NSW Government plans merger of Sydney’s parks agencies

Management of some of greater Sydney’s best known areas of parks and open spaces including the Centennial Parklands, Moore Park and Parramatta Park are to be merged into a single management body by the NSW Government.

Less than a month after revealing a new ‘super agency’ to manage the state’s sport and entertainment venues, the NSW Government has said it will combine Centennial Park and Moore Park, Parramatta Park and Western Sydney Parklands Trusts into a new agency.

As reported today by the Sydney Morning Herald, the three independent trusts will be merged into a new entity, to be known as the Greater Sydney Parklands, overseeing 6000 hectares of open space.

Eight directors will sit on the board of Greater Sydney Parklands, which will be headed by Michael Rose, Chairman of advocacy group Committee for Sydney and a Director of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, a federal entity.

Advising that the new agency will look for ways to better manage, restore and expand Sydney's parks, NSW Planning and Public Spaces Minister, Rob Stokes stated “we have seen in the past how parklands were often victim to more powerful voices for development.”

Stokes advised “this is all about giving parks a powerful voice of their own.”, adding that the creation of a "stronger, better-resourced trust" would give it more power than the individual trusts would have had in the past.

He advised that legislation for each of the three trusts would not be changed "at this stage" because people were "instinctively a bit nervous when anything happens in parks".

The directors of the new agency include Patrick St John from Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust, Lyall Gorman from Parramatta Park and Julie Bindon from Western Sydney Parklands.

The new agency will also oversee Callan Park in the inner west, and Fernhill Estate, a heritage-listed 383-hectare property near Mulgoa on Sydney's western fringe.

Following fears over development plans for Callan Park, the NSW Government is injecting $10 million to revitalise the parklands surrounding the former asylum site, which Minister Stokes described as a downpayment and a "statement of good faith".

Moore Park, adjacent to Centennial Park and the Sydney Cricket Ground, is also a site that green space proponents have concerns about with areas of its land being used for car parking and transport for the SCG.

The Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust, which was set up in the early 1980s, repelled a bid several years ago by the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust to build a new stadium on its land.

The administrative staff of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust are integrated with the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust in an entity known as 'Botanic Gardens & Centennial Parklands (BGCP)'.

With more than 350 staff, BGCP is NSW’s largest state urban parks manager, Australia’s oldest scientific institution, and one of the country’s leading international tourism businesses. 

Images: Sydney's Moore Park from the air (top, courtesy of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust) and Callan Park (below, courtesy of Friends of Callan Park).

Article amended at 10.40am on 17th July 2020 to remove a reference to the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney being part of the merger.