Slam dunk for Woollahra

BY ANDREW WOODHOUSE
V is for victory, and it comes in many forms. Woollahra Council has slam-dunked its own planning staff’s proposal for a massive $1 million bitumen basketball court, concrete skateboard park, ping-pong tables and youth facility in sensitive heritage-listed Rushcutters Bay Park. This is a victory. This cherished 1880s park, from where rushes were collected in colonial times for roof thatching, hats, brooms and matting, will continue just as it was. It is a place for fun and casual relaxation. It is the people’s’ backyard and a place of quietude, a catharsis from the hum and thrum of our high octane inner-city living.
The battle was hard fought and like wars, truth was the first casualty. Claims of underprivileged youth needing more playground spaces were supported by other claims that the park is hardly used and has plenty of space. These were countered by allegations the park is over-used with only 10% of remaining open space left and with skateboarders demonised as recidivist, dope-smoking outlaws and unconvicted criminals. More personal claims were cannonballed that objectors are snobs but were deflected with accusations about local Richie Rich, self-entitled 10 year-old boys and unwashed, barefoot unemployed, layabout, hair-braided hippy 32 year-old skateboarders.
One councillor was not immune from this juvenile name-calling describing objectors as “people in their late 70s and 80s who just don’t want young people to have fun.”
All complete nonsense on stilts.
The plain fact is everyone should have fun but not at other people’s expense.
Council’s motion to proceed with original proposal was overshadowed and overwhelmed at last Monday week’s meeting by a new motion put by “elder statesman,” Councillor Andrew Petrie, OAM, to reject the park location entirely and seek another site, perhaps in Lyne Park, Rose Bay, or Centennial Park, whose trustees have a skateboard design already slated for their own park masterplan.
The Council chamber was crowded with little children playing i-games whose slim sleek, botoxed and carefully-coiffured, Mercedes-driving parents pushed their little, too-cute, blonde-boy darling from Darling Point to lodge a petition and read a pre-prepared speech using sophisticated vocabulary way beyond their year five primary school years. His petition lay on the table unopened where it fell silent.
Robbie Hall, a local resident for over 30 years and public palladin for residents’ rights said the decision is welcome news.
“The decision is a welcome relief for 20,000 residents living nearby. It had three serious problems: location location, location. Skateboarders never understood the heritage or importance of this precious open space”.
So despite all the huffery and puffery and intervention from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, resident ratepayers can get on with their lives. Skateboarders, who might think at first glance they lost, can now ask council for skateboard parks in Lyne Park, Rose Bay and for a second mega-facility in Centennial Park, facing Oxford Street as well. It’s a win-win decision. They can do what they do best away from residents, go around in circles on their roller-bearing pieces of plank.
Now can we can get on with our lives?

Andrew Woodhouse is President, Potts Point and Kings Cross Heritage and Residents’ Society