tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/sydney-harbour-8510/articlesSydney harbour – The Conversation2020-05-18T20:03:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1368362020-05-18T20:03:09Z2020-05-18T20:03:09ZIs another huge and costly road project really Sydney’s best option right now?<p>The New South Wales government has focused on delivering more motorways and rail links for Sydney, along with main roads in regional NSW, since the Coalition won office in 2011. The biggest of these, WestConnex, is still being built. Plans for yet another major motorway, the <a href="https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/western-harbour-tunnel-beaches-link/index.html">Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link</a>, are well advanced. </p>
<p>A hefty environmental impact statement (EIS), but incredibly no business case for a project costing about <a href="https://www.afr.com/street-talk/big-balance-sheets-tested-for-nsw-s-next-15b-roads-project-20190717-p527xx">A$15 billion</a>, was recently put on public exhibition. When submissions closed at the end of March, the vast majority of <a href="https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/project/10451">1,455 submissions</a> from public agencies, individuals and organisations were objections to the Western Harbour Tunnel project.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335297/original/file-20200515-138615-kjng4a.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The NSW government has promoted the Western Harbour Tunnel since announcing it in 2014, but hasn’t convinced the many objectors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G8fYlAP-M4">YouTube/NSW government</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The proposal follows three stages of WestConnex and the F6 Extension south of Sydney. Thousands of objections in the planning process did not stop the government going ahead with each stage. </p>
<p>This led to a state parliamentary <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/inquiries/2497/Final%20report%20-%20Impact%20of%20the%20WestConnex%20Project%20-%20FINAL%20-%2014%20December%202018.pdf">inquiry</a> in 2018. Its first finding was: “That the WestConnex project is, notwithstanding issues of implementation raised in this report, a vital and long-overdue addition to the road infrastructure of New South Wales.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-impacts-and-murky-decision-making-feed-public-distrust-of-projects-like-westconnex-106996">Health impacts and murky decision-making feed public distrust of projects like WestConnex</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, the committee also found “the NSW Government failed to adequately consider alternative options at the commencement of the WestConnex project” and that “the transparency arrangements pertaining to the WestConnex business case have been unsatisfactory”.</p>
<p>These two findings apply to the Western Harbour Tunnel process too.</p>
<p>In the run-up to the 2019 state election, the government promoted the project and placed on public exhibition an environmental impact statement for the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/abcillawarra/photos/a.170201826359012/1799373796775132/?type=3&eid=ARCxMdhfJzTCWlRd2sIUTVqLc7P-hfGmJAX00uY3WgnhS5zmMSeB-eYCCDmKAu9AjkfW_xUj3_IrdxXM">A$2.6 billion F6 extension</a> between Arncliffe and Kogarah.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335296/original/file-20200515-138615-1z0hr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1072&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The proposed Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/western-harbour-tunnel-beaches-link/index.html">Transport for NSW</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The state opposition promised to scrap the Western Harbour Tunnel and F6 projects. Instead, it would give priority to rail and public transport upgrades. </p>
<p>Some have <a href="https://theconversation.com/infrastructure-splurge-ignores-smarter-ways-to-keep-growing-cities-moving-105051">suggested time-of-day road congestion charges</a> as a much better option than more motorways.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-nsw-election-promises-on-transport-add-up-112531">How the NSW election promises on transport add up</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Local government objections</h2>
<p>Four councils made detailed objections to the Western Harbour Tunnel proposal. </p>
<p>The City of Sydney, noting “it has been a long-time critic of WestConnex”, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is primarily because this costly motorway project will fail in its primary objective of easing congestion. Urban motorways do not solve congestion; they <a href="https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/09/citylab-university-induced-demand/569455/">induce demand</a> for motor vehicle trips and any additional capacity created is quickly filled. This phenomenon applies equally to the Western Harbour Tunnel and Warringah Freeway Project, a component of the WestConnex expansion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The City of Sydney recommended the government provide alternative public transport options.</p>
<p>The Inner West Council, whose suburb of Rozelle will be adversely impacted by the project, has also long opposed inner-urban motorways. It prefers “traffic-reduction solutions to addressing congestion, including public and active transport, travel demand management and transit-oriented development, with some modest/targeted road improvement”.</p>
<p>North Sydney Council noted significant concerns with the EIS, including “inadequate justification and need, loss of open space, construction and operational road network impacts, air quality and human health concerns, environmental, visual, social, amenity and heritage impacts, as well as numerous strategic projects having the potential to be compromised”.</p>
<p>Willoughby City Council noted the limited time given for considering a very large EIS, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. It questioned why a public transport alternative was not assessed. “Known alternative solutions with lower climate impacts need to be considered to be consistent with action on climate change and improved resilience.”</p>
<h2>Ignoring the alternatives</h2>
<p>In 2017, it was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/f6-planners-told-to-ignore-public-transport-build-roads-documents-show-20170407-gvgbon.html">revealed</a> the NSW government was instructing transport officials to ignore public transport alternatives to motorways such as the F6 extension and Western Harbour Tunnel. Wollongong-Sydney train travel times could be cut by half an hour for A$10 billion less, according to a Transport for NSW internal memo. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-can-halve-train-travel-times-between-our-cities-by-moving-to-faster-rail-116512">We can halve train travel times between our cities by moving to faster rail</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is at a time when Sydney train ridership has been <a href="https://www.bitre.gov.au/publications/2019/yearbook_2019">increasing faster than the distance driven by Sydney motorists</a>. Rail showed 39% growth over ten years to 2018-19 and road just 12% in a time of rapid population growth.</p>
<p>Over many objections, the F6 extension is proceeding. Many aspects of the Western Harbour Tunnel need further attention. The NSW Ports Authority is concerned about the amount of highly <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/warning-about-amount-of-toxic-sludge-to-be-dug-up-for-harbour-tunnel-20200416-p54kd3.html">contaminated sludge that will be dredged up</a> from the harbour. The shadow minister for roads, John Graham, <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnGrahamALP/status/1251415324324319234">notes</a> dredging will be close to residential areas.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1251415324324319234"}"></div></p>
<p>Heritage NSW has noted the project will have direct impacts on six sites, including the approaches to Sydney Harbour Bridge.</p>
<p>The Action for Public Transport (NSW) group questions the influence of the Transurban company on transport planning at a time when NSW’s long-term integrated transport and land use plans aim for net zero emissions by 2050. Its submission says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The funding for the project should be reallocated to more worthwhile projects such as filling in missing links in urban public transport systems, disentangling the passenger rail network from the rail freight network, and providing faster rail links to regional centres.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/infrastructure-splurge-ignores-smarter-ways-to-keep-growing-cities-moving-105051">Infrastructure splurge ignores smarter ways to keep growing cities moving</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What are these other priorities?</h2>
<p>NSW has a shortage of “fit for purpose” rail infrastructure to serve a growing population. This includes the Sydney Metro West (an <a href="https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/project/25631">EIS is on exhibition</a>) and ensuring the new Western Sydney Airport has a rail service. More funding is also needed to upgrade the existing rail system and to cover a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/4-3-billion-cost-blowout-in-sydney-s-metro-rail-project">A$4.3 billion cost blowout</a> on the Sydney City and Southwest Metro project. </p>
<p>The government has <a href="https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/news-and-events/media-releases/fast-rail-network-to-transform-australia">acknowledged</a> a need for better rail services to the South Coast, Newcastle, Canberra and Orange. In 2018, it <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/projects/a-fast-rail-future-for-nsw">commissioned</a> an independent report on <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-04/fast-rail-given-green-light-by-berejiklian-without-commonwealth/10580658">fast rail options for NSW</a> by British fast rail expert <a href="https://static.nsw.gov.au/Fast-rail/1543351718/Expert-advice-on-fast-rail.pdf">Andrew McNaughton</a>. The completed report <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/faster-journeys-on-sydney-canberra-trains-among-priorities-20200225-p5444m.html">is yet to be released</a>. </p>
<p>The question now is should the Western Harbour Tunnel be abandoned or, at the very least, deferred until major rail projects have been completed.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>A reference to Western Highway Tunnel (which is of course the Western Harbour Tunnel) has been corrected in the last paragraph.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136836/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>
Philip Laird owns shares in some transport companies and has received funding from the two rail-related CRCs as well as the ARC and made a submission to the WHT proposal. He is affiliated, inter alia, Action for Public Transport (NSW) along with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, the Rail Futures Institute and Engineers Australia. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
</span></em></p>Once again, the state looks intent on pressing ahead with a huge road project without releasing a business case. Among the many concerns is the failure to look at lower-emission alternatives.Philip Laird, Honorary Principal Fellow, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/926822018-03-28T18:55:37Z2018-03-28T18:55:37ZHow the internet is reshaping World Heritage and our experience of it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212356/original/file-20180328-109193-dux85j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4254%2C2488&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many more people experience World Heritage sites like the Sydney Opera House in digital form than physically visit them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most people’s experience of World Heritage is now a digital one. Whether it’s on social media, an official website, Wikipedia or a simple Google search, this shift in “visitation” means many people who engage with <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/">World Heritage</a> will never physically travel to the actual site. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/committee/">UNESCO World Heritage Committee</a> is the top-tier organisation for the protection of natural and cultural heritage. To date, <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/">1,073 properties</a> have been listed for their significance to all of mankind. </p>
<p>The list includes many well-known ancient monuments like the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/86">Pyramids of Giza</a>, and the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/404">Parthenon</a>, and natural sites like <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/447">Uluru Kata-Tjuta</a>. Less frequently recognised are industrial sites like the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1221">Rideau Canal</a> and contemporary works of architecture such as the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/166">Sydney Opera House</a>. </p>
<p>The Sydney Opera House was listed in 2007, not only for its architectural and technical achievements as a masterpiece of modernism, but curiously also for its status as a world-famous iconic building. Digital visits to the Sydney Opera House now outnumber in-person visits by 16 to 1.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209802/original/file-20180311-30986-195xs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209802/original/file-20180311-30986-195xs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209802/original/file-20180311-30986-195xs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209802/original/file-20180311-30986-195xs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209802/original/file-20180311-30986-195xs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209802/original/file-20180311-30986-195xs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209802/original/file-20180311-30986-195xs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209802/original/file-20180311-30986-195xs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Everyday digital engagements with the Sydney Opera House online.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Digital engagement has a very broad reach</h2>
<p>By 2019, half of the world’s people will have <a href="https://www.smartinsights.com/search-engine-marketing/search-engine-statistics/">access to the internet</a>. For most, the internet is essential to everyday life. The impact of this exponential growth of the internet on people’s engagement with World Heritage has been overlooked. Yet it has the potential to tell us about the close connections people have with some of our most esteemed places.</p>
<p>Managing organisations are beginning to see the social and economic value of digital audiences. In 2013 the Sydney Opera House reported a digital reach of 128 million. <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/sydney-opera-house/articles/value-an-icon-sydney-opera-house.html">Deloitte</a> estimated this to be worth A$59 million. It’s the result of a media strategy to develop digital content, social media engagement, and participatory online events. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209801/original/file-20180311-30983-4z4gk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209801/original/file-20180311-30983-4z4gk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209801/original/file-20180311-30983-4z4gk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209801/original/file-20180311-30983-4z4gk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209801/original/file-20180311-30983-4z4gk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209801/original/file-20180311-30983-4z4gk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209801/original/file-20180311-30983-4z4gk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209801/original/file-20180311-30983-4z4gk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The official media channels of the Sydney Opera House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But this is not the whole story. What about all the things people do online outside of the Sydney Opera House’s formal social media channels?</p>
<p>We know that not everyone actively posts pictures, edits Wikipedia, or writes a blog. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_(Internet_culture)">1% rule</a> describes online participation. For every person who actively contributes content, nine others will like it. Another 90 will simply view the originally posted content.</p>
<p>Adding up the number of followers across the official Sydney Opera House social media accounts (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/sydneyoperahouse/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/SydOperaHouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sydneyoperahouse/?hl=en">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/sydneyoperahouse">YouTube</a>) gives us an immediate audience of about 1.67 million. Using the 1% rule, this extrapolates to 167 million, which is similar to Deloitte’s 2013 figure. This is almost seven times Australia’s population and equivalent to 2% of the world population. World Heritage has never been so visible! </p>
<p>But numbers are not the only story here. While impressive, they don’t tell us how people feel connected with such places.</p>
<h2>What can the internet tell us?</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=AuI2DwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">recent research</a> investigates online forms of participation with the Sydney Opera House. Combining digital ethnography and data analytics enables us to better understand the social value of architectural icons and the implications for World Heritage. </p>
<p>Popular depictions of the Sydney Opera House posted <a href="https://www.pinterest.com.au/cristinagardunofreeman/">online</a> include <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/43295534@N00/253632571/in/photolist-opW8n-9a7A7w-BniD2-nmgCCJ-7G53Sm-9a7A25-qQ145U-4UPNt2-2j1FwW-7gUmNp-9a4r1Z-VrsJtx-UpFPF2-VcNrUZ-5RhidZ-7Wk9qr-7MYBsd-duoCGz-2iWegP-9a4sbD-HKqBc-9a4rnT-HCddp-9a7zjA-5F1y92-pgeXxn-5WXbr3-5XfMis-8FKdpS-UmAAb5-5UwePA-9a7zVo-a8Zvkv-7USA32-6vSb2C-2ymeyt-9a4rwP-87sfjV-VsYRL2-24JFAnb-9a4rsn-6dPofc-te8fR5-53xhE4-9a4qZp-9a7zJh-9a4rbF-9a4r7a-9a7AK9-7N62hq">photographs</a>, <a href="http://www.sprinklebakes.com/2010/05/sydney-opera-house-opera-cake.html">cakes</a>, <a href="http://www.artquotes.net/masters/whiteley/opera-house-painting.htm">artworks</a>, <a href="http://www.miroslavsasek.com/books/thisis/australia.html">children’s books</a>, <a href="https://shop.lego.com/en-AU/Sydney-Opera-House-21012">Lego</a>, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/yewenyi/2215433169/in/faves-68323788@N00/">other buildings</a> and <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/image-gallery/69d756fcced58b51cbafe22c9d626683">hats</a>. By examining these we can understand people’s values and how they engage with this World Heritage site in everyday activities and in the process reshape the narratives being told.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209803/original/file-20180311-30989-77fxca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209803/original/file-20180311-30989-77fxca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209803/original/file-20180311-30989-77fxca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209803/original/file-20180311-30989-77fxca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209803/original/file-20180311-30989-77fxca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209803/original/file-20180311-30989-77fxca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209803/original/file-20180311-30989-77fxca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Six ways in which people engage with the Sydney Opera House revealed through their online participation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Close examination of online posts and activities reveals communities of people passionate about the Sydney Opera House. Participatory platforms such as Wikipedia and Flickr are filled with people dedicated to telling a comprehensive historically and visually accurate story about this place. But people are also discerning; they highlight that a single building cannot fully represent their city.</p>
<p>Brands and organisations also reference the form of the Sydney Opera House in their logo types to gain cultural capital. Examples include the <a href="http://www.sydneyswans.com.au/">Sydney Swans</a>, <a href="http://www.mardigras.org.au/">Sydney Mardi Gras</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Summer_Olympics">Sydney 2000 Olympics</a>. The varied references to this place in many different contexts show its power to create a social connection that transcends borders.</p>
<h2>What are the implications for World Heritage?</h2>
<p>A World Heritage listing <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781134784301/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315546322-7">brings an increase in visibility and visits</a>. A listed site gains international recognition and cultural status as well as economic benefits through tourism. </p>
<p>In the decade since the Sydney Opera House became a World Heritage site, annual visitors have doubled from <a href="https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/content/dam/pdfs/annual-reports/Annual-Report-2006-2007.pdf">4 million</a> to <a href="https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/content/dam/pdfs/annual-reports/Sydney_Opera_House_Annual_Report_2015-16.pdf">8.2 million</a>, audiences have grown from 1.2 to 1.5 million, and tours of the building have increased by a third.</p>
<p>But World Heritage status comes with a need to preserve and conserve the listed site. For the Sydney Opera House, this means maintaining its iconic status. </p>
<p>My research demonstrates how people’s participation through popular culture helps to maintain this iconic status. Through posting pictures on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/sydneyoperahouse/">Instagram</a>, or making “<a href="https://laughingkidslearn.com/sydney-opera-house-hat-made-from-paper-plates/">opera-house-shaped things</a>” and sharing them online, people integrate this icon into their daily lives. But this also challenges the building’s <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/iconic-image-of-opera-house-no-longer-public/news-story/0382379a80962710a1febeb1c504a43d?sv=8cb5ad3ea097593b05cda7da15d022fd">copyright</a>, which underpins corporate partnerships that provide funding in exchange for affiliation.</p>
<p>Further, tourism can threaten the conservation of World Heritage properties. Too many visitors and excessive development puts pressure on local communities, management and facilities. </p>
<p>International visibility can also make properties <a href="https://theconversation.com/explained-strategy-behind-the-battle-to-rescue-the-ruins-of-palmyra-56948">targets of political destruction</a>. This raises questions about how World Heritage status is given and its implications for conservation in an increasingly digitally mediated world.</p>
<p>The Sydney Opera House always held the promise of transformation of Sydney. Now global online communities are transforming it. In our inevitable digital future, what role people will play in ascribing and maintaining World Heritage status?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92682/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cristina Garduño Freeman has recently published a book on the Sydney Opera House with Routledge (UK), for which she receives minimal royalties on sales. The research in this publication was funded by an Australian Postgraduate Award (2007-2013), a University of Technology, Sydney, Top-up Scholarship, and a publication grant from The University of Melbourne. Cristina Garduño Freeman is a member of Australia ICOMOS.</span></em></p>Many more people experience World Heritage online than in person. While that further elevates the status of iconic sites like the Sydney Opera House, it has other more complicated consequences too.Cristina Garduño Freeman, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH), The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/561272016-03-11T04:15:00Z2016-03-11T04:15:00ZUtzon Lecture: Re-imagining the Harbour City<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114757/original/image-20160310-26268-1wikwz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sydney Harbour is arguably the city's only truly great public space.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/6952368520/in/photolist-bAmGWL-du9x25-64Kaqc-q1QVUp-pPNrNR-4PmhCJ-3GHU2-2mzFBP-zB1uh5-cKNSi7-qZ5BW-qMFgaA-rbT9VT-ocmneQ-86uk8L-3GHWx-3GHTM-ekjuq4-4NQA75-zUwhpt-8XYW-9ERbPa-3GHUD-9VESG-pEoZvN-DcSoi1-7hXhTD-r9P4Eq-9hRYSW-9hRZbd-3GHWa-5Lv7Tx-3K785q-ntWpSG-mphuMV-86ukew-e6va5W-4LzQ8s-ks7GyP-gMhhk7-cKNRK3-4Uwzr8-re6EY-98aY3X-anCMUR-9kPTN8-682m2F-3GHVm-bcSpqi-MHnUY">flickr/Duncan Hull</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is an edited excerpt from the annual Paul Reid Lecture in Urban Design delivered at UNSW in Sydney on Wednesday, March 9, as part of the Utzon Lecture Series.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The harbour is arguably Sydney’s only truly great public space. And, perhaps, its most contested.</p>
<p>Despite this, the harbour has retained an enduring resilience, beauty and value. The power of social activism, conscious design and continued investment in the public domain have all been instrumental in keeping it that way.</p>
<p>But now, more than ever, the accelerated pace of change and the pressure to become a global city have increasingly resulted in the adoption of international development models and a move to market-led infrastructure provision. This is shifting the focus from public to private interests, from government as promoter to government as client, with mixed results.</p>
<p>The harbour’s future is at a critical point if we are not to lose what we value most.</p>
<p>Over 20 years, I have been instrumental in shaping more places around Sydney Harbour than most. I have had many diverse roles and developed strategies, plans and urban projects from Manly to Parramatta, some the breadth of Sydney Harbour, some site-specific master plans and others small-scale interventions within the public domain.</p>
<p>Many have been realised, but just as many remain in the bottom drawer, shelf-ready should the political winds change. Great initiatives often never see the light of day. Some great ideas resurface again and again before the timing is right to be implemented. Sadly but more frequently, an outcome that is less than ideal wins the day.</p>
<p>One of my most significant roles was as part of the Sydney Harbour Design Review Panel established in 1997, to lift the design standards of strategic sites around the harbour. We established and applied consistent design principles that responded to the character of the harbour landscape and terrain, by ensuring new development was scaled down to the harbour so that views were shared and the waterfront was public and accessible to all.</p>
<p>The most successful outcomes of my career have been where the planning and procurement processes supported these design fundamentals. In every one of these roles I have gained insights into how the politics play out.</p>
<p>As a consequence of this long association with the harbour, I have developed a considerable understanding of this unique place – its attributes, its challenges and its possibilities.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/01qy1Q3n3oQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Helen Lochhead delivers her lecture, ‘Reimagining the Harbour City’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who looks out for this contested space?</h2>
<p>There is no doubt the public domain is contested space and Sydney Harbour, being the jewel in Sydney’s crown, is the most contested space in this city. So who is watching out for it?</p>
<p>The provocateurs and civic conscience safeguarding the genius loci of Sydney Harbour have often been architects, planners and conservationists (including resident action groups, greenies and unions) who have not only challenged the prevailing opinions but proposed alternative ideas. Not all good, not all realised, but harbour speculations have been part of our recurring cultural narrative and ensured robust debate that has provoked the government to act.</p>
<p>Much of the development of Sydney Harbour has been achieved with the alignment of successive governments, whose commitment to public policy and projects of vision, substance and design intent have made them happen. As a result, we have a legacy of significant urban projects, like the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, that have shaped the unique form and identity of our harbour setting and elevated our position on the global stage.</p>
<p>Recent additions to the harbour range from the nature reserves and remediated landscapes of Sydney Olympic Park, to the carefully regenerated Defence lands of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust and the nuanced re-interpretations of our industrial heritage at Ballast and Pyrmont Points, Glebe and Cockatoo Island. The latest is the much-debated simulated landscape of Barangaroo Headland Park.</p>
<p>What is clear to me is that the harbour’s enduring resilience and beauty is due, in no small part, to this strategic investment in the public domain by all levels of government, despite often competing political views.</p>
<p>Despite the city’s early focus on the harbour as a place of commerce, transport and industry, we have today our amazing legacy of an accessible and green foreshore setting. It is clear this has been no accident; it has happened by design.</p>
<p>Yet, even with the best of intentions, like all post-industrial cities Sydney has had to deal with the tension of competing agendas throughout its history: economic growth versus environmental protection, public versus private interests, conservation versus renewal.</p>
<p>At key moments, these tensions have spawned civic awakening, discourse and demonstration that resulted in pivotal transformation around the harbour.</p>
<h2>A history of conflict, missteps and triumphs</h2>
<p>As early as the 19th century, emergent environmentalists were pitted against proposed coal-mining interests in Sydney Harbour and were instrumental in conserving the Cremorne peninsula.</p>
<p>The movement against privatisation of the harbour foreshores strengthened towards the end of the 19th century. With it emerged champions such as Niels Nielsen (the then NSW Secretary of Lands) who resumed key foreshore sites, notably Neilson Park and Bradley’s Head. </p>
<p>This came at a time when the town planning movement was first making its mark with a major focus on open space – by providing it, resuming it and reclaiming it. The public debate across the decades is testament to the value placed on this extraordinary asset.</p>
<p>This chapter in Sydney’s early history was a barometer for the future. An imperative to act, to challenge the status quo, has been born from both threats as well as opportunity.</p>
<p>The slum clearance and redevelopment of the The Rocks at the turn of the 20th century, following the outbreak of plague, was as much an imperative to modernise and to drive economic growth at all costs. The government response included a rationalisation of harbour management through the creation of the <a href="http://dictionaryofsydney.org/organisation/sydney_ports_corporation">Sydney Harbour Trust</a> and the wholesale redevelopment of the deep-water berths in Darling Harbour and Walsh Bay.</p>
<p>Opportunity came in various guises. Major events, such as the Bicentennial and 2000 Olympics, recalibrated our focus on public life. </p>
<p>This was when the pursuit of design quality moved from being a perceived barrier to economic growth to a prerequisite for global competitiveness, international investment and tourism. Both Darling Harbour and Circular Quay were the beneficiaries.</p>
<p>Darling Harbour was a flagship urban renewal project of the time with its iconic maritime-influenced architecture capturing local and international acclaim. It was an ambitious bid by the state government to make Sydney an international convention and tourist destination complete with high design aspirations, as evidenced by the engagement of notables in Sydney’s planning and design community.</p>
<p>While Darling Harbour’s failings are rooted in its disconnect from the city streets that feed it, and its lack of real city uses, it provided an open and egalitarian environment. For 1980s Sydney it was, for all its flaws, a significant achievement, and it brought people to the harbour in droves.</p>
<p>Importantly, it set up the framework for future waterfront connections to Pyrmont in the west and to Barangaroo, Walsh Bay and Circular Quay to the east.</p>
<p>The next-generation urban-renewal project, Barangaroo, has an equally synthetic premise, albeit market-led and at mega-scale. It is distinct and separate from the city, in its form, scale and expression. It imbues an international urban brand more than any recognisable Sydney identity.</p>
<p>Both these waterfont precincts are in sharp contrast to the places around the harbour that are both layered in history and interspersed with new development and public domain that is both well designed and sympathetic with the underlying fabric of Sydney’s foreshores.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114808/original/image-20160311-11277-11evqmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114808/original/image-20160311-11277-11evqmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114808/original/image-20160311-11277-11evqmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114808/original/image-20160311-11277-11evqmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114808/original/image-20160311-11277-11evqmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114808/original/image-20160311-11277-11evqmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114808/original/image-20160311-11277-11evqmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114808/original/image-20160311-11277-11evqmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Framed by two other icons, Circular Quay demands a compelling and integrated vision for this most authentic waterfront.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most iconic and authentic waterfront, of course, is Circular Quay. The city’s gateway, is a transport hub as well as a place of public life and celebration. </p>
<p>The precinct has been the focus of a number of makeovers. Both the Bicentennial and the Olympics were a stimulus for improvements to Circular Quay that elevated it from a place of transit into a much-loved destination.</p>
<p>Despite its great DNA and framing by Sydney’s two icons, the bridge and the Opera House, there have been missed opportunities to deliver a compelling, integrated strategy for the precinct. Let’s hope the future of Circular Quay is not just a future of irregular upgrade works and clean-ups.</p>
<p>The most recent drive for Sydney to become a global city has more than ever before resulted in the importation of other international paradigms and a move from locally distinctive to globally ubiquitous environments. This has had mixed results. Witness Barangaroo.</p>
<p>Yet the significance of Sydney Harbour cannot be underestimated, for Sydney-siders and visitors alike. It is one of the places that can and should be enjoyed by all.</p>
<p>So let’s not rely on predictable paradigms to shape our city. Instead, let’s continue to fight for and re-imagine the harbour city we want. </p>
<p>The key to maintaining the harbour’s identity is to sustain the unique and particular, the ordinary and extraordinary, its beauty and delight. All of which make this one of the most liveable cities in the world, and that is Sydney’s cachet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56127/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Lochhead does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Under pressure to be a global city, market-led infrastructure provision is shifting the focus from public to private interests, from government as promoter to government as client, with mixed results.Helen Lochhead, Dean, Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/381722015-03-01T19:29:07Z2015-03-01T19:29:07ZSydney risks becoming a dumb, disposable city for the rich<p>The New South Wales government has <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/powerhouse-museum-site-in-ultimo-to-be-sold-to-developers-20150226-13pn5o.html">announced</a> plans to sell off the Ultimo site of the Powerhouse Museum, part of the <a href="http://maas.museum/">Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences</a>, and use the money to fund a new museum in western Sydney. The last part is positive – the rest would be a mistake.</p>
<p>It is commendable that the government is proposing major cultural institutions in western Sydney, particularly in centres like Parramatta. As David Borger, Western Sydney director of the Sydney Business Chamber, has <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/underinvestment-in-the-arts-is-holding-western-sydney-back-20150225-13ojss.html">argued</a> persuasively in The Sydney Morning Herald, there has been chronic underinvestment in the city’s populous west.</p>
<p>But to sell the Ultimo Powerhouse is wrong-headed – a mishmash of wedge politics and bad policy. Governments should understand that cities take decades and centuries to evolve, and that such rash decisions are at the expense of future generations.</p>
<h2>A city of mistakes</h2>
<p>As <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/powerhouse-museum-site-in-ultimo-to-be-sold-to-developers-20150226-13pn5o.html">reported</a>, the Ultimo site would go to developers for an optimistic A$200 million or so, most likely for apartments. However, the Powerhouse’s rare grandeur makes it manifestly unsuited to such a conversion. It’s ideal for its current purpose – as a major museum or other cultural institution.</p>
<p>To gut such a public asset would perpetuate recent blatant mistakes such as Darling Harbour and <a href="http://www.barangaroo.com/">Barangaroo</a>. In such characteristic parts of the city we need a balance of public and private. Yet increasingly government is missing in action, wantonly trading prized public places and forgoing the role civic elements play in intelligent city making.</p>
<p>Look at the smash-up at Darling Harbour. Why fashion a dumb, disposable city, where speculation is prioritised and where a slew of major public facilities are treated as discount commodities? As the best contemporary urban projects demonstrate, building a vibrant city balances economic decisions with thought-through cultural, social and environmental priorities.</p>
<p>For Sydney, Barangaroo represents the nadir. On 22 hectares of public land stretching along 1.2 kilometres of our city’s most available waterfront, the favoured developers have been gifted seemingly unfettered rights to build as they please. James Packer’s proposed <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/james-packers-barangaroo-casino-approval-one-of-the-fastest-in-history-chief-regulator-says-20140811-102qzt.html">tower</a>, stuffed with a hotel, casino and units, poses as the pinnacle of greed. </p>
<p>It should not have been like that. In our international competition-winning <a href="http://www.hillthalis.com.au/?id=39">design</a> for the Barangaroo site in 2006, we proposed that the entire foreshore be inalienable public parkland, linked to the city by a network of generous public streets and new public transport. But this plan was soon sold out by dubious ministers and their inept agencies, bent on promoting development interests at the public’s expense.</p>
<h2>Get the balance right</h2>
<p>People are attracted to places that mix public and private spaces and activities, a theme explored in our book <a href="http://www.hillthalis.com.au/index.php?id=114">Public Sydney</a>. Instead of the sterile concept of a CBD (central business district), the city centre is really our social heart, all the better for being a magnet for events and demonstrations, the centre of politics and religion, our most historic place and the epicentre of public transport. There’s plentiful research that supports culture’s role in making cities attractive places to be. </p>
<p>Too many government advisers dishearteningly lack public imagination – the ability to conceive and articulate engaging ideas to make a better life for all. Instead, a stymied agenda is held captive by cartels of self-interest that so dominate many aspects of life in Australia, be it the media, banks, airlines, supermarkets or infrastructure. </p>
<p>On urban issues, the real estate industry’s spivs and spruikers declaim that development drives all. But why let their spin profit at our expense? People make the city and it belongs to us – people involved in all modes of exchange, in living, walking, creating and visiting public places. Developers reap their benefits from places already teeming with life and enriched by public transport, institutions, spaces and natural beauty – that is, underpinned by public investment.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73304/original/image-20150227-16175-kx1a04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73304/original/image-20150227-16175-kx1a04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73304/original/image-20150227-16175-kx1a04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73304/original/image-20150227-16175-kx1a04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73304/original/image-20150227-16175-kx1a04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73304/original/image-20150227-16175-kx1a04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73304/original/image-20150227-16175-kx1a04.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Powerhouse Museum, part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, belongs to a culture and science precinct in Ultimo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/threthny/5776491048/in/photolist-9Ns2xf-dZtGXt-4CRth6-57BS89-d82Uoq-b1NDue-aYbrVa-aXECJt-b1MZte-aVWeyP-bt4d6E-6NgESZ-6NgB5t-6NgzKc-6NkSPN-6NkSBf-6NgFJz-bt4cGs-bsyKRf-b1MYQP-aWy4Gx-aVWeiB-bENekD-bENecT-brTmVQ-brTmzW-bENfgT-bENf4P-bENeJn-bENeoH-brTmab-bENf9g-brTmXS-brTmHd-brTmDC-brTn2S-bENfot-bENeMn-brTney-bENfkg-brTmjf-6NkP8s-bt4dpj-bt4cPJ-5vSEwW-eBoGnb-9qcfW6-4yEGiF-5Eyb5T-6wjvKJ/">Threthny</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Powerhouse Museum, part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, belongs to a culture and science precinct in Ultimo. </p>
<p>Some suggest that the Museum’s Ultimo location is inconvenient. While Harris Street remains dominated by traffic, access is improving with the construction of the <a href="http://www.shfa.nsw.gov.au/sydney-Our_places_and_projects-Our_projects-The_Goods_Line.htm">Goods Line</a> pedestrian corridor and the extension of the nearby light rail line through the inner west.</p>
<p>There should be a great synergy of important institutions along Harris Street with the Powerhouse, the ABC, the University of Technology Sydney and the TAFE coming together to form a science, design, media and education precinct. Fantastic connections wait to be made between those institutions. Removing the museum would delete a crucial part of that grouping.</p>
<p>Couldn’t the museum be in both Parramatta and Ultimo? The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences <a href="http://maas.museum/about/">collection</a> has well over 500,000 objects, with only a fraction on display. Surely there’s enough material for an expanded Powerhouse with two genuine bases, each with its particular focus. After all, many such major institutions around the world occupy multiple sites in inventive ways.</p>
<h2>Sell, sell, sell – why this obsession?</h2>
<p>The major political parties seem wedded to an ideologically driven obsession to privatise public spaces – including the Powerhouse Museum site in Ultimo, other harbour-front sites, <a href="http://www.heritagespace.com.au/news/499-state-government-sale-of-bridge-street-buildings">Bridge Street’s</a> magnificent array of sandstone heritage buildings, public housing at <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/no-fancy-extensions-city-of-sydney-tells-new-millers-point-buyers-20141026-11a00v.html">Miller’s Point</a>. Such sales are peddled on the thinnest of short-term economic analyses, discounting the broader values of such assets over longer time frames.</p>
<p>Public assets are hard won and once sold, or leased, near-impossible to reclaim. Surely the well-documented unpopularity of asset sales is because the public intuitively understands that you don’t willingly flog your assets at bargain prices – rather, you patiently save for them. That attitude should prevail for unique treasures like the Ultimo Powerhouse.</p>
<p>Some in government seem to think that beautiful buildings on prime public land seem to be somehow wasted on us citizens, we who are the actual owners. But why vest the privileged parts of our city as playthings of the affluent, exclusive enclaves of high-priced consumption? We should instead proclaim our rights to the equitable, sustainable, democratic mix of the open city.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In 2006, Philip Thalis, along with colleagues Jane Irwin and Paul Berkemeier, won the international design competition to revitalise Barangaroo. He co-authored with Peter John Cantrill the book Public Sydney: Drawing the City, which was part-funded by Sydney Living Museums, UNSW Built Environment and the City of Sydney.</span></em></p>The major political parties seem captive to an ideologically driven obsession to privatise public spaces – including the Powerhouse Museum site in Ultimo and other harbour-front sites.Philip Thalis, Architecture Faculty Industry Advisory Group member, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/330922014-11-13T19:32:58Z2014-11-13T19:32:58ZMarine parks for fish and people: here’s how to do it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64445/original/py8bgbp5-1415849683.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NSW is considering a marine park for Sydney Harbour. But have we learnt from our past mistakes?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hindmarsh/12197895894">Peter Hindmarsh</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As thousands gather for the World Parks Congress in Sydney, there are growing calls for a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/calls-for-sydney-marine-park-to-protect-remaining-habitat-20141111-11khse.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nc&eid=socialn%3Atwi-13omn1677-edtrl-other%3Annn-17%2F02%2F2014-edtrs_socialshare-all-nnn-nnn-vars-o%26sa%3DD%26usg%3DALhdy28zsr6qiq">new marine park</a> in Sydney Harbour. New South Wales’s Labor opposition has promised, if elected, <a href="http://lukefoley.com.au/labor-to-protect-sydney-harbour-for-enjoyment-of-future-generations-with-creation-of-a-sydney-marine-park">to establish the park</a>, and there is speculation the state government will announce its own plan at the congress. </p>
<p>But marine parks have <a href="https://theconversation.com/go-fish-why-fishers-dont-care-for-marine-parks-14558">proved controversial</a> in NSW, culminating in sanctuary zones (where fishing was banned) being <a href="https://theconversation.com/recreational-fishing-in-marine-parks-you-cant-be-serious-12785">opened to recreational fishers</a> last year. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the federal government is reviewing the management of Australia’s commonwealth marine parks. New management plans proposed under the previous Labor government have been suspended, effectively leaving a system of parks “<a href="https://theconversation.com/marine-park-review-looks-set-to-repeat-past-mistakes-32869">on paper</a>”, with little protection. </p>
<p>So how can we get marine parks right? </p>
<h2>Why fishers don’t like marine parks</h2>
<p>Allowing recreational fishing in sanctuary zones is the latest move in the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aqc.2469/abstract">troubled history of NSW marine parks</a>. Since 2009 we’ve seen three reviews, marine parks transferred from the state environment department to primary industries, a moratorium on new marine parks, and disbanding of the Marine Park Authority.</p>
<p>There has also been a shift away from using marine parks to insure against potential future threats such as unforeseen changes in fishing technology and growing coastal populations (known as a “precautionary approach”) to justifying the need for marine parks by <a href="http://www.marine.nsw.gov.au/">assessing current threats and risks</a>. </p>
<p>What went wrong?</p>
<p>First, the success of marine parks is often judged on the proportion of parks set aside as “sanctuary” or “no-take” zones, where fishing is prohibited.</p>
<p>But there is no scientific agreement on just what this figure should be. Opponents of fishing bans argued that these targets were being used in places, such as beaches, where there a few if any known threats to biodiversity. They are also home to mostly migratory species, unlikely to benefit from fishing bans in small areas. </p>
<p>Second, people had negative experiences with marine parks. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aqc.2363/abstract">In interviews</a> recreational, commercial and Indigenous fishers reported more inconvenience and less enjoyment, negative effects on livelihoods, lifestyle and well-being, and negative impacts on their practice of culture. This fuelled opposition to marine parks. </p>
<p>Instead of doing a dedicated <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X11001370">social impact assessments</a>, the government simply did consultations and public discussions. And economic forecasts didn’t capture the individual importance of particular traditions, places, food items, or cultural practises. </p>
<p>Third, the case against marine parks was led by a vocal minority, heavily <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0964569113002093">grounded in ideology and politics</a>. Community surveys reveal that the majority of coastal communities support bans on fishing in marine parks. But these views were likely discouraged by louder voices. </p>
<h2>What does the science say?</h2>
<p>Fishing bans are justified scientifically on protecting marine wildlife and ecosystems. But <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X12000413">some marine scientists</a> argue that this approach unfairly targets fishing as the major threat to marine biodiversity when, in fact, there are a range of threats and fishing can be managed to be ecologically sustainable. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64444/original/t969t9sb-1415846739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64444/original/t969t9sb-1415846739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64444/original/t969t9sb-1415846739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64444/original/t969t9sb-1415846739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64444/original/t969t9sb-1415846739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64444/original/t969t9sb-1415846739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64444/original/t969t9sb-1415846739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marine parks help to protect our native species, like these Southern Yellowtailed Scad in New South Wales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pacificklaus/9640902375/in/photolist-fFW9oK-et3Mh-fPRFqG-6GqeuN-6GqbLs-6pbWdU-kPnirv-6Gm9nr-6Gmate-7Ggs9G-6Gm8Ae-egUieh-6GqdLU-kPnm2F-gQLjS6-kPmzUz-kPnjPR-6pbVZd-6GqcH3-6i57SA-6GmaaZ-6pbWkG-ipSiz-6GqcVy-6p7NdP-pvxGwd-asT1RU-puBac4-63exnx-4qoeQA-2Jsjp9-fQeqB2-8mxzUT-73xhBH-72ETZ5-invrW4-6ZtKf2-72ETVL-6ZxKum-i9RgRb-ifXqaC-ihdYUi-8AesUC-hNPjt-73BgFJ-6ZaTvA-7GcuYg-6p7N7n">Klaus Stiefel</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Marine parks were justified by evidence from other countries of the impacts of over-fishing, and evidence that, globally, <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v506/n7487/full/nature13022.html">no-take zones work</a>. But there was a lack of local NSW evidence. </p>
<p>Although the scrutiny was justified, it overshadowed debate about the other values of no-take zones:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Protecting critical habitats (such as spawning sites and sites important for threatened species) </p></li>
<li><p>Maintaining undisturbed reference sites for research, education, monitoring</p></li>
<li><p>Providing wilderness experiences. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Instead of justifying the need for marine parks for biodiversity conservation, many marine park proponents argued that banning fishing in some areas would lead to more fish for fishers in others. There was, however, little evidence for these benefits, and none from NSW.</p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>The past five years in NSW show that marine parks need both ecological justification (for the fish) and social acceptance (for the fishers) — also known as <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X14002371">social license</a>. </p>
<p>Here are four ways to make things better:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Assess the costs and benefits of marine parks: ecological, social and economic, all in one</p></li>
<li><p>Consult a range of views, not just the loud voices</p></li>
<li><p>Make marine parks not just about marine wildlife, but about fishing too. So a marine park could conserve a spawning area of a favourite local fish</p></li>
<li><p>Analyse the impact of only assessing current threats and risk, as opposed to potential future threats and risks such as growing coastal populations and urban spread.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>When thinking about new marine parks, we need to translate the scientific knowledge that we have into socially acceptable responses, and incorporate social, cultural and economic knowledge into the existing suite of biological knowledge. </p>
<p>We also need to get better at explaining how marine parks affect different people. This may ultimately mean being flexible and open minded about the best long term means of protection within marine parks. </p>
<p>But unless we do this, we will continue to see conflict in NSW’s and Australia’s marine parks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33092/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Gladstone has previously conducted research funded by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and is a memebr of the Temperate East Bioregional Advisory Panel to the current Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Voyer has previously conducted research funded by the NSW Department of Primary
Industries and is currently employed on a research project funded by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.</span></em></p>As thousands gather for the World Parks Congress in Sydney, there are growing calls for a new marine park in Sydney Harbour. New South Wales’s Labor opposition has promised, if elected, to establish the…William Gladstone, Professor and Head of School of the Environment, University of Technology SydneyMichelle Voyer, Assistant researcher, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218922014-01-14T19:32:48Z2014-01-14T19:32:48ZHarbour life: tracing early Sydney’s watery history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39006/original/pzk9s56h-1389661363.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This picture, from a trove of historic Sydney Harbour photos, shows the ferry South Steyne rounding Bennelong Point. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Andrews 'Working Harbour' Collection, City of Sydney Archives</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Never mind the bush and the outback – Sydneysiders were a maritime people from the start.</p>
<p>For proof, browse through the Working Harbour collection, 10,000 images of Sydney’s maritime history recently donated by the collector and historian Graeme Andrews to the City of Sydney <a href="http://photosau.com.au/cos/scripts/home.asp">archives</a>. Search for the phrase “Graeme Andrews” and you’ll find a brilliant portal to Sydney’s maritime past. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39018/original/v8sp724h-1389669711.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39018/original/v8sp724h-1389669711.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39018/original/v8sp724h-1389669711.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39018/original/v8sp724h-1389669711.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39018/original/v8sp724h-1389669711.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39018/original/v8sp724h-1389669711.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39018/original/v8sp724h-1389669711.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39018/original/v8sp724h-1389669711.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Island Princess with Nicholsons Promise in 1975.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Andrews 'Working Harbour' Collection, City of Sydney Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The collection connects us to a very old history. Sydney’s Indigenous inhabitants, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eora">Eora</a>, were saltwater people, as much at home on the waters of harbour and rivers as on dry land. Children grew up partly in bark canoes called nowies and learned to fish from their earliest years, the girls with lines and shell hooks, the boys with shell-tipped spears.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39020/original/653yms2k-1389669998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39020/original/653yms2k-1389669998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39020/original/653yms2k-1389669998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39020/original/653yms2k-1389669998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39020/original/653yms2k-1389669998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39020/original/653yms2k-1389669998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39020/original/653yms2k-1389669998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39020/original/653yms2k-1389669998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A houseboat called Dreamland, moored at Cowan Creek, 1910.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Andrews 'Working Harbour' Collection, City of Sydney Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The early colonial settlers of the 1800s were also waterbound and waterborne – everyone in Sydney-town got around in boats in those years. Most of the early explorations were by water too, via Parramatta River, Pittwater, Broken Bay, and the mighty Hawkesbury River, when settlers finally found its mouth on an exploratory expedition in June 1789.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39019/original/c83jrfzz-1389669868.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39019/original/c83jrfzz-1389669868.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39019/original/c83jrfzz-1389669868.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39019/original/c83jrfzz-1389669868.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39019/original/c83jrfzz-1389669868.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39019/original/c83jrfzz-1389669868.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39019/original/c83jrfzz-1389669868.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39019/original/c83jrfzz-1389669868.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cabarita Gardens, a well-patronised harbourside picnic ground.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Andrews 'Working Harbour' Collection, City of Sydney Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All the houses in the town faced out over the water towards the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Heads">Heads</a> that form the entrance to Sydney Harbour. South Head was the town’s eye, watching the ocean for the first sight of a sail. When the signal came from the flagstaff, the entire town would erupt in joy.</p>
<p>Australia’s first city grew limpet-like around the long headlands and deep bays, as wharves, slips and stores and then noxious industries such as abbatoirs encrusted the shorelines.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39007/original/mq8mrx49-1389661663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39007/original/mq8mrx49-1389661663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39007/original/mq8mrx49-1389661663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39007/original/mq8mrx49-1389661663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39007/original/mq8mrx49-1389661663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39007/original/mq8mrx49-1389661663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39007/original/mq8mrx49-1389661663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39007/original/mq8mrx49-1389661663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Well-loaded, the ferry North Head nears Fort Denison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Andrews 'Working Harbour' Collection, City of Sydney Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The waterside industries sprouted whole suburbs, such as the inner west districts of Balmain and Pyrmont, and Mortlake further west. Right up until the 1880s, around 80% of Sydney’s people lived within walking distance of Sydney Harbour. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39005/original/rjwxjpvx-1389661198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39005/original/rjwxjpvx-1389661198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39005/original/rjwxjpvx-1389661198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39005/original/rjwxjpvx-1389661198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39005/original/rjwxjpvx-1389661198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39005/original/rjwxjpvx-1389661198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39005/original/rjwxjpvx-1389661198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39005/original/rjwxjpvx-1389661198.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Harbour Bridge under construction, 1928.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Andrews 'Working Harbour' Collection, City of Sydney Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sure, the wealthy and privileged built their romantic villas on the heights, but ordinary folk had access to the waters too, for work, rest and play. </p>
<p>People always had to cross from shore to shore, so the ferries were an intrinsic part of Sydney, from the first ex-convict boatmen to the mighty fleet of double-ended ferries which carried up to 47 million passengers a year before the Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened in 1932.</p>
<p>Today, most Sydney people travel by car, and they live too far from the harbour for it to be part of their everyday life – except at festival-time, when hundreds of thousands gather on the foreshores and the fireworks light up a million upturned faces.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39003/original/yf3rxw5v-1389660533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39003/original/yf3rxw5v-1389660533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39003/original/yf3rxw5v-1389660533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39003/original/yf3rxw5v-1389660533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39003/original/yf3rxw5v-1389660533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39003/original/yf3rxw5v-1389660533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39003/original/yf3rxw5v-1389660533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39003/original/yf3rxw5v-1389660533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A ferry interior, 1980.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Andrews 'Working Harbour' Collection, City of Sydney Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet the ferries still ply the waters, and Sydneysiders hold them in great affection. They featured in song, such as folk singer Bernard Boland’s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm6FLf_0rI0">Rose Bay Ferry</a> with its doctors and accountants yearning to head out to the open sea instead of their city offices.</p>
<p>The Manly ferry was immortalised in the 1966 film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061087/">They’re a Weird Mob</a>, during the scene in which a loudmouthed Aussie drunk insults a cultured Italian family in the best old vaudevillian style (he ends up overboard, of course).</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38997/original/8jj9xz6t-1389658789.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38997/original/8jj9xz6t-1389658789.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38997/original/8jj9xz6t-1389658789.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38997/original/8jj9xz6t-1389658789.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38997/original/8jj9xz6t-1389658789.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38997/original/8jj9xz6t-1389658789.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38997/original/8jj9xz6t-1389658789.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The tugboat St Giles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Andrews 'Working Harbour' Collection: 81045, City of Sydney Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Maybe affection for ferries is a global human trait. US transcendentalist and poet Walt Whitman was passionate about ferries too. For him, they were “inimitable, streaming, never-failing, living poems”. Anyone who has ever watched the lighted ferries streaming into Circular Quay performing their moonlight boat ballet will know this poetry, the living poetry of a harbour city.</p>
<p>The Working Harbour collection donated to the council indefatigably records this deep maritime history, legacy and culture. Graeme Andrews contributes his own life-time knowledge too, with names, places, dates and priceless observations. </p>
<p>Who but a sailor with long accustomed eye could write of the tugboat St Giles that she is “riding so high in the water she must be nearly out of coals”?</p>
<p>In the photo below, taken during the Queen’s visit in 1954, two lines of excited small boats form a guard of honour for Her Majesty in front of Government House. You can almost see the flags fluttering and feel the tension, taut as a bowline:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39017/original/pncn79c4-1389669421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39017/original/pncn79c4-1389669421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39017/original/pncn79c4-1389669421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39017/original/pncn79c4-1389669421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39017/original/pncn79c4-1389669421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39017/original/pncn79c4-1389669421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39017/original/pncn79c4-1389669421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39017/original/pncn79c4-1389669421.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An honour guard of small boats for a visit by Queen Elizabeth II, Government House at rear. May 1954.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Andrews 'Working Harbour' Collection, City of Sydney Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A first world war photograph of ships moored off the Quarantine Station at North Head is a poignant reflection of that suspended time: </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39000/original/b6jmc4gq-1389660058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39000/original/b6jmc4gq-1389660058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39000/original/b6jmc4gq-1389660058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39000/original/b6jmc4gq-1389660058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39000/original/b6jmc4gq-1389660058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39000/original/b6jmc4gq-1389660058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39000/original/b6jmc4gq-1389660058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39000/original/b6jmc4gq-1389660058.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Manly Gas works and quarantine anchorage, first world war.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Andrews 'Working Harbour' Collection, City of Sydney Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the collier and ferry chug about their everyday business, the big ships are waiting to clear quarantine before passengers can finally disembark. But if ships were found to be carrying disease, their passengers were detained at the Quarantine Station at North Head. Some died there, in view of the city they never reached.</p>
<p>Ferries, tugs and launches turn up repeatedly, like faces and names in a family photo album: Andrews knows them all and many other Sydneysiders will too.</p>
<p>There’s something about the lovely shape of old boats; it’s enough just to look at them, as with this 1969 shot of the Christina at Woy Woy Bay:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39002/original/64whgb9k-1389660289.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39002/original/64whgb9k-1389660289.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39002/original/64whgb9k-1389660289.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39002/original/64whgb9k-1389660289.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39002/original/64whgb9k-1389660289.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39002/original/64whgb9k-1389660289.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39002/original/64whgb9k-1389660289.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39002/original/64whgb9k-1389660289.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christina, Woy Woy Bay, 1969.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Andrews 'Working Harbour' Collection, City of Sydney Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But these images touch on something more intangible too, something connected with the spirit of place that ties past and present together.</p>
<p>Henry Lawson conjured this spirit in his poem <a href="http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/lawson-henry/sydney-side-0022004">Sydney-Side</a> before the hardships of the 1890s depression soured Sydney for him:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Oh, there never dawned a morning, in the long and lonely days
<br>But I thought I saw the ferries streaming out across the bays –
<br>And as fresh and fair in fancy did the picture rise again
<br>As the sunrise flushed the city from Woollahra to Balmain</p>
<p>And the sunny water frothing round the liners black and red,
<br>And the coastal schooners working by the loom of Bradley’s Head
<br>With the whistles and the sirens that re-echo far and wide
<br>All the life and light and beauty that belong to Sydney side.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Working Harbour collection means that 10,000 images of all that life and light and beauty now belong to everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grace Karskens does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Never mind the bush and the outback – Sydneysiders were a maritime people from the start. For proof, browse through the Working Harbour collection, 10,000 images of Sydney’s maritime history recently donated…Grace Karskens, Associate Professor of history, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.