Battle stations for Eveleigh

Location, location, location. You need only to look at a map to see why the Eveleigh Railway Workshops is at the centre of a growing bunfight starring everyone from the State Government and the University of Sydney to the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, and the heritage lobby.

"Everyone's got their eye on it," says Geoff Turnbull, an activist from the REDwatch community group.

The State Government, which is under pressure to ease housing affordability and accommodate Sydney's population growth, sees the former rail yards as a pot of gold. Its proximity to shops and transport would attract more than $100 million from developers (which could help pay for the upgrade of Redfern station) and create homes and jobs for thousands of people.

The University of Sydney, which is also bursting at the seams, looks at North Eveleigh and sees an excellent spot for new campus buildings, student accommodation and playing fields.

Both options horrify some historians, who say concreting one of Australia's historically significant pieces of industrial heritage would be a national tragedy. Residents are not too happy, either, about the prospect of high-rise development in their backyard.

Moore, who is hoping to be re-elected at the September local government elections, sees two things: a chance to get a better deal for residents and a political opportunity.

"One of the advantages is, she gets to hit the State Government over the head for something she doesn't have much responsibility for," says Turnbull.

"And if the university went in, you would end up with less traffic impact on the area, some playing fields, better amenity. This has led to Clover offering to set up a meeting between the university and the Premier - and that is really getting up the nose of the local ALP people."

The Government wants the best price for the state-owned land. The ace up its sleeve is that it set the rules about what can be built on the site. Boosting the development potential means boosting the price.

The Redfern-Waterloo Authority's proposed concept plan for North Eveleigh envisions converting some heritage buildings into high-rise towers ranging from four to 16 storeys and a parking lot for 1943 cars. Homes for 2400 people would be built and 3270 permanent jobs created. However, about 20 heritage buildings would be demolished and historic train machinery would be sent to a rail museum in Thirlmere.

The university, which would like to move its engineering and architecture faculties to Eveleigh, wants to build only five-storey buildings - so it does not want to pay 16-storey prices.

"That's the tension in all of this proposal," says the university's deputy vice-chancellor, Bob Kotic. "We don't want to be paying a … premium … and we don't think it should just be a commercial deal only. Our proposal is less intense and has a far greater consideration of the indigenous population and green space [than outlined in the Government's blueprint]."

However, the authority is not in any mood to do a cut-price deal for the university. "Proceeds from the sale of North Eveleigh will be committed to the multimillion-dollar upgrade of Redfern station," says its chief executive, Robert Domm. "To serve public interest, this site needs to be sold through an open and competitive process, and of course the university is welcome to be part of that process."

Some residents worry that if the site is sold on the open market, the highest bidder is likely to be a developer keen to maximise the return by building as much as the Government's concept plan allows.

"The concept plan is way out of whack with the area," says Bruce Lay, an urban planner who has lived for 30 years on Wilson Street, which runs alongside the Eveleigh railyards.

"I feel very strongly the buildings are much too high, but the other issue is traffic. They are putting almost 2000 car [spaces] on the site but they have only two access points."

As a town planner, Lay supports urban consolidation, "but you don't just cherry-pick a few inner-city sites to achieve it. You should consolidate across the city and around the middle suburbs, too.

"The Government just wants to make big bucks off this site and the planning is being driven by politics more than good planning principles."

In the background, historians are jumping up and down, waving their arms and crying: what about heritage?

"This is one of the most important historic industrial sites in Australia. It will be totally unrecognisable under the plans set out by the Redfern-Waterloo Authority," says Graham Quint, the National Trust's conservation director.

"You could have one of the great rail museums of the world, a world famous attraction, and fit the residential in around that. Instead, they are trashing the place."

The concept plan talks about "adaptive reuse" of the historic paint shop and other heritage buildings. That means turning them into high-rise buildings but keeping the facade.

"That doesn't count as protecting heritage," says Quint.

The history boffins say the Authority does not have a good track record when it comes to heritage appreciation. Just look at how it has treated Guido Gouverneur.

One of Australia's last remaining expert blacksmiths, Gouverneur's company, Wrought Artworks, has sheltered, rent free, in the workshops at the Australian Technology Park on the southern side of the Eveleigh Railyards for 17 years.

Using what the Smithsonian Institution in the US describes as "the largest, most integral collection of steam-powered blacksmithing equipment left in the world", he teaches apprentices the secrets of blacksmithing and has repaired some of the city's best-loved pieces of metalwork.

Not for much longer. "The Redfern-Waterloo Authority have asked me in an eviction letter to take my goods and chattels and get out by September 3," says Gouverneur.

Domm says Gouverneur should pay rent like any other commercial tenant and if he refuses he will be evicted like any other tenant.

The ALP's lord mayoral candidate, Meredith Burgmann, says she will lobby her Labor colleagues on behalf of Gouverneur. "I think Sydney's industrial heritage is fast disappearing and something as important as this needs to be kept," she says.

The chairman on the Aboriginal Housing Company, Mick Mundine, said the Government had not consulted the local indigenous community about North Eveleigh.

"It will end up as a place for yuppies," he says. "Frank Sartor doesn't want lots of people living on our land at the Block but then they want to stick all these towers on the railyards."

University preaches love thy neighbour

THE Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, may have latched on to Sydney University plans for the rail yards rather than the State Government's proposal of apartments and office towers, but residents are wary about the prospect of a university saviour.

Last weekend a community forum heard the acting pro vice-chancellor, Richmond Jeremy, at pains to make amends for the friction between residents and their leviathan neighbour.

Professor Jeremy, who is responsible for campus infrastructure and services, said the university had a less than honourable history of considering residents.

In the 1960s it resumed much of the suburb of Darlington, demolishing rows of terraces and replacing them with concrete buildings or empty blocks. One stranded row of terraces remains to this day, as does the 19th century Darlington school, between faculties and closed roads.

Professor Jeremy was keen to say there would be no more forced resumptions. But his attempt at reconciliation was not helped by what he noted as a mistake on the university's published master plan, which shows some privately owned houses becoming open space.

He said that in fact he wanted the university to open up to local residents, instead of sheltering behind ivy walls, and he insisted that the campus should be integrated with its surroundings.

What is unclear is whether the university has the money to buy it from a state government intent on squeezing the maximum return from the site.

Illustration: Great little fixer-upper … the historic railway buildings at Eveleigh are being eyed by developers and the University of Sydney, with multiple interest groups ready to weigh in.

See also

Brian Dunnett Letter in Response Ditching Eveleigh agreement robs the future by discounting the past
Robert Domm's Letter in Response RWA Letter to Editor on North Eveleigh & ATP Blacksmith

Source: www.smh.com.au/news/national/battle-stations-for-eveleigh/2008/08/01/1217097533864.html