Sydney City Farm

SCF meets with Verity Firth.

A big thanks to everyone who wrote or spoke personally to Verity Firth, local member and Environment Minister, about your support for the City Farm concept.

This positive support, along with the success of our public meeting on July 12th prompted Minister Firth to call a meeting with Sydney City Farm representatives.

On Friday July 25th, City Farm committee members Rod Simpson, Brandon Saul and Carolin Wenzel met with Verity Firth. They expressed their opposition to the draft land use plan as it stands. Minister Firth said that she had been inundated with positive comments from the public about the Sydney City Farm proposal and assured us that she would do her best to put a City Farm on the agenda of Planning Minister Frank Sartor.

SCF meets with Frank Sartor

And she was as good as her word. On Thursday August 14, Rod and Carolin met with both Frank Sartor and Verity Firth. We have been asked to supply further details about how a City Farm could work on the site.

SCF meets with SHFA Chairman

Sydney City Farm were also invited to present our concept to Chairman of the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA) Michael Collins, on Wed July 30th. Mr Collins was personally supportive of the City Farm proposal but felt that Callan Park was not necessarily the right place for it – given the existing political tensions between the land wanted by University of Sydney and the very vocal sporting associations wanting sporting fields. We advised Mr Collins that we now have over 1,000 supporters, both financial and non financial.

Live Green Festival

On Sunday 17th August, we had a stall at the great Live Green Festival in Victoria Park. As always, the positive response to our City Farm and Eco-education Centre proposal was overwhelming and we signed up 250 new members.

You can help now!

SHFA, Verity Firth and Frank Sartor need more evidence to convince them there is strong community support for a City Farm in Callan Park.

Tell your friends about Sydney City Farm and sign them up as members
Write a letter to Verity Firth

Volunteers Needed

As support for a Sydney City Farm swells and the campaign to make it happen escalates, we need more hands on deck to keep pressure mounting. We now need:

- local Leichhardt residents to attend council and other public meetings with us

- people with financial management and book keeping experience and skills
- people to help staff stalls at markets and festivals to recruit new members
- people with data base entry and administrative skills

Please email us with your details and your invaluable help will be put to good use as soon as possible.

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.

Here is our latest newsletter
download here or read on…

NEWSLETTER

Calling all Farmers!

First of all, thank you so much for supporting the Sydney City Farm. We know we promised to keep you updated on developments and apologise for the long break in communication. We’ve been waiting to get our website up and running to receive membership payments and donations. It’s finally happened and you are more than welcome now to go to the ‘Get Involved’ page and help us financially to make Sydney City Farm a reality!

We have been working hard in the interim and here’s what’s been happening.

We have developed and submitted a comprehensive proposal to the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA) about how our vision for a City Farm and Sustainable Living Centre could be incorporated into the Master Plan for Callan Park. You can view this proposal on our website.

Sadly, Frank Sartor does not share our vision. In the most recent Draft Land Use Plan (Nov ’07), we have been ignored, and instead, he has opted to endorse a Princeton-style college campus for the University of Sydney.

We have lodged an objection to the master plan.

“The draft plan makes little provision for community based activities such as the City Farm or any other community based activity to be accommodated on the site”, explains Rod Simpson in our submission to the Master Plan process. “Additionally, despite ‘open space’ being the main land use, little consideration has been given to the proposed uses, activities or coherent management of this open space.”

Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA) is currently preparing another report on their recommendations for Callan Park. Our team have recently presented their ideas to SHFA in an attempt to convince them that City Farm can exist alongside other proposed uses of the park whilst allowing open community access. The report is due early May.
It remains to be seen if this time we are included as part of the master plan.

You can view our latest concept drawing for the city farm – can you imagine it??

We need your help now!
So now it is time to get our hands dirty! We don’t want to miss the opportunity to get City Farm growing and flourishing. It is now more important than ever you join us to persuade Frank Sartor that a community farm in Callan Park is a great idea. This time, we must not be ignored!

What can you do?

• Come to our Public Meeting – Tell your friends to come
12th July, 12 noon - 1pm at Kirkbridge, Sydney College of the Arts at Callan Park, for a presentation and tour. Why not bring a picnic too?!

• Become a financial member with voting rights at the Sydney City Farm Annual General Meeting to be held in the near future. Check out the membership options on our ‘Get Involved’ page.

• Tell your friends and get them to show their support by registering online for our newsletter.

• Write a blog to make any suggestions.

The Sydney City Farm Committee is made up entirely of volunteers. For us the project is a labour of love. To help it all become a reality, we have engaged a part-time manager and administrator, Carla Thackrah. She has been working hard to update the website and network with all the key players To find out more about who we are, check us out on the ‘About Us’ page.
We will keep you updated as we progress.

Let’s make Callan Park a vibrant place for all to enjoy.

Yours sincerely,

Sydney City Farmers

Take a look at the latest plan for the Sydney City Farm…can you imagine it?
view here

Today, three members of the city farm team met with various state parliamentarians to present their vision for Callan Park. As we wait for SHFA’s report on their recommendations to be completed and made public, the city farm team are spreading the word about the farm as widely as possible.

Three members of the city farm team met with SHFA on 27th March, 2008, to present their vision for Callan Park. We discussed how we believed it was possible for the city farm to work effectively alongside any other proposed uses for the park, be it university or health care.

SHFA is now preparing a report on their recommendations for the site to go to the minister Frank Sartor. It is due early May 2008.

You can view our architect, Rod Simpson’s ideas for a co operative sharing of the site with Sydney University here.

Sydney City Farm has lodged a document outlining their objections to the Draft Land Use Plan released by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA) in November, containing the draft master plan for the beautiful and historic Callan Park site. Despite wide community support, Sydney City Farm was disappointed to see there was no mention of a city farm in the master plan. Sydney City Farm’s objections can be read here. Accompanying the objections, the city farm team also included a detailed proposal for their vision for a city farm at Callan Park.
view objections
view proposal

Today’s Sydney Morning Herald features an article about Sydney City Farm, titled “Grand Plan For A Farm In The City”. It features a comprehensive background to the project alongside an interview with SCF spokesman, Andrew Jackson.

Click here to read the article at SMH.

Sydney City Farm has been invited to attend a meeting of the 26-member Community Reference Panel, established by Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority to provide comment and feedback to the Minister for Planning about master plan proposals for Callan Park. The reference panel includes representatives from community groups, Leichhardt Council, State Government and non-government organisations.

The Panel will meet with SCF tonight (Monday 24 September) as part of a ‘design workshop’ session, ahead of a planned interactive forum for about 200 members of the community to be held in October. If you are interested in attending the interactive forum, register on the Authority’s website by clicking here.