The fight to stop a ‘parking station for oversized boats’ on Sydney Harbour

Plans to more than triple the size of a marina on Sydney Harbour for dozens of luxury vessels are facing vociferous opposition from lower north shore residents worried the multimillion-dollar redevelopment will block views of heritage-listed sites and privatise the public waterway.

At stake, local opponents say, is the “effective alienation” of the harbour, the safety of sailors who frequent the water, and prized vistas to and from heritage-listed Kelly’s Bush and Cockatoo Island.

Save Our Shores spokeswoman Beverley Bennett, far left, is among residents fighting the proposal. Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong

Save Our Shores spokeswoman Beverley Bennett said more than 700 people had signed a petition condemning the plan to expand Woolwich Marina from 45 to 79 berths for private vessels up to 25 metres long – a more than three-fold increase in its footprint she said would create “a wall of boats”.

“We want to preserve this area for the Sydney community and beyond,” Bennett said.

Hunters Hill Council and the Sydney North Planning Panel knocked back earlier plans to expand the marina, prompting Sydney firm Micheal Fountain Architects to launch action against the council in the NSW Land and Environment Court, seeking development consent for the amended proposal.

The council received 570 submissions on the revised plan, most negative, and has taken the rare step of seeking donations to help cover its legal costs, which reached $378,000 this month.

Planning documents said the revised bid would shift the marina west, scrap 10 existing swing moorings, and retain a ban on large function or “party boats”. The earlier $8.5 million plan sought permission for vessels up to 35-metre super yachts to meet rising demand for berthing space.

In documents filed in June, the council urged the court to reject the new proposal on grounds it would have “unacceptable impacts on the character, amenity and use of the area by the public, including effective alienation of a large portion of the Sydney Harbour for private benefit”.

A series of other respondents to the case, including the Hunters Hill Sailing Club, say in separate court documents that the proposed revamp “will have a substantial adverse impact on sailing and ... the recreational uses” of the harbour.

“[The] size of the vessels proposed is exponentially larger,” they say.

The plan to expand the marina opposite Cockatoo Island would allow double the number of vessels to moor.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong

Some would be “larger than a Parramatta River Class ferry” and others would be “longer than an articulated bus and higher than a double-decker bus”.

The documents also say the marina expansion would increase waterway congestion and create a navigational safety hazard in the narrow section of the harbour between Woolwich, Cockatoo Island and Spectacle Island, which is extensively and increasingly used by ferries and private boats.

The proposed marina would comprise a “270-metre largely continuous hard enclosure which protrudes into the harbour”, the respondents argue.

“Construction and use of a parking station for multi-storey boats up to 25 metres long on the foreshore of Kelly’s Bush Park is fundamentally incompatible with its natural heritage values.”

A visual impact assessment of the proposal to expand the marina westward between the Kelly’s Bush foreshore parkland and Cockatoo Island.

The case is listed for a hearing in the NSW Land and Environment Court between September 4 and September 17, including an on-site visit.

Bennett said the community had rallied in a battle reminiscent of the effort to save Kelly’s Bush foreshore park, which was spared from development when about a dozen local mothers joined late union organiser Jack Mundey and his “green bans” movement to block a housing estate in 1971.

She said the earlier proposal had been rejected due to maritime, Aboriginal and bushland heritage concerns, and disrupted views to the state heritage-listed Kelly’s Bush Park, and Cockatoo Island.

“This is one of the most amazing parts of Sydney Harbour; the history, heritage, social activism, and natural environment is absolutely phenomenal. There is no other country that would do this to a site of such significance.”

The Hunters Hill Trust said the revised proposal shifted the marina across “a large width of the historic Kelly’s Bush foreshore [to] effectively occupy approximately 20,000sqm of waterway”.

The mooring of larger boats would “obliterate the open water and views” from the foreshore and, although “commercially lucrative”, would be “affordable to only a select clientele”, the trust said.

“This unique part of Sydney Harbour must not be allowed to become a permanent parking station for over-sized boats catering for the privileged few, obscuring public views and sight-lines to important heritage items of outstanding natural beauty.”

Woolwich resident Don Bonnitcha, a Hunters Hill Sailing Club life member, said any plan to enlarge the marina, or to moor bigger vessels there, would generate a “completely unacceptable risk to the safety of the many young sailors in small dinghies who learn to sail and race at [the club]. ”

The marina’s manager, Idy Chan, declined to comment while the matter was before the court. In 2018, Chan told Good Weekend magazine she had a waiting list of Chinese emigres wanting berths for their smart yachts.

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