backed by Fame Cove Mountain

v     It has high biodiversity habitat including threatened fauna species including Koala, Powerful Owl, Squirrel Glider, Queensland Blossom Bat, Eastern Chesnut Mouse and other species of conservation concern.

v     It has the rare and restricted Backhousia myrtifolia dominated rainforest.

v     Rare flora species, Eucalyptus fergusonii ssp fergusonii and Macrozmia flexuosa.

v     Occurrence of the Common Wombat & rare and unusual Melaleuca nodosa/ Eucalyptus fergusonii ssp fergusonii vegetation type.

v     40ha of high conservation bushland was acquired for National Pk 1993 at Fame Point.

v     A Regional Environmental Study identified fame Cove and Fame Cove Mountain for conservation in 1984 and recent Fauna and flora studies add to the importance of the area.

 v      New threats make the acquisition of Fame Cove even more urgent.

Stockton Bight National Park

Parks and Playgrounds Movement is pleased that the Carr Government has made an effort to implement its election promise by making the Stockton Bight- National Park, SRA, Regional Park, Mining & Land Rights Announcement this year.

Most of the area previously had nominal protection as Water Reserve under the Hunter District Water Board and ironically lost that protection when the NSW Government established the Hunter Water Corporation. The land reverted to the Department of Land and Water Conservation which made the land vacant crown land and available for an Aboriginal Land Claim under the NSW 1983 Land Rights Act. The Minister for Mines also revoked the Mining Reserves that protected the WWII Ordinance Testing Range in the southern end of the Bight this year and the whole area is now open for mining.

Stockton Bight relies in future on a complicated parks and mining scheme for its protection.

Destruction is proceeding as usual with fires, sand extraction road construction and rutile mining.

At our February meeting we resolved that the Premier the Hon Bob Carr be asked to give an undertaking to the people of the region that a condition will be entered on the title to the Stockton Bight former crown land that will ensure that the Bight will remain open to all members of the public and without discrimination in perpetuity. No undertaking has yet been made but we have been supplied with maps of the park areas.

Other Matters

The Movement has had to make representation on many other matters including:

The work of the Movement has become more demanding and it would be helpful if all members had the use of a computer, Email and access to our web site, This site has proved very popular and is essential if we are to communicate with each other.

Your Committee operates on your good will, help and support.

I would like to acknowledge my reliance on our secretary Greg Wright, David Griffin and our treasurer Jack Shield in particular.

Special thanks must also be given to our deputy president Pat Hyde.

I thank you for your continued support.