Fight the Power! A Letter to Sydney City Councilors

It's been an awfully long time since I have actually bothered to write to any form of governing body (must be the cynic in me. But thought I'd better pull my finger out when we found out about some unfortunate changes to plans to reforest the Orphan School Creek woodland behind our house. Such a pity to see such progressive environmental approaches to urban planning being derailed.

So it went something like this...

Dear (Councilors),

I am writing regarding current discussion of THE REDEVELOPMENT OF THE ORPHAN SCHOOL CREEK PUBLIC SPACE.

My wife and I are relatively new residents, having moved to Annandale last year. WE LIVE IN ONE OF THE HOUSES THAT BACKS DIRECTLY ONTO WHAT WAS THE DENSELY WOODED AREA OF THAT SPACE. Once of the biggest things that attracted us to the property was the way that the house had been architected to make use of the location through an extensive glass face onto the park. It provided both a sense of living within a natural habitat and a degree of privacy that made it a rare find in the inner city.

We were understandably disappointed when work began, and the forest behind our property was cut down. We did, however, console ourselves that with patience our wonderful natural vista would be returned - the superb native reforestation of the earlier stages of the Orphan School Creek project left us optimistic as to the result on our side of the creekbed.

You can imagine our concern, then, when we learned that changes to the plan were to result in dramatically choices to reforest the area. RATHER THAN AN OUTLOOK OF RARE NATURAL BEAUTY, WE WILL HAVE LOW-GROWTH SPECIES THAT LEAVE US COMPLETELY EXPOSED TO A CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND, AN AD HOC SWITCH-BACK SKATE RAMP, AND THE MANY HUNDREDS OF BALCONIES THAT MAKE UP THE CITY QUARTER, directly across the park from us.

In short, the proposed changes to the reforestation will completely invalidate the innovative design of our wonderful new home within its intended natural habitat, and we believe WILL MOST LIKELY RESULT IN US MOVING AGAIN, LEAVING A PROPERTY SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED IN AESTHETIC AND FINANCIAL VALUE.

Regards,

Brett Rolfe - 230 Hereford Street

Comments

[David W Morris]

Why don't you try to convince them to plant another species of tree? One recommendation might be paulownia. It is fast growing, establishes a natural firebreak protecting the community and has excellent regenerative powers for the environment.

For more information on paulownia you may read www.paulownianow.org