The Difficult Rebirth of Redfern

Redfern is famous. It is probably one of a few suburbs in Sydney, apart from Bondi, that is known around the world. Like the Bronx, Harlem or Soho it has an image and reputation that diverges from its emerging reality as government re-development of the land in the area changes the face of this inner city part of Sydney.

Redfern has been gentrifying for some time but not as fast as the rest of the inner city. Partly this is because of perceived high crime rates, partly because of its reputation as an Aboriginal area and partly because of the large concentration of public housing. Estate agents have been telling prospective home buyers in the area for years that this  will be the next Paddington(1) (as soon as all the Aboriginal community is moved out).

The remaining inner city working class and migrant communities who were able to buy in the (then undesirable) inner city are also rapidly vanishing being replaced by people with high incomes able to pay expensive rents or service large mortgages. Student households find it increasingly difficult to band together and meet the area’s rents. Government housing policy is increasingly looking at the need for affordable housing in the area to provide accommodation for key workers such as school teachers, nurses and police who can no longer afford to live here. This is a long way from the old working class “slums” of the inner city.

The most recent wave of changes in Redfern Waterloo started when the NSW Premier’s Department put a “Place Management” program into the area after media stories about the stoning of buses by local youths. In response the Redfern Waterloo Partnership Project (RWPP) was established and in March 2002 the government announced a $7 million package of initiatives to help address the area’s problems. Interestingly one of the RWPP’s main human services initiatives was to establish an interdisciplinary “Street Team” for problem youth. The team was wound up in 2005 and the evaluation was so scathing that the government has declined to release the report despite Freedom of Information applications.

By the end of 2003 the RWPP had completed a study of the area’s built environment named the RED Strategy. When its colour coded maps were exhibited it became obvious that the NSW Government owned about a third of Redfern/Waterloo and that they were considering the redevelopment of this land. These land holdings included now closed services like Redfern Primary School, Rachael Forster Hospital and Redfern Court House along with the old Redfern Police Station site, the former Eveleigh Railway Workshops and Australian Technology Park.

At its last meting with the community in December 2003, the RWPP assured the community there would be plenty of opportunity for input into the preliminary RED Strategy and that consultation would be done through South Sydney Council. The future of human services would be dealt with following a review in 2004 which in turn also recommended a consultative approach between government and non government service providers.

2004, however, saw some major changes. Firstly, following a dispute over some investment properties South Sydney Council was amalgamated with City of Sydney Council. Local independent state MP Clover Moore decided to stand for and subsequently won the mayoral election and her ticket won effective control of Council rather than the expected ALP win.

Secondly in February 2004 after the death of a local Aboriginal youth Redfern erupted onto TV screens around the world as police and Aboriginal youths battled one another in front of Redfern railway station. This sparked a NSW upper house Inquiry into Redfern Waterloo including into the RWPP and its actions. Among the findings of the Inquiry was criticism of the RWPP’s lack of community engagement especially with the Aboriginal community and it recommended the need for an improved partnership.

In October and November 2004 the government announced its response to the work done by the RWPP and the Inquiry. Instead of implementing urban renewal through the earlier proposed transparent processes of the local (now City of Sydney) Council, they established the Redfern Waterloo Authority (RWA). They also created a new Minister for Redfern/Waterloo to oversee the redevelopment of the area and to have responsibility for all government activity in the area: Frank Sartor.

The first indication of what might be ahead came with the leaking of draft cabinet documents to the Sydney Morning Herald on November 29, 2004 under the heading “Revealed: how Redfern will be reborn”. The documents revealed quite concrete plans for the area in contrast to the general media statements released about the establishment of the RWA. In effect the plan was to double the area’s population, while maintaining the same number of public tenants in the area. The effect would be to dilute the influence of public housing. It was also proposed that the urban renewal be funded through the sale of government land.

The leaked documents included government plans for Aboriginal housing on the Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC) owned land adjacent to Redfern station known as The Block. It soon became evident, following the AHC’s refusal to give the NSW government control of their proposed housing scheme, The Pemulwuy Project, that they would do everything to block it.

In the four years following the cabinet decision the Minister for Redfern/Waterloo and the RWA have tried almost everything to stymie The Pemulwuy Project, including reducing the amount of residential development that can be built on the part of land owned by the Aboriginal Housing Company. This land was specifically bought to provide Aboriginal Housing. At the same time, on surrounding government owned land, the government introduced planning controls that allowed a significant increase in both commercial and residential densities.

Furthermore, without any planning for the future needs of a community of double the size, the RWA proceeded to sell the former school site and hospital. When asked what would happen if the expanded community needed a new school in 20 years, the RWA told residents that the government would have to go out and buy the land for it. When asked why the hospital could not be converted into much needed supported accommodation, the community was told it was unsuitable because it was two storeys!

On North Eveleigh the government had earlier decided to invest $40m in the development of a contemporary performing and visual arts space in the old Carriage Works building. It opened at the beginning of 2007. The rest of the site passed to the RWA which has re-zoned it ready to sell for commercial and residential development. The economic crisis, and an interest from Sydney University, may yet see the North Eveleigh site become an extension of Sydney University campus rather than the commercial and housing developments the RWA wanted (to extract the best price for the site).

Apart from Redfern Station, the last element of the RWA’s plans for rebuilding the area is the Built Environment Plan Phase Two for the redevelopment of the public housing lands in Redfern Waterloo. The general parameters for this plan are aimed at increasing population density to dilute the proportion of public housing residents.

The formulation and implementation of the RWA plans have been done behind closed doors and have been characterised by little collaboration with the local residents or non-government agencies. Plans have been exhibited and then finalised by the RWA often with few changes. A combination of a “Government knows best” attitude and a funding model based on selling scarce inner city public land has defined the redevelopment approach in Redfern.

In late 2008 a new Minister Kristina Keneally took over as Minister for Redfern/Waterloo. Under the Act governing the RWA the minister has immense power to decide what happens in the area. At a meeting in March 2009 with community group REDWatch a more consultative approach has been proposed by the Minister and time will tell if some of the community’s aspirations are also incorporated into the RWA plans before the RWA finishes its work in 2011-12.

This will of course not undo the changes that have come about as a result of the government’s intervention but it may help to lessen the impact on those who already live here. It might also contribute to a new Redfern identity in which people find Aboriginal arts, businesses and culture a key part of the area rather than problems such as social isolation and civil unrest by disaffected youth.

Throughout this process the Redfern Eveleigh Darlington Waterloo Watch group (REDWatch) have monitored the government intervention and tried to get greater community involvement in the process. REDWatch’s website (www.redwatch.org.au) documents community concerns in Redfern/Waterloo. Through the Redfern/Waterloo Issue Updates, also available on the REDWatch website, you can see how the issues and struggles of Redfern/Waterloo unfolded week by week and month by month over the last few years.

Geoff Turnbull has a BA (Hons1) from UNSW and is the Spokesperson for REDWatch. Since the inception of the RWA Geoff has been on the RWA Built Environment Ministerial Advisory Committee (a committee that has never met with the Minister) and he is a member of the Aboriginal Housing Company’s Pemulwuy Project Team. With his wife Lyn, Geoff produces the Redfern Waterloo Issues Updates which appear on the REDWatch website.

ENDNOTES

(1) A once working class suburb which is now a very wealthy shopping and residential area.

Source: This article was originally published in There goes the Neighbourhood: Redfern and the Politics of Urban Space published in tandem with an Exhibition There Goes the Neighbourhooh, Performance Space Sydney May 2009 by Zanny Begg & Keg de Souza. The exhibition was accompanied by a website www.theregoestheneighbourhood.org