‘Like putting a highway across a park’: The problem with the fish market ferry plan

Rowers fear an inner-city bay will become a highway for ferries and private vessels once the new Sydney Fish Market opens, risking dangerous collisions or forcing them to abandon the waterway altogether.

The NSW government plans to open a 50-metre recreational wharf at its $836 million fish market opening at the head of Blackwattle Bay this year. It forecasts the complex will attract about 6 million visitors a year – double the number going to the current adjacent site in Pyrmont.

Glebe Rowing Club members prepare to skim the water at dawn. They are among hundreds of rowers and paddlers who use the bay in the early morning, afternoons and weekends.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Glebe Rowing Club captain Nick Galea said hundreds of members of more than a dozen clubs based at Blackwattle Bay were worried the influx of visitors would cause congestion, push rowers and paddlers into the path of big ferries and generate wash that could disturb or capsize smaller vessels.

“Our biggest fear is people getting run over by a ferry, particularly younger or older people who might be less experienced,” Galea said.

Transport for NSW has signalled a new ferry service to the site, probably from Circular Quay and using First Fleet ferries or Parramatta River-class vessels, would start after the market had opened.

The Glebe club, which has operated since 1879, and its members share with rowers, kayakers, outrigger canoeists and dragon boat racers a rowing and paddling course that follows an anticlockwise loop around Blackwattle Bay and Rozelle Bay near Glebe.

Galea said the community sports clubs had for years coexisted with ferries, fishing boats, and leisure craft on the bay, which is entered under the Anzac Bridge and has a no-wash zone to protect the shoreline and vessels.

“The beauty of Blackwattle Bay and the no-wash zone is that it means we can have a bunch of people out on the water and know that if they’re within our sight, they’re safe,” Galea said.

The existing Blackwattle Bay ferry service uses a 12-metre MiniCat vessel to shuttle passengers between Glebe, Pyrmont and Barangaroo. Galea said any new ferry route servicing the fish market would most likely include a larger vessel and potentially a stop at Rozelle Bay.

“The ferry they talk about will shake our [floating] pontoon as it goes past and could sink an inexperienced sculler. And the route they are rumoured to take would put the ferry travelling head-on with our rowers as it crisscrosses the bay from stop to stop,” Galea said.

The government was required to consult rowers and paddlers on a vessel traffic management plan for the new market. Galea said members understood there would be changes to conditions, but they were unsure which recommendations would be adopted in the final plan, and they wanted to be included in discussions about ferry size and timing before the service began.

“For rowers and paddlers, putting in the ferry service is like putting a highway across a park,” Galea said.

“You could do it, but if you don’t consult and plan properly, you will make the bay unsafe for the community and lose us forever.”

Infrastructure NSW said the vessel traffic management plan, which would be published soon, included measures to manage potential conflicts and problems associated with recreational rowers, and recreational and commercial vessels.

“The new Sydney Fish Market will provide a significant improvement in the management of commercial vessels by providing additional space for berthing, reducing the risk of vessel conflicts with other users of Blackwattle Bay,” a spokeswoman said.

Students Josie Lehmann and Isla Eade pass in front of the old and new fish market buildings on Blackwattle Bay.Credit: Janie Barrett

Transport for NSW would not be drawn on plans or timing for any new ferry route and said it was discussing potential options for delivering passenger services to the wharf with Infrastructure NSW.

Separately, Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, City of Sydney councillors and the Millers Point Residents Action Group are lobbying the government for a ferry stop at Walsh Bay to form part of the route.

The residents argue a stop at Pier 2/3 would make it easier for visitors to get to and from the Hickson Road wharf precinct for shows and events, cutting reliance on cars.

In a letter to Transport Minister John Graham, Greenwich said a ferry stop would “boost local tourism and economic activity while providing a great tourist ferry journey linking Walsh Bay with other attractions at Circular Quay, Barangaroo, and the future Sydney Fish Market”.

The project to build the new market, which began in 2021, has been frustrated by construction delays, cost blowouts, subcontractor woes and financial uncertainty.

It was expected to be completed by 2024, but the opening date has been pushed back to November and may run into next year to avoid interruptions to trading over the busy Christmas period.

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