House debates

Thursday, 24 June 2021

Constituency Statements

Parramatta Electorate: Conservation

10:07 am

Photo of Julie OwensJulie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

In Parramatta we have some amazing people who have been fighting for decades to protect the heritage that we see every day in Parramatta. It's an extraordinary place with an amazing sense of place. One of the current issues is with a wonderful building called Willow Grove, which is set for demolition by the state government. A heritage building is set for demolition in order to build a museum that honours heritage—go figure! It makes no sense. This community group have been fighting for months. They took the state government to the Land and Environment Court. They lost that case last week, but they have an injunction until the appeal is heard on Friday week. Now we hear that, even though there's an injunction on the main building, Infrastructure New South Wales is pushing to demolish the non-heritage parts of Willow Grove and clear all the trees on the site except one; these are mature trees. So again the community is putting together a petition to try to convince council to halt the demolition, particularly the removal of the trees and the non-heritage parts, until the appeal is heard on Friday week. I wish them all the best. I love that building and I've walked past it many times. It's a major and significant part of Parramatta's heritage, and it should be maintained exactly where it is.

Another group of locals in Parramatta is fighting to protect trees in Parramatta Park. Parramatta Park is incredibly important; it's the oldest recognised public park in the world. It's an amazing place where a lot of the history that you learn about in school actually happened. Governor Macquarie was there—not at the Rocks but at Parramatta. About six years ago, there was a public consultation on what was called a People's Loop, which was aimed at taking the cars out of Parramatta Park and leaving it for pedestrians. They trialled it during COVID, and it had a great deal of community support. Now we find out—and this has blindsided the community—that, in order to build the People's Loop project, Greater Sydney Parklands is going to remove 60 mature trees and put in parking spaces for 130 cars. The public consultation said we were going to get cars out of Parramatta Park, but the reality is they're going to remove 60 mature trees and put in parking spaces for 130 cars. This is an extraordinary decision by an organisation known as Greater Sydney Parklands, which has taken over the management of Parramatta Park from the local trust. So local input, again, is longer there. Once again, this wonderful group of locals has put together a petition—there have been 700 signatures in the last couple of days—trying to convince council to prevent the removal of these trees.

If you want to know more about these petitions and this wonderful group of locals, there'll be a link in the description when I post this online later today. Please find out, follow it and get involved.