Community casts a line on new Fish Market

The Sydney Fish Market will face its busiest time of the year over Christmas, leaving redevelopment discussions at a stand-still.
The meeting between the Sydney Fish Market Board and Deans Property to discuss redevelopment plans has been rescheduled for the new year, but community groups say something needs to be done, and soon.
Local community groups have declared their support for the ‘Fishbank’ solution: a plan proposing the relocation of Hanson concrete batching plants to Glebe Island and an upgrade to the current Fish Market site.
President of Friends of Pyrmont Point Inc, Drew Morrow, said the Fishbank solution could give Sydney a world-class fish market.
“[It’s] very bold and imaginative and just the ticket for a meaningful redevelopment of the Sydney Fish Market and surrounding industrial sites,” he said.
Mr Morrow said it was a solution for both Sydney as a tourist attraction and for local residents who could enjoy a redeveloped foreshore with a modern structure and new amenities.
The Fishbank redevelopment plan will be privately funded and will be of no cost to the NSW government.
Resident Stephen Falkiner said: “The Fishbank proposal has no public expenditure requirement, it achieves moving some dirty, noisy, visually unappealing industries away from the harbour front and returns much of that harbour front land to public access.”
Mr Falkiner said he believed that while Fishbank includes some community compromises such as the number of parking spaces allocated to the site and the height of the buildings for the area, it is a ‘no contest’ when considering its benefits.
Treasurer of Pyrmont, Ultimo and Glebe Men’s Shed, Peter Devoy said: “Fishbank seems to be the first plan that appears to have a realistic chance of being accepted by the Sydney Fish Market management, the NSW state government and the local community.”
“Please bring on the Fishbank project. Move the old, out of place concrete batching plants and give us the extended foreshore and open space that comes with the Fishbank solution,” he said.