It was meant to be the Opera House for fish. Instead, there’s something rotten in Blackwattle Bay

The vision was to create the Sydney Opera House of fish markets. A billion-dollar Blackwattle Bay development with a distinctive wave-shaped, scale-patterned roof, and levels split between a temperature-controlled operations area for the daily seafood auction and wholesale outlets, and a retail level at the top, all designed to boost the fishing industry, attract more tourists and grow the NSW economy. The existing facilities would be cleared in favour of 1100 new units, 30,000 square metres of green space and a sweeping foreshore walk linking Glebe and Pyrmont.

But for five years, a stench has been growing around the damp squib that is the new Sydney Fish Market. As Herald investigative reporter Harriet Alexander revealed on Thursday, the company behind “Australia’s home of seafood” has retained insolvency experts and is staring down an $8 million loss for 2023-24 and the prospect of financial collapse.

The new Sydney Fish Market under construction.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Auditors have refused to approve the company’s accounts three months after the mandatory reporting deadline, and while it is the first time in 30 years that Sydney Fish Market has failed to lodge its financial statements on time, it has been forced to deny trading while insolvent and has said it remains viable.

The company has effectively been handed management of a government asset worth at least $836 million in return for a 20-year lease worth peanuts, and there are now serious questions about whether they are the right people to handle it.

Insiders say three possible factors, or a combination of them, may have led to this chaos: the government not providing the facilities required for a modern, efficient fish market in the first place; managerial incompetence from the board; or greed from tenants who are demanding design changes or compensation for being forced to move. Whichever way the blame is unpacked, the financial crisis has led to snowballing chaos and uncertainty.

The new market was meant to open last year, but after delays it has been pushed back until at least November. Sydneysiders will certainly be getting their Good Friday fish from the familiar existing facilities, and should probably bank on using the old market for their Christmas prawns too.

Aside from the delays, confusion and chaos, the other troubling revelation on Thursday was the prospect of legal trouble for Sydney Fish Market over the breakdown of a partnership with a technology company developing a digital trading platform. Known as SFMBlue, it was designed to boost trading power for fish catchers but has been a flop after two years of wholesalers refusing to support it. The company received $900,000 in seed funding from the NSW government, a fraction of the $1 billion, but still a worrying example of the way taxpayer money has been badly used.

The market’s fishers, tenants and shareholders are the ones who need to hold the board to account. But ultimately, NSW residents deserve better. A major piece of the city’s infrastructure is on the line and taxpayers should be tired of being on the hook.

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