Here comes the wrecking ball, again! 

By PETER HEHIR 

I despair of finding anyone in the Inner West who is even remotely concerned about the massive development shit storm that is heading our way. 

In Rozelle and Lilyfield, it’s conceivable we will see all of the properties fronting Easton Park, certainly those on the northern side of Burt Street from Alfred Lane west to Dennison St, continuing on to include those all the way along Lilyfield Road down to Mary Street Leichhardt, being compulsorily acquired and demolished for high rise. 

These massive, ugly milk crates, just like the fuglies in Pyrmont, will be at least eight to ten stories high, obliterating the Victorian cottages and terraces built in the 1880s. They’ll probably number some 8,000 or 10,000 units. Add another 300 or so on the southern side of Burt Street, when the nine properties in the historic precinct on Easton Park are demolished. Even those residences designated Items of the Environmental Heritage won’t be saved. 

And these estimates don’t include the properties in Annandale. Add perhaps another 3,000 units. The rationale being that they too have to go because they’re adjacent to the Rozelle Bay and Lilyfield Light Rail stations. 

The high rise precinct will also surround Leichhardt North, Hawthorn and Marion stations. This boon for developers will continue further west to include properties at Taverners Hill, Lewisham West, Waratah Mills and beyond to the Dulwich Hill light rail station. 

If fact, all of the properties along either side of the Dulwich Hill Light Rail Line are under threat. Add another 20,000 or 30,000 units. This development footprint will almost certainly extend some distance beyond the rail line.  

And best of all for the government, there are no worries at all about electoral backlash for either of the major parties. 

They’ve both already lost the support of the community at the state level in the Newtown and Balmain electorates. And they know they’ll never get it back. Neither of the big boys express any concern at all about history, heritage or the character of the Inner West’s Victorian streetscapes. 

The NSW state government have publicly stated that the density of the Inner West will be increased by about 35% and that properties along the Light Rail line will fall under the wrecking ball. 

The compulsory acquisitions used for WestCONex (WCX) will again be the order of the day. State Significant Infrastructure (SSI) will be the blunt instrument used. And the NSW government’s idea of market value doesn’t bear thinking about. WCX proved that. 

This development bonanza will proceed under the guise of ‘Helping the homeless’. 

We have until the 7th of August, just 12 days away now, to register a protest with the Inner West Council (IWC). Not that it will do any good, because the ALP dominated IWC, led by the controversial Labor mayor Darcy Byrne, will do the bidding of their political masters in Macquarie Street. 

Even if the IWC Councillors are privately appalled at what’s proposed, they’ll do bugger all to oppose it. Simply because they are all duty bound to toe the ALP line. And toe the line they will. 

Who would have thought that the hard fought for Light Rail to Dulwich Hill would prove to be such a poisoned chalice… 

So is there anybody, anywhere, who actually gives a shit, and is prepared to do something about it? 

Or will this exercise from the IWC prove to be yet another rubber stamp from NSW Labor, who showed their true colours by ignoring the 63% of residents who voted to get our three council’s back in the referendum at the last local elections. 

Now that was ‘democracy’ in action in true ALP style.   

Regrettably for those of us who truly appreciate the character and history of our irreplaceable Victorian streetscapes, it will almost certainly be yet another fait accompli, just like the sham engagement with the community that WestConnex so predictably proved to be.  

Peter Hehir is the co-convenor of the Rozelle/Lilyfield Resident Action Group, formed in 1979, and he was the spokesperson for RAW (Rozelle Against WestConnex). Peter has no political affiliation.