RSL ‘powerless’ to stop billboard beside Sydney war memorial

A large billboard across the street from a commemorative garden that honours Australia’s war veterans has been labelled a “visual eyesore” by critics in the latest row over public advertising signs placarding Sydney’s suburbs.

A surge in outdoor advertising material – including on the sides of bus stops, rail bridges and buildings — is sparking concerns from community groups and councils over impacts to public amenity, road safety and the “commercialisation” of public areas.

The large electronic billboard is on a railway bridge in Chatswood across the street from the Garden of Remembrance.Credit:

On Sydney’s north shore, Willoughby Council says it has been left “disappointed and deeply concerned” after losing a long-running fight to stop Transport for NSW from installing the electronic billboard on the side of a railway bridge close to the Garden of Remembrance in Chatswood.

While Transport for NSW has pledged to turn off the digital billboard during Anzac and Remembrance Day ceremonies, Willoughby Mayor Tanya Taylor wants the sign to be relocated, saying the council will “not tolerate” the site “being marred by the neon lights of advertising”.

Chatswood RSL sub-branch president Barney Flanagan said committee members had been “powerless” to stop the billboard’s installation from going ahead due to its location on a state government-owned site.

Willoughby Council is not the only council embroiled in a billboard battle. The City of Sydney last year was forced to spend $325,000 removing large street advertising signs in response to community concerns over the size of the signs and impacts on pedestrians.

The City of Sydney opposed large street advertising billboards on walkways.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Similar billboards proposed on footpaths in the North Sydney Council area have also faced community backlash, with public submissions calling the signs “visual pollution”.

Wingecarribee Shire Council, south-west of Sydney, this month lost a Land and Environment challenge against fast food retailer Guzman y Gomez, attempting to stop the company installing a billboard on the side of the Hume Highway between Sydney and Canberra.

According to the council, the sign at the Sutton Forest pit stop risked distracting drivers on the 110km/h roadway as well as creating “visual clutter” due to its proximity to signage for a McDonald’s outlet and the Heatherbrae’s Pies store, located at the same pit stop.

A concept image of the Guzman y Gomez billboard on the side of the Hume Highway.Credit:

Public pushback last year prompted Sydney Trains to scrap plans for a 21-metre digital billboard next to Sydney Park in Erskineville after hundreds of residents signed a petition against the installation.

But not all such petitions are successful. Hunters Hill residents lost a recent fight to stop Transport for NSW installing an advertising billboard on the side of the busy Burns Bay Road overpass.

Figures from advertising industry body Outdoor Media Association show the number of outdoor advertising billboards across Australia has increased by 50,000 in just over a decade, with the number of advertising panels in NSW estimated at 98,400.

University of NSW senior lecturer of landscape architecture and urban design Mike Harris said the increase in public advertising material risks sending “a message that advertisements are more important than the comfortable use of public spaces”.

“The proliferation of digital advertising screens is increasing in both size and number across Australian cities – initially confined to bus stops but [advertising spaces] have now broken out as standalone billboards, and the main reason is the revenue generated for local or state governments, depending on whose land the installations occupy,” he said.

“This significantly increases the volume of advertising that can be displayed in a given area.”

This billboard on the Burns Bay Road overpass at Hunters Hill prompted a backlash from residents.Credit:

Outdoor Media Association chief executive Elizabeth McIntyre said billboards operated within strict planning controls and could provide revenue for local and state governments that have agreements with advertisers to display material on government-owned assets to fund “essential public amenities such as transport shelters and lighting”.

Transport for NSW manages nearly 1000 advertising assets across Sydney Trains, and about 1200 buses managed by the department have paid advertising on them.

The Glebe Island silos billboard is the largest in NSW.Credit: Louie Douvis

The billboard rows come as advertising company OoH! Media has lodged plans to extend the life of the state’s largest billboard – on the side of the Glebe Island silos opposite Sydney’s Anzac Bridge – for at least another three years as part of an agreement that involves paying Inner West Council $140,539.

That council this month rejected a development application by advertising company JCDecaux to convert a static billboard on the side of Victoria Road in Rozelle to a digital billboard.

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