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REDWatch Co-ordination Group Report for 2024-2025
About
REDWatch is a proud grassroots group of volunteer residents, workers and friends from Redfern, Eveleigh, Darlington and Waterloo. We support the existing diversity in these areas and promote sustainable, responsible economic and social development. We formed in 2004 in response to state government development plans under the Redfern Waterloo Participation Project (RWPP) and later the Redfern Waterloo Authority (RWA) to support the voices of local people in decisions being made about our community.
Guiding Ethos
As a group, we continually look to engage a variety of people across different communities, the non-government community sector (NGOs) and those who work in government. A significant focus for REDWatch is to facilitate a welcoming, inclusive and open space where various views and opinions can be shared without judgment. We are also conscious of elevating marginalised voices in all we do because, due to multiple reasons such as resource scarcity, time, or other, many groups and identities have unequal opportunities to engage with formal consultation processes or to obtain access to decision-makers.
We achieve our aims by remaining politically neutral. Our non-partisan governance structure is derived from our elected coordination committee, comprised of people from diverse political parties. To this end, we strongly encourage people from various political parties to join REDWatch. REDWatch is guided by the notion that the best ideas and outcomes are produced when diverse views and people come together. You can see more about how we operate in REDWatch Overview: Why, how and what we Do.
Activities
REDWatch undertakes a range of activities to advance our mission, including holding regular public meetings and forums, disseminating timely information through our website, social media and email list, and regularly engaging with policymakers, elected officials, senior bureaucrats and academics to keep up to date with local issues and organise community engagement opportunities. REDWatch also makes written submissions and media statements on a diverse range of issues.
Furthermore, REDWatch Spokesperson Geoff Turnbull represents REDWatch in meetings with government agencies and NGOs including in the development, implementation and governance of the Waterloo Human Services Collaborative and its Action Plan.
This year REDWatch has also provided expertise to external bodies through walking tours, presentations and participation in training sessions. Where possible REDWatch requests a donation for this service to external groups, which often helps students and professionals better understand our area, while also providing us with income to further our work. In the 2024-25 financial year this included income from sessions for:
- Sydney University Architecture Design Integration Lab on North Eveleigh
- The University of Sydney Festival of Public Urbanism
- Australasian Housing Researchers Conference 2025 - Waterloo Walking Tour
- Macquarie University student class presentation
- Walking Tour of Eveleigh and classroom support for UTS Citizen Architecture on the Build a Bridge Campaign
REDWatch is a member of the following groups:
- Groundswell Redfern Waterloo
- The Waterloo NAB’s Waterloo Redevelopment Group
- The Waterloo Human Services Collaborative
Priority areas for REDWatch
- Public housing redevelopments, including Waterloo, Explorer Street, South Eveleigh and Elizabeth Street, Redfern
- Human Services Issues including participation in the Waterloo Human Services Plan
- Advocacy for affordable, social and public housing
- South Eveleigh heritage and public space protection
- Redfern station and southern concourse issues
- Campaign to build an active transport bridge between North and South Eveleigh
- Public land developments, such as the land surrounding Carriageworks in North Eveleigh (Paint Shop and Clothing Store Sub-Precincts)
- Coordination with other resident action groups to advance issues of common concern
REDWatch Email Updates, our website and Facebook continue to be important for REDWatch to disseminate information to a broad range of Redfern-Waterloo area stakeholders. The website is over 20 years old and is prone to breakdown. We acknowledge the work of Jose and James Perez in keeping it working while we slowly work out how to migrate the information onto a new more modern platform.
With the announcement of relocations, and then the appointment of the Stockland Consortium, a lot of REDWatch’s recent focus has been on the Waterloo redevelopment. This has been not only in meetings, trying to extract details of the consortium’s plans, but also in preparing material to help people understand what the changes since 2022, when the last public phase of Waterloo South took place with the rezoning, and what issues are in play in the next phase for the consortium’s Concept Plan and further rezoning.
REDWatch continues to work closely with Alexandria Resident’s Action Group (ARAG) and friends of Erskineville (FOE) on the Build the Bridge Campaign. Since June 2025, when the groups worked with students at UTS, the groups have been working on a revamp of the campaign through the creation of an Eveleigh Bridge Alliance to involve a broader cross section of the community.
REDWatch continues to be active in the Waterloo Human Services space as a Groundswell representative in Human Services meetings with Homes NSW and Sydney Local Health District as well as the Waterloo Human Services Collaborative. Until a restructure in early 2025 the REDWatch Spokesperson was a Co-Chair of the Collaboratives Service Integration and Systems Coordination Group.
REDWatch Coordination Committee
The REDWatch coordination group meets monthly to resource and coordinate our activities. Office holders and Co-ord Group members are elected each year. Those elected in 2023 were Convenor Navin Lamsal (Convenor) Geoffrey Turnbull (Spokesperson) Peter Rothwell (Treasurer) Jose Perez (Public Officer) and Co-ord Group Members Norrie, Karyn Brown. At the November 2024 Coord Group meeting Matthew McCarthy and Dominic Patruno were co-opted as ordinary members of the Coord Committee and Jarvis Pitcher was co-opted as Secretary. We acknowledge their valuable contribution and recognise that changes in people’s lives means that there is continual turnover in the Coordination Group and that this opens up opportunities for new people to become involved and hopefully gain experience that they will find useful in the future. We especially want to thank Peter Rothwell who has been on the Coordination Group and doing our posters over the last few years.
Activities and Meetings Since July 2024
We usually meet at 6 pm on the first Thursday of the month at Counterpoint’s The Factory Community Centre in Waterloo. This may change if are doing a joint session with other groups, need a larger venue or a meeting closer to a site of interest. These meetings are open to everyone and focus on critical local challenges or broader social and political issues impacting the local community.
REDWatch has a strong history of providing a place for people from across the community to come together to discuss the issues, receive information, and creates space for collective actions. As a part of this, REDWatch requests Council and Government bodies dealing with the local community to present to the community and answer questions in a community-controlled space.
Below is a list our meetings, tours, submissions and educational work since July 2024.
July 2024
- Maintenance Changes with Homes NSW for start of new maintenance contract
- Presentations and tutorial assistance for Sydney University Design Integration Lab on North Eveleigh
August 2024
- City of Sydney Lord Mayor Candidates’ Forum Alexandria Town Hall with ARAG and FOE
September 2024
- Homes NSW on North Eveleigh’s Clothing Store housing announcement
October 2024
- Ending Loneliness with Jane Massa from Sydney Local Health District (SLHD)
- REDWatch runs Walking tour of Waterloo for Festival of “Public” Urbanism
November 2024
- REDWatch AGM and Social get together
- Elizabeth Street / PCYC Redfern Plan Explained – REDWatch Meeting
- REDWatch submission on 600-660 Elizabeth Street DA
January 2025
- REDWatch’s Submission on Homes NSW Discussion Paper
February 2025
- What is needed to fix homelessness and the move into social housing? – REDWatch Meeting
- REDWatch’s Submission on Homelessness Discussion Paper
- REDWatch conducts Waterloo Walking Tour for Australasian Housing Researchers Conference 2025
March 2025
- Homes NSW & Support Services on Waterloo South Project, Relocations and Homes NSW changes
- REDWatch makes submission to City of Sydney Council on Planning Control Consolidations
- Waterloo Metro’s Over Station Development new plans
April 2025
- Presentation to Macquarie University Students on History of Redfern Waterloo Developments
- Federal Seat of Sydney Candidates Forum Cancelled
May 2025
- REDWatch issues Initial Questions for Homes NSW Portfolio and Consortium Partners – Waterloo South Redevelopment May 2025
- Presentation to Australian Architecture Conference 2025 – What should planners, architects and development professionals learn from Redfern-Waterloo?
June 2025
- Waterloo South Consortium & Homes NSW and REDWatch Refresher on the Waterloo South Planning Proposal
- 2019 Healthy Waterloo: A Study into the Maintenance and Improvement of Health and Wellbeing in Waterloo made public
- Walking Tour of Eveleigh and classroom support for Citizen Architecture work on Build a Bridge Campaign
- REDWatch Refresher on the Waterloo South Planning Proposal delivered to Waterloo Redevelopment Group
July 2025
- Changes to NSW Tenancy Laws – Leo Patterson Ross - Tenants’ Union
- REDWatch Planning Submission on the reduction exhibition times to 14 days on Homes NSW sites
August 2025
- Stockland and Homes NSW - High level presentation
September 2025
- No Meeting – encouraged people to go to Metro’s own meeting the night before
October 2025
- Stockland provides detail on undertakings and planning approach for Waterloo South
November 2025
December 2025
- REDWatch AGM and Social get together
We hope this provides a useful overview and reminder of what REDWatch has done since our last annual report.
The REDWatch Co-ordination Group - As presented to the AGM on 4 December 2025
