The Australian Government: Sydney Harbour Federation Trust. Planning.

Harbour Trust: Planning

The Plan: Foreword

The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust was establishd to manage and return to good order various lands on or near the foreshores of Sydney Harbour. Over the past three years, the Trust has prepared a broad plan for the future uses of these lands in consultation with the community and other interested parties. At the same time, it has progressively made the lands accessible to the public.

An important concern of the Australian Government when it established the Trust was to promote a comprehensive approach to the planning process and to ensure maximum benefit to the people of Sydney and of Australia. Sydney Harbour is the birthplace of the European settlement of Australia. It has always held a pre-eminent position in the growth, first of the colony of New South Wales, and later of multi-cultural Australia as it emerged following the Second World War. Sydney and its harbour are as much the face of Australia as are Uluru, the outback and the Great Barrier Reef.

This plan recognises the pivotal relationship between Sydney Harbour and each of the seven sites managed by the Trust. It is the harbour - natural feature, strategic port and colonial lifeline - that determined the location of Trust sites and their uses. The beauty and heritage of Trust sites, the celebration of their proximity to the harbour, have informed the plan's broad vision.

The implementation of the plan during the life of the Trust will follow priorities set in accord with three guiding policies: increased public access; demonstrable benefits in the context of the outcomes proposed for sites; and the realisation of the Trust's financial objectives. Consultation with the community will continue as a hallmark attribute of the Trust's approach to implementation, as will the recognition of the harbour's national significance.

Most of the sites covered by the plan have been largely off limits to the public for significant periods of Sydney's history since the arrival of the First Fleet. One of the great legacies of the plan, once implemented, will be the integration of these sites into the public life of Sydney and of Australia. They will change the texture of the harbour's foreshores, open them up and give people both a sense of history and an experience of the immediacy of land, light and water.

The opportunity to create something of lasting value, worthy of a city and a nation with a strong sense of themselves and their potential, that is the promise of this plan. I commend it to anyone with an interest in Sydney Harbour and its environs, those cognisant of its past and those protective of its future.

 

David Kemp

Minister for the Environment and Heritage

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