Report from Mirvac's open day 

If you were unable to attend Mirvac's information session on Saturday 22 September at Carrington Road, listen to our spokesperson, Kelsie Dadd discuss the experience here.

Kelsie was interviewed on Radio Skid Row by Colin Hesse, Greens councillor Marrickville Ward.

At the open day, Save Marrickville member Paul Mortimer handed Dominic Hunt from Mirvac a copy of our community survey summary on the Carrington Road Development. Check it out yourself here.

The is an email that that was sent on 4 September 2018 to supporters that signed on via our website. Please share your email address if you want to know what we know. We only email with real news and not very often. 

After our email Mirvac announced they are holding at public drop-in information session on Saturday 22 September 2018 from 10am to 2pm. This is to be held at 16 Carrington Rd, Marrickville. It should be noted that Mirvac does not have a new proposal, so no new plans will be displayed at this info session.

Darcy Byrne, Inner West Council mayor via Facebook 27 July at 18:01

In a colossal win for the community we have just defeated Mirvac’s proposal for 35 storey skyscrapers in Carrington Road Marrickville

The State Government has agreed to hand back control of planning in the Sydenham to Bankstown corridor to our council and local community.

We’ve fought long and hard to put an end to developer driven planning proposals in this corridor, and today we are thrilled to take back control of planning for the Sydenham, Marrickville and Dulwich Hill communities.

I congratulate the State Member for Summer Hill Jo Haylen and local activists, including the Save Marrickville and Save Dully community groups, for their determined and successful advocacy to achieve this result.

Special thanks to Anthony Albanese MP for helping to negotiate this excellent outcome with the Government. I thank Planning Minister Anthony Roberts for listening to the community.

Today’s decision puts an end to Mirvac’s ridiculous proposal for a 35 storey high rise development, with 2600 units in Carrington Road. This really is Marrickville, not Mirvacville!

Their plan would have destroyed more than 1,000 jobs and resulted in the forced closure of a whole cluster of businesses that are central to Sydney’s creative industries.

Our new plans will be developed by the community, not multinational developers.

Darcy explained later: The Carrington Road proposal from Mirvac was entirely predicated on that site being rezoned under the Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Corridor Strategy. That strategy will now not be gazetted and has no legal status. The existing Marrickville Environmental Plan which is an industrial zoning is the law. Mirvac's Carrington Road proposal is dead.

As reported on 9NEWS

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RESPONSE FROM SAVE MARRICKVILLE

This is a huge win for democracy and is thanks to everyone who raised their voices - came to rallies, meetings, wrote reports, talked to their neighbours, posted on social media, put up signs - and spoke up for this neighbourhood, which we all love. You guys rock!

This campaign has never been about stopping all development, just overdevelopment. We love our community and happily welcome new people to it... but for Marrickville to continue to be a great place to live and work, the community needs a real say on planning and development.

Marvellous things can happen (especially before elections) but the battle’s not over yet ... we know that high density development is still on the agenda across Sydney, and plenty of communities are still facing loss of heritage, amenity, nature and public space, as well as noise and air pollution...

So a big cheers to everyone who helped win this one, keep your Save Marrickville signs up and watch this space!

Anthony Albanese MP, Jo Haylen, Darcy Byrne, Colin Hesse - Greens, Clr Mark Drury - Inner West Council - Labor, Councillor Pauline Lockie - Inner West Council, Mat Howard Save Dully AG, RIPA Sydney, Save Our Suburbs, Sydenham to Bankstown Alliance, Greater Sydney Commission, GreaterSydney.Community, Marrickville Heritage Society and MadeinMarrickville

A great read about elements of the campaign so far, published by NEIGHBOURHOOD.

Text by Drew Rooke with images by Daniel Mulheran.

Carrington Road’s industrial past 

Save Marrickville is campaigning against a proposed 35 storey residential development along Carrington Road, which includes the last Australian General Motors factory (listed by the National Trust), but found a much bigger history.

In 1926, the American motor vehicle firm General Motors (Australia) Pty Ltd established assembly plants in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney to produce motor vehicles for the Australian market. Sydney architects Ross and Rowe were commissioned for the Sydney plant (6-10 Carrington Road). The design was to comply with all the conditions of a modern assembly plant and to provide the best possible conditions for all employees, according to GM’s Motor Progress.

The NSW Premier, the Hon JT Lang, opened the factory declaring:

“Factories were the milestones along the road Australia must travel to become a self-contained nation whose secondary industries would absorb her primary products… there is no market like that created by the employment of local labour… and it will be striking advertisement to the world of this country of ours.”

General-Motors purchased Holden in 1931 during the Depression (fearing it would be snapped up by a competitor) and continued to operate there until 1939. The factory then produced tyre cord until 1961 after being taken over by Davies Co-op, a significant corporation in the Australian textile industry in the Twentieth Century.

Other businesses established close to General Motors. AH Peters (16 Carrington Road) made bodies for trucks and utilities including ambulances used all over NSW. Duly & Hansford (20-28 Carrington Road) made automotive parts including under the Dufor brand.

Rega Products took an order for 30,000 pumps from General Motors to be produced from its 1937 Art Deco factory designed by AM Bolot at 47 Carrington Road. Rega Products, Duly & Hansford and Davies Coop all manufactured munitions in the Second World War. Aircraft equipment and a technical school for the RAAF and United States Air Force were also established by ETC-Tecnico (49 Carrington Road).

After the War, Tecnico transitioned to producing electrical goods for the civilian mass market including vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers. Tecnico was taken over by Pye in 1959, and built new headquarters in 1962 (57 Carrington Road).

Not only does Carrington Road showcase industrial design and manufacturing, its workers mirror Australia’s Twentieth Century cultural history. The 1920s motor vehicle industry attracted eager young men (Duly & Hansford was known locally as Boystown for its hiring practices), while women were conscripted to work during the War often under deplorable conditions. The post-war labour shortage and demand for mass-market goods then provided opportunities for migrants as they established their future in Australia. The current businesses in Carrington Road continue to be part of that story.

A nomination for State Heritage listing has been made.

Know more about the history of Carrington Road, email [email protected]

First published by Marrickville Heritage Society 2018

High density, high rise is not what we want for Marrickville and many other suburbs are saying the same thing.

Rezoning of industrial land in Sydney is pricing industry out. We need to preserve our industrial lands in Marrickville.

This is the type of density and bad design that Save Marrickville oppose.

Some of the businesses we will lose with the rezoning of industrial land for high rise development.

Mirvac’s planning proposal is for 7.8 hectares of land on the east side of Carrington Rd. As the planning proposal is commercial in confidence we have not seen the proposal, however the Inner West Councils’s response to Mirvac’s proposal is public.

The planning proposal is a request to rezone the land. It is currently IN1 which does not allow residential development. If the rezoning is approved the development moves into the development application stage.

The proposal is for towers of residential apartments reaching heights of 105m. The council notes that this could mean buildings up to 35 storeys. This flood prone land is currently home to manufacturing, creative and auto businesses employing  approximately 1800 people.

What can you do? First, attend the community meeting on 30 November at 7pm.