Currawong Beach
I rise to support Sylvia Hale’s notice of motion to recognise Currawong Beach and the historic buildings contained within its boundaries to be a heritage site and should immediately be placed on the State Heritage register and the National List in its entirety.
Under the nomination criteria for an item to be listed on the State’s Heritage register, a site must meet one of seven criteria for state significance. An item need only meet one criterion for nomination. Yet as even the State Heritage Office report states: “Currawong meets an exceptionally high 5 out of 7 of the criteria for significance.”
Currawong is important, since it has significance on so many levels. It is a living “natural history” of the biodiversity of the area; it has indigenous links; it has a long association going back to the early days of colonial history; it has association with the State’s social history; and it has significant pieces of Australia’s history of technological innovation.
I will briefly state the Heritage Council’s criteria for listing:
1. Currawong is important in the course of NSW’s cultural or natural history namely:
Important plant communities found at Currawong include red bloodwood, scribbly gum, and yellow bloodwood, and the site also provides habitat for many significant or endangered animals. Apart from its natural history, Currawong has an indigenous association. It has long been associated and ownership by clans of the Guringai tribe. It has also significance from the earliest days of European settlement. The original land grant was to one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion, and the site contains an early farmhouse which provides a continuing link with one of the earliest sites of agriculture in Australia. Also, the Australian Constitution was drafted just next to Currawong.
2. Currawong has special association with a group of persons of importance in NSW’s cultural history
For more than 50 years, the Labor Council of NSW has owned and operated Currawong, on Pittwater’s pristine foreshores, to provide non-profit holidays for union members, their families and the general public.
This site commemorates post-war union victories of a 4o-hour week, 2 weeks paid annual leave, and the 1948 Federal Arbitration Award
3. Currawong has the potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of NSW’s natural history
Indigenous occupation of Currawong is evidenced by the presence of shell middens, rock shelters, engravings and grinding grooves. The presence of engravings at both ends of the beach strongly indicates that a proper archaeological investigation of the site would reveal invaluable information about the pre-European culture and society of the Guringai tribe.
The fact that the entire Currawong site is included on the Register of the National Trust demonstrates that the site is important in representing the principal characteristics of a class of NSW’s cultural or natural places and environments.
The Developer’s Proposal
The applicant Eco Villages Pty Ltd is proposing a residential sub-division of 25 luxury homes, refurbish nine cottages including the heritage listed Midholme farmhouse at the former union workers’ waterfront retreat. This is an application for subdivision and rezoning, not building, therefore, there are many significant unaddressed questions such as the scale and character of the buildings and landscaping, access, wastewater, bushfire, and likely future applications for road and mooring facilities.
In its submission to the Department of Planning, Pittwater Council stated that the development proposal “downplays the serious natural hazards and risks associated with the site” and is contrary to the Council’s long-held position that any further development is inappropriate for the western foreshores of Pittwater.
Although the developer is dedicating more than half of Currawong as a national park, its plan will almost quadruple the amount of land covered by buildings. According to Pittwater Mayor David James, “In our view there are major implications regarding its geotechnical risk, the sites heritage values, and the possible effects of sea level rise due to climate changes on the proposed development.”
Moreover, the public loses the opportunity for public recreation space for future generations, and becomes, in effect, a “gated community” for a privileged few.
It is evident that Currawong is significant in so many levels. Therefore, Currawong is of significant natural, social and cultural heritage importance to the people of NSW. The government itself has the power to any development on a site that has such major natural and cultural significance for the State.
The Heritage Council of NSW recommended that the entire Currawong site be listed on the State Heritage Register as it meets an exceptionally high five out of seven of the criteria required for listing. A site is required to meet only one to be successfully listed, and it is, therefore most unusual for the Minister for Planning not to accept such a recommendation.
I call on Minister Keneally to take the necessary actions to place Currawong Beach in its entirety on the State heritage register and the National Heritage List in its entirety, and to ensure that Currawong Beach is protected from residential subdivision or other inappropriate development.