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We might as well get more Barangaroo for our buck

Anthony Sharwood

by Anthony Sharwood

25 Oct 11:40am

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Filed under: Barangaroo, Cities, Development, Paul Keating, Sydney, Tourism

40 comments

Walking around Sydney’s big, gaudy bicentennial showpiece Darling Harbour recently, the place just seemed so sad. The word dowdy doesn’t do it justice. Imagine stepping out in the suit or dress you wore to your Year 12 formal. Now imagine you’d been wearing it every day since.

Just cos it rhymes with kangaroo, doesn't mean it has to be all bush. Pic: Gregg Porteous

Just down the way, and soon to be linked by a waterfront walkway, lies the former port area of Barangaroo. All manner of shiny plans for the site have been drawn up, rejected, put forward again, and debated to death – mostly by those who consider any building without a picket fence a monument of brutalist architecture and an affront to humanity.

The latest from Barangaroo is that James Packer wants to build an even bigger tower and casino than originally planned. The plans are bound to bounce back and forth between various planning bodies and perhaps even the courts. But former PM Paul Keating gave it the thumbs up today, and that’s good enough for us.

Mr Keating has lived just up the hill by the way, so he’s not just weighing in on the issue as a man with a longstanding interest in urban development and this site in particular, but as a former local.

Not that you’d necessarily defer to locals on an issue like this because it’s actually a national issue. This might all seem like a bit of a Sydney thing, but no. This is about when and where it is appropriate to build things that suit tourists as much as (and possibly a bit more than) they suit us.

For those who don’t know Sydney well, Barangaroo is a site on the north west fringe of the CBD which comprises 22 hectares of disused container wharves. Make no mistake. This is not The Rocks or Woolloomooloo – the urban villages with their priceless sandstone terraces which were saved by the union-led Green Bans movement in the ’70s. Barangaroo, as it sits now, is pretty much a wasteland.

Now, no one is saying it should all be turned over to commercial interests, and there’s no chance that will happen. Extensive harbourfront access for walkers and “restored naturalistic headland features” are all part of the plan.

But that doesn’t mean the site can’t cop some you beaut architectural whizzbangery to really make it sizzle. In fact, it’s crying out for it.

Sydney has loads of urban bushland areas, including two bushy headlands across the harbour from Barangaroo. It also has more than 200 harbour and ocean beaches. These things mostly appeal to locals and visitors at the backpacker end of the market. Wealthy tourists, not so much.

The new wave of monied, Asian tourists will be wooed by the sort of things they can get back home in Shanghai or Guangzhou or Macau. That might seem ironic and counter-intuitive, but that’s how it is. They will come here if they see brochures with big, flashy hotel/casinos. All the better if those hotels are a short walk or ferry hop from Darling Harbour Wildlife World so they don’t have to sully their Gucci shoes in the actual bush.

Like or loathe James Packer, he understands all this. And at the risk of parroting the classic trickle-down economic baloney, his self interest could be in our best interest. Here’s hoping, anyway. Hey, it can’t hurt chucking on another 20 storeys, to find out, can it?

Comments on this post close at 8pm AEST

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40 comments

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    • Tubesteak says:

      10:54am | 25/10/12

      Agree with most of this. I’ve been following this issue for some time as I have lived in this area (King St Wharf). The area is a wasteland and needs to be redeveloped. They really need to think big. I can’t stand the thought of silly little park areas around there. Sydney-siders really don’t use parks. Occasionally in summer you might see some people in Hyde Park or the Botannical Gardens but for the rest of the year and for most other park areas they are empty. Sydney-siders prefer something that has some form of entertainment or alcohol. They don’t sit out in the open navel-gazing as people like Clover Moore and Elizabeth Farrely (sp?) seem to think. We like other people to do our entertaining for us or we like to pack ourselves into big nightclubs in the hope of picking up a hot chick/millionaire celebrity. Open space is essentially wasted space in Sydney unless it’s a walkway/street to get us to our next destination.

      Reply

    • pa_kelvin says:

      11:10am | 25/10/12

      That space is just so suited to a big theme park like Disneyland.. Entertainment and alchohol in the one area… Bring it on.. smile

    • AFR says:

      11:36am | 25/10/12

      Agree with your thoughts on more development, but not with your assertion that Sydney-siders “don’t used parks”. My own weekend observations would beg to differ hugely.

      By building up, hopefully more green space on the ground can be built into developments.

    • Tell It Like It Is says:

      12:42pm | 25/10/12

      Well we certainly do (!) need more options for more alcohol in Sydney.  That is what we’re mostly all about in Australia. Just ask anyone from overseas. First thing that comes to mind.
      Perhaps Barangaroo might replace Kings Cross; Kings Cross Mark II. Please, pretty please. 
      I disagree about the popularity of open spaces though. Seems many punchers indulge in a lot of it - in their heads.

      I often walk in the Botanic Gardens and many people are enjoying them on weekends and otherwise.

    • Tubesteak says:

      12:52pm | 25/10/12

      AFR
      I did say we’ll occasionally use Hyde Park and the Botannical gardens when the weather is good. But I’ve lived near Wenworth Park, some of the parks in Alexandria and others in Strathfield and there is never anyone in them at any time of year. Syndey-siders just don’t do the outdoors unless there’s some activity or beach involved.

    • Tigger says:

      01:39pm | 25/10/12

      I agree that we already have some excellent parks in the city like the Domain/Mrs Macquaries Pt, Botanic Gardens and Hyde Park. And as mentioned a bunch of parkIands directly north of the harbour too. I don’t believe that we need any more. It’s not like the existing ones are overcrowded.

      What the city is desperately lacking is affordable car parking, especially since Clover Moore ripped out a massive number of them for bike lanes that are deserted after sunset. I say turn the area into a massive carpark!

    • AFR says:

      02:35pm | 25/10/12

      Tube, we’ll have to agree to disagree there - maybe i’m gonig to the park at different times to you, but on weekends (and of course in nicer weather), the parks close to the city including Bicentennial in Glebe, Wenty Park, Sydney Park etc are full of people all weekend.

      In the warmer months, Sydney has a great outdoor park culture (especially for dog owners - as we can’t use the beach). smile

    • Pedro says:

      02:52pm | 25/10/12

      We’re gonna need more whore houses and Asian women who have their passports confiscated so they remain in “employment.”
      This is assuming that gamblers want to fly 9 or 10 hours to Sydney when they can just hop over to Macau.
      Sadly this will become another place for crims to wash their money and losers to throw away their paychecks through the pokies. Oh wait - there won’t be any pokies! Riiiight.
      Well done Barry O’Farrell. Enjoy your one term.
      I would have thought moving the Olympic Stadium closer in to where you can actually do somethig after the fottie or cricket would have been a better use of the area. Most modern cities have stadiums within a walk of downtown. Melbourne does. Bris, Adleaide and Perth do. Not Sydney!

    • Gregg says:

      03:03pm | 25/10/12

      Exactly re people using parks AFR and if tubesteak gets himself out of the nightclubs for long enough he might just realise that it can be a real sweltering micro climate in Sydney CBD with all the concrete etc. and at least you can sometimes find a bit of cooler relief in the more open parks and that is not just in summer either.

      As for more of a nightclub precinct you only have to take a stroll up around the cross or better still a bus through it to get the idea you might be better off somewhere else.
      Raze the Cross and redevelop that and then do something much better on the docklands.

    • A Concerned Citizen says:

      03:42pm | 25/10/12

      There are plenty of places in Wooloomoloo, Kings Cross, Newtown, George Street, Blacktown, Penrith, etc for people to get drunk in. If the locals of Barangaroo don’t want such ‘attractions’ in their area, they should have the right to block them, rather than give way to a pointless repetition of much of Sydney already.

      And because the NSW Liberal Party fails to uphold this basic residential right (just like NSW Labor), but would rather turn people’s neighbourhoods into money-spinners for tourists and business partners, I will not be voting for either party ever again.

    • Tubesteak says:

      03:47pm | 25/10/12

      AFR
      I normally go for a run around on the weekend and I see very few people using parks. Weekdays are even more deserted. Only the big ones get used. There are tumbleweeds rolling around that park in Waterloo (can’t remember name of it).

    • Tell It Like It Is says:

      03:50pm | 25/10/12

      Hear! Hear! @ Gregg.  Raze the Cross and start again. Great idea. 1 bulldozer, 2 bulldozers 3 bulldozers 4 !

    • DOB says:

      06:08pm | 25/10/12

      what the?!! Having spent 12 years in sydney the idea that “sydney people dont use parks” is a bit like the idea that monkeys dont use forests.

      All I can say is what park are you talking about because my experience is totally the opposite.

    • iansand says:

      10:55am | 25/10/12

      What is the state of play on the hotel in the Harbour?  I always liked that idea - it was a [potential iconic feature that would add a bit of pizzazz and zing to the development.  I suspect that the Moaning Myrtles squashed it.

      The place is an industrial site now.  It will never be pristine green space, so why not convert it to a bit of interesting urban space with a good balance of offices, residences, public buildings and public space?  If that includes a casino for Packer I have no problem.

      Reply

    • Modern Primitive says:

      11:02am | 25/10/12

      If you’re going to build, you may as well build up instead of out, and 20 extra stories will keep the contractors employed for a bit longer. We’re all about creating jobs aren’t we?

      Cue the whingers and nimbies all still in love with a 1950s Sydney.

      Reply

    • AFR says:

      11:34am | 25/10/12

      Nimbyism and height restrictions are killing Sydney’s development. In years to come we will be wondering why developers have gone elsewhere instead.

      Reply

    • A Concerned Citizen says:

      03:15pm | 25/10/12

      Considering how lousy and incompetent our construction developers typically are and how ugly and disfunctional the creations they make, I can hardly say them ‘going elsewhere’ is a bad thing.

      Also, how exactly is a second casino ‘development’- it is a useless redundancy as we already have one.

    • Dan Webster says:

      12:12pm | 25/10/12

      It needs the world’s biggest Ferris wheel.

      Reply

    • iansand says:

      01:22pm | 25/10/12

      EVERYBODY has a ferris wheel.  Even Brisbane.

    • AFR says:

      02:52pm | 25/10/12

      Don, we’ll swap you for the monorail.

    • Admiral Ackbar says:

      04:52pm | 25/10/12

      It could be a giant ferris wheel made up of thousands of smaller ferris wheels. With explosions, and boobs somehow. i need to think about this some more.

    • TEZZA says:

      12:35pm | 25/10/12

      Don’t have a problem with “silly little park areas”. Quite like the urban bushland idea myself, provided there is something to do there other than jog, walk or ride a damn bike.
      There needs to be something to DO when you get there. (And I don’t mean to put money through the pokies or play roulette at a casino).
      If there is urban bushland, for God’s sake don’t try to make it “unspoilt” or “pristine”, or let the Greenies have control.
      The place must be alive with activities.
      People should go there and come away entertained, thinking “that was fun; I never expected it . . .”.
      There should be fun things to see (I’m thinking like the weird moving water scuptures outside the Pompidou in Paris. I’m also thinking like the moving bird sculptures with flapping wings set in motion by the wind, as we saw at the Sculpture By The Sea a few years ago). I’m also thinking that Sculpture By The Sea could become Sculpture By The Harbour.
      There should be children’s playgrounds of course, but let’s make them spectacular. There should be a natural look giant swimming wading pool with real sand (have you seen the one in Brisbane on the banks of the Brisbane River).
      There should be coffee shops and food stalls (like the recent night noodle markets in Hyde Park), not just expensive restaurants for yuppies to eat at (although of course there should be those as well). There should be places where you can just sit and watch the passing boats with a nice cup of coffee.
      Also, assuming that what most people do at a park is to have a picnic, can we please have some parking. And I don’t mean $20 per hour underground parking. What’s great about Centennial Park for example, is that you can put the cricket set, the frisbee, the deckchairs and the picnic gear in the Holden, drive in from the burbs, and lay out the picnic blanket and all the gear within a stone throw of where you have parked the car.
      There should definitely be a theatre (open air variety - I’m thinking Epidavros style Greek theatre with amazing acoustics - why not?)
      There should be places for concerts and for open air film festivals and for exhibitions.
      The place should have an organisation that puts on “events”.
      Can we have “camping” there? Why not? It would have to be controlled and restricted, but back-packers and locals alike would delight in the chance to spend one or two nights “camping” by the harbour. Why should only “high rollers” prepared to pay Jamie Packer $1,000 per night to stay at his Casino Hotel get that thrill?
      The place has so many possibilities and I am sure that I could not imagine half of them. But other people could. Let’s have a competition for ideas of what activities to have at Barangaroo.

      Reply

    • hawkeye says:

      12:55pm | 25/10/12

      Ah yes, another casino. A temple at which to worship money and believe in the myth of wealth without work, while they peddle false dreams and empty your pockets with a vacuum cleaner.

      Reply

    • AdamC says:

      01:18pm | 25/10/12

      It does seem like an ideal spot for some tourism development. A destination city like Sydney definitely needs a decent casino resort in the Asian century. Young Jamie has shown he can run casinos, however, I would have thought there would be some sort of tender process, rather than just handing the site over to the Packers. Is that what is happening?

      Reply

    • A Concerned Citizen says:

      03:35pm | 25/10/12

      I’m sorry to disappoint you but I have been to the Crown in Melbourne once- it was a tacky, poorly-managed place with bad food, bad service and bad atmosphere- so don’t expect anything better than the Star.

      And I ask, why do we need a second casino to attract problem gamblers from overseas? How do they contribute to Sydney’s economy if they spend most of their money on the Casino and hotel? Local businesses get very little out of these people except the Casino itself.

    • Tigger says:

      01:43pm | 25/10/12

      What the place really needs is a Burning Man festival.

      Reply

    • Pete Fumberger says:

      01:48pm | 25/10/12

      What is it these days with many sites and areas now having blackfella names?
      It’s bad enough they have blackfella rounds in football, which do nothing to help those poor kids on black communities being raped and sodomised, but names that mean jack to most Australians out there, give me a break.
      And spare me the first peoples bullshit.
      Boy, do those lefty luvvie progressive elite types (in their own turd filled minds) just love playing the token card. Poor little blackfella, us whiteys are here to help keep you down so we’ll keep plying you with sit down and suck more piss money.  A little bit for you, much more in my kitty though, thank you very much.
      Geoff Clarke comes to mind there, but he is just one of thousands of pretend blacks sucking off the gravy train.
      You just keep tokening on Anthony.

      Reply

    • Jess says:

      02:42pm | 25/10/12

      AFL and NRL both do massive amounts of good in Aboriginal communities and Urban Aboriginal communities. Both have Trainee programs specifically for Indigenous people regardless of weather they play the game. Both strongly encourage kids to stay in school and live healthy lifestyles. Both use their influence with Indigenous kids to include cross curricular activities in the curriculum ie using sports to teach maths.
      Both NRL and AFL have produced some of the leading Aboriginal political activists. The influence of these sports for good in all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communitie (urban and remote) should not be discounted.

      I think you should live in the shoes of a “pretend black” or even someone living between 2 cultures. Then you will see how hard it is to walk that line.

    • tez says:

      01:56pm | 25/10/12

      Good Good Good more work for local manufcturers and contractors all these places do refits every 5 years or so got to keep it flash for the punters.

      Reply

    • Carl Palmer says:

      01:59pm | 25/10/12

      I agree the town desperately needs a facelift and a bit more sizzle. Seems to me we just rely on the harbour.

      I haven’t followed this issue that closely, but I have to say that it doesn’t surprise me that Keating would agree with Packer. Both take the big picture view / approach and both know what the city needs to attract OS guests, tourists and business. So, to address the red tape concern,  I’ll make a suggestion which I’m sure will instantly break down the barriers and make this project move a little faster – add the President and Vice President of UAE to the project team, they know how to get things moving quickly.

      Reply

    • Swamp Thing says:

      02:16pm | 25/10/12

      @Pete, progressive indeed - oh the irony. Funny how people like that always give themselves bizzaro ‘opposite world’ names - like ‘Peoples Democratic Republic of North Korea’.
      Progressive? -My arse.

      Reply

    • Luc Belrose says:

      02:19pm | 25/10/12

      The Sydney City Council must ensure that a portion of Barangaroo should be zoned open space ie green area for recreation open to the public. This will complement the development of Mr Packer’s Casino and other private high rise office buildings. All the commercial development proposed there must not crowd out the access to parks and water views for all and sundry. High flying architects and town planners should not ignore input from the City dwellers.

      Reply

    • Frank says:

      02:30pm | 25/10/12

      The Packer family have always been rent seekers - occupying protected niches in government-controlled industries with high barriers to entry for potential competitors. First it was broadcasting and now gambling as broadcasting competitors have multiplied.  The carrot of them offering training for indigenous staff shows how cynical they have become. Shame on the ALP for supporting them!

      Reply

    • David of the Grand Academy of Adelagado. says:

      02:36pm | 25/10/12

      Let Packer have what he wants on the condition that he also buys The Toaster and knocks it down. Its a disgrace.

      Reply

    • Gregg says:

      03:12pm | 25/10/12

      ” These things mostly appeal to locals and visitors at the backpacker end of the market. Wealthy tourists, not so much. “

      There have been plenty of surveys about that show backpackers are just as good for tourism as quick stop richer folk, backpackers here for much longer usually and though not spending as much per day, in total they’re spending more in being here longer and their money is probably spread about a bit more.

      ” The new wave of monied, Asian tourists will be wooed by the sort of things they can get back home in Shanghai or Guangzhou or Macau. That might seem ironic and counter-intuitive, but that’s how it is. “

      Really Ant, and just how many monied new wave Asian tourists do you know and how many do you reckon like things like Koalas, kangaroos and seeing the wider open spaces that they do not have so much of back home.

      How about they use all of that space for a huge covered area the shape of Uluru and then there can be underground parking, ferry terminal, transitt facilities, shops, casino all in one with plenty of the rock shell being porous to allow for rainfall down into all sorts of different open space and gardens etc., maybe even a multi level golf course amongst other activity facilities and something for everyone.

      Reply

    • Kassandra says:

      03:16pm | 25/10/12

      A nuclear power plant would be more desirable than another casino. Should get rid of the one we have not build another. As to the building rather than its purpose though, build something worth the effort not just another overblown glass and steel shoebox. Something high over the water that’s unique and elegant with lots of open space on the ground.

      Reply

    • Dick says:

      03:46pm | 25/10/12

      Excellent idea. Close to water for cooling, no transmission costs for Sydney, competition for coal to bring down power prices. Lets get cracking, I say.

    • A Concerned Citizen says:

      03:29pm | 25/10/12

      First I would like to say that I will never vote for the NSW Liberal Party ever again (or support Fred Nile for his support) and will only vote for candidates that did not support this Casino. They have proven to be as bad as NSW Labor and just as willing to sell out the public.

      Second,
      Could somebody please explain to me how this Casino is supposed to ‘enhance’ Sydney?
      We already have a Casino and it would be silly to believe gambling industries would adhere to competitive value-for-money trends like normal businesses do.
      Any tourists it attracts would probably spend most of their money on gambling and the hotel bills- so we don’t benefit much from that either.

      Reply

    • Hobie says:

      06:56pm | 25/10/12

      Grant Packer his Casino approval on the proviso that he buy, then demolish that hideous “Toaster ” Building. Many if not most would consider that a community service.

      Reply
 
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