Sydney City Farm

On a beautiful, sunny Saturday, over 250 people came to the unique and historic Kirkbride building in Callan Park, to hear our vision for the farm and eco-education centre. Both Carla, our manager, and Rod, our architect, spoke and showed images for half an hour, and then led our audience on a tour of the proposed site for the farm.

Rod Simpson takes the audience on a tour of the site

We believe the State Government is about to announce their decision on the fate of Callan Park, based on a report being written by SHFA (Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority)

It seems, from media reports, the most likely outcome is for Sydney University to take over the whole site.

If this is the outcome and there is no mention of the Sydney City Farm on the site, the fight will really begin - we will be calling, along with our friends at Friends of Callan Park, for a proper and open, public masterplan process – to create a plan for Callan Park that will genuinely take into consideration the wishes and needs of the community.

The best way to tell the Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, we are serious, is to show him we have a large, supportive and vocal community behind us.

Our public meeting has helped enormously – we now have over 800 members, both financial and non financial, and we urge you to tell your friends to join too. The feeling was one of overwhelming support for the idea. If we stand united, we can realize the dream…

We must have Callan Park for the community!!

If you would like to download a transcript of excerpts from our presentation, click here

Our public presentation is on soon!

On Saturday, 12th July from 12 noon for an hour, we’ll be presenting our vision to you, our wonderful supporters.

It’s at the Sydney College of the Arts main lecture theatre, in Callan Park - Balmain Road, Rozelle.

We, along with the whole community, are still waiting for the release of the report being prepared by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority and the announcement of their recommendations for Callan Park.

We still hold out some hope we may be included, but if not, we will really need you with us, for the fight.

This is why we ask you to come to the meeting and bring your friends. The best message we can send to Frank Sartor is that you, the community, support this idea with a passion.

We’ve been working on all fronts to get our message out over the last 6 weeks and it’s working. We’ve had stalls at either Orange Grove School, Marrickville Markets, Rozelle Markets, Balmain and Leichhardt every weekend. Our trusty committee members and helpers have done a great job so far, struggling out of bed at some ungodly hour!

As a result we’ve had an increase in membership to over 600 - both financial and subscribers. Donations, membership fees and t-shirt sales have helped to boost our meagre resources.

But the most important aspect of this is the overwhelmingly positive feedback we’ve received wherever we present the idea to people. This alone should be enough to convince us we’re on a winner, and definitely to convince the politicians. If only they were on the ground, at the markets and out in the community with us…

We’ve also had success with sponsorship. A banner company VFX have donated over $1000 worth of printing for the 2 banners we have across Norton St and Balmain Rd at the moment. Leichhardt Council has also been supportive, both financially and morally.

Please come to our meeting and continue to support us - it’s the best way to send a message to the state government that we are serious about the Sydney City Farm and Sustainable Education Centre at Callan Park.