Rally rocks the Cross

More than 500 people attended a rally organised by the Friends of Fitzroy Gardens group last Saturday. The coalition of local resident, arts and business groups has been campaigning to stop Council’s plan to redevelop the Gardens, site of the famous El Alamein Fountain.

Council actively defended its plans, setting up a stall at the Saturday Markets staffed by landscape architect staff and displaying a plywood model of their proposals. Clover Moore also flooded the area’s shops with a two-page colour newsletter supporting the project.

But Council’s claims at the market stall that only four trees would go were hotly contested by residents, who brandished  Council documents which, they said, showed more than 40 trees and significant plantings would go.

Council were again collecting comments on their plans but appeared to receive a majority saying “leave the gardens alone”.

Meanwhile residents, not being allowed within the market area, set up a card table on the footpath nearby, collecting petition signatures – 2,409 by the weekend.

The contest was also being waged online after two articles in Friday’s Sydney Morning Herald had taken the issue to a broader public.

The City responded via comments and Twitter to an opinion piece by author Delia Falconer who compared Council to: “the developers who longed to ravish The Rocks and Victoria Street, Potts Point, in the ’70s, [who] also believed they were being ‘modern’.”

The City of Sydney tweeted: “Delia Falconer’s claims about Fitzroy Gardens are untrue. See the draft concepts [@URL] to get the full picture.”  But residents say Council’s online material is deceptive because it fails to mention the heritage listing, the planned removal of 5,000 convict bricks on site, and does not reveal the true extent of tree removal.

The City also tweeted: “We value Fitzroy Gardens’ heritage & will keep researching its significance before adopting a design for renewal”.

The word “renewal” has come under fire from residents who point to a 2007 Council report which, instead, used the word “refresh”, which they say does not mean “demolition and redevelopment”.

But another City supporter wrote: “You can’t preserve a seedy, unwelcoming area just because it’s ‘heritage listed’”.

Kirsty Gilfo supported Council, tweeting: “ Do they have permission for this and to impose on the markets?”

In fact the rally was held to one side of the markets in front of the Post Office, and brought customers to the markets which had been somewhat deserted after heavy rain in the morning. But the sun shone brightly during the rally before rain closed in again later.

One problem the residents have with Council’s plan is the impact on the markets of over a year of demolition and construction work. Council has said it will protect the markets by doing the work in stages.

Speakers at the rally included Malcolm Turnbull and former Deputy Lord Mayor Dixie Coulton, while Stewart D’Arrietta of Glass Onion fame entertained with a Tom Waits style song he had co-written for the event with author Louis Nowra, who also spoke.

“My father was a very wise man,” Mr Turnbull said. “One of his sayings was ‘There’s a big difference between scratching your ear and ripping it off’.”

He also likened Council’s plans to the Vietnam War aphorism: “We had to burn the village to save it.”

Dixie Coulton said she had originally supported Clover Moore as Lord Mayor because of her green credentials.

“One almost prefers the old right wing Liberal and Labor governments or councils who left the parks alone because there was no money in them as opposed to this eager and keen green council who destroys them,” she said.

Four state election candidates attended, including independent Malcolm Duncan.

“I want to see a greenhouse emissions impact report done on ‘refreshing’ Fitzroy Gardens and Lawrence Hargraves Reserve before the bulldozers are sent in to rip up the gardens and pull out the trees,” said Greens candidate De Brierley Newton.

Labor’s Sacha Blumen commented: “Council needs to regain the community’s trust. You can’t consult on plans without advertising their impacts. Council needs to urgently ask for public comment again on its plans telling people exactly what their impacts would be.”

by Michael Gormly