RSL ‘powerless' to stop billboard beside Sydney war memorial
A surge in outdoor advertising material – including on the sides of bus stops, rail bridges and buildings — is sparking concerns from community groups and councils over impacts to public amenity, road safety and the 'commercialisation' of public areas.
On Sydney's north shore, Willoughby Council says it has been left 'disappointed and deeply concerned' after losing a long-running fight to stop Transport for NSW from installing the electronic billboard on the side of a railway bridge close to the Garden of Remembrance in Chatswood.
While Transport for NSW has pledged to turn off the digital billboard during Anzac and Remembrance Day ceremonies, Willoughby Mayor Tanya Taylor wants the sign to be relocated, saying the council will 'not tolerate' the site 'being marred by the neon lights of advertising'.
Chatswood RSL sub-branch president Barney Flanagan said committee members had been 'powerless' to stop the billboard's installation from going ahead due to its location on a state government-owned site.
Willoughby Council is not the only council embroiled in a billboard battle. The City of Sydney last year was forced to spend $325,000 removing large street advertising signs in response to community concerns over the size of the signs and impacts on pedestrians.
Similar billboards proposed on footpaths in the North Sydney Council area have also faced community backlash, with public submissions calling the signs 'visual pollution'.
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News.com.au
21 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Roads closed, traffic chaos: Sydney prepares for bridge march
Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are expected to stream across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday after the Supreme Court rejected a bid to block the anti-war march across the landmark. Conditions are expected to be wet for the rally, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting 10 to 35mm of rain on Sunday, but organisers claim as many as 50,000 people could take part. Protesters will gather at Lang Park in the Sydney CBD at 1pm before marching across the bridge. Beginning at York and Grosvenor streets at 1.30pm, protesters will then file onto the bridge before finishing on the northern side of the bridge at Bradfield Park, according to rally organisers the Palestine Action Group. The march is expected to last three hours. Traffic on the bridge will be closed from 11.30am and is expected to be re-opened by 4pm. Residents and motorists are being urged to avoid the area having been warned of significant disruptions. Bus services will terminate in the CBD on the south side of the bridge and at North Sydney and St Leonards on the northern side. Trains will be running across the Harbour Bridge during the march, but delays are expected given the number of people predicted to be streaming into the city. Transport for NSW says that 'extensive' queues are expected at the entrance to the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, with a flow-on effect expected for the rest of the traffic network. Motorists are being urged to consider alternative routes and allow plenty of extra time, including going from the northern beaches and north shore to the airport. The Metro service will not in operation between Tallawong and Sydenham on Sunday due to trackwork. Buses will replace Metro services between Tallawong and Chatswood . Palestine Action Group organiser Josh Lees, who has been the public face of the group's push to hold the historic march across the bridge, hailed a NSW Supreme Court decision on Saturday as a 'huge victory for the Palestine movement in this country' Premier Chris Minns had publicly expressed his opposition to the march. And the NSW Police made an application to the NSW Supreme Court to block the protesters being issued with a Form 1, which affords protesters protection from anti-assembly laws However Justice Belinda Rigg refused the Commissioner's application. 'The fact the proposed assembly is likely to cause significant inconvenience to residents … is far from determinative,' Justice Rigg said in her judgment. 'If matters such as this were to be determinative, no assembly involving inconvenience to others would be permitted.' The Palestinian Action Group said in a social media post: 'Tomorrow we are going to make history! 'We will hold a massive march over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, dedicated to using our people power to stop the genocide in Gaza. 'We are working with police and NSW transport to ensure a safe, family-friendly event for everyone.'
Sydney Morning Herald
2 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
NSW Supreme Court green lights pro-Palestine march on Harbour Bridge
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There is going to come a day in everyone's lives when you are going to be asked the question: What did you do to stop the genocide in Gaza?' The Israeli government has denied claims of genocide and starvation in Gaza, claiming the war is an act of self-defence. NSW Police told the court the march was unprecedented in scale and posed a threat to public safety on one of the city's major arteries. 'We have to scramble now, there's no doubt about that,' Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna said after the verdict. 'The Supreme Court has told us to allow this to occur, so we will.' Justice Rigg said the inconvenience caused by the march to commuters was not a reason to refuse it on legal grounds. 'The fact that a protest could cause inconvenience is not enough to justify an order,' she said. 'It is in the very nature of the right of peaceful protest that disruption will be caused to others. 'If matters such as this were to be determinative, no assembly involving inconvenience to others would be permitted.' The march is the first time that an authorised protest against war will take over the Harbour Bridge. In 2000, more than 200,000 people marched over the bridge for Indigenous reconciliation. In 2023, 50,000 joined the WorldPride march for LGBT rights. NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said the public should prepare for 'massive, massive disruption'. 'Our message is avoid the city, if you can,' she said. Justice Rigg said she accepted Lees' argument about the timing of the protest being critical to its purpose, citing the momentum of the humanitarian outcry over deteriorating conditions in Gaza as a key reason for its impact. Loading Palestine Action Group activist Rachel Evans said the group would not rule out marching on the bridge again after Sunday's protest. 'The tide is turning,' Evans said after the court's decision. 'We need to push and push further. Once we've taken the Harbour Bridge, we might take it again. 'We want all ties with Israel broken.' The decision follows a week of political upheaval for the state government after five Labor MPs defied Minns to sign a letter endorsing the march. The letter called on the government to work with protest organisers to facilitate a safe march and detailed 'in strong terms our disapproval of the ongoing starvation of the Palestinian people'. Minns said on Friday that he recognised the outpouring of community anger over the humanitarian situation in Gaza after images of starving Palestinian children shocked the world. 'They want to be able to protest. I accept that,' he said. 'The last thing we want, and the last thing police want, is chaos in Sydney streets.' Greens MP Jenny Leong said the front door to her electorate office had been smashed on Saturday after she put up a poster for the 'March for Humanity' protest. 'This is a clear attempt to intimidate us into backing down from our staunch support for the people of Palestine,' she said. 'It won't work on us.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused Israel of breaching international law by stopping food from being delivered into the 13-kilometre-wide strip, housing 2.1 million people in an area half the size of Canberra. The World Health Organisation said there had been 63 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza last month, including 24 children under the age of five – up from 11 deaths total from January to June. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims 82 people died last month of malnutrition-related causes, including 24 children and 58 adults, taking Gaza's death toll from the war, which began in 2023 after Hamas militants killed more than 700 civilians in southern Israel, to more than 60,000. Albanese has also called on Hamas to release the Israeli hostages taken as part of the attacks on October 7, as Jewish-Australian leaders raise fears the protests will fuel antisemitism. Alex Ryvchin from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said Saturday's court decision had caused 'a lot of dismay in the community'. 'The court has allowed a professional protester who has cost the state millions of dollars to now paralyse our city,' he said. 'We take comfort knowing that the vast majority of Australians want no part of this. We continue to pray for the starved and tortured hostages still held in Gaza, whose fate is ignored or belittled by the protesters.' A spokesman for the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies said they also acknowledged with disappointment the decision of the Supreme Court authorising the march across the Harbour Bridge. 'At a time of strained social cohesion, an iconic Australian symbol and key arterial road should not be used to bring a divisive foreign conflict onto our streets,' the spokesman said. 'It is imperative that tomorrow's march does not provide a platform for some of the hate we have previously seen at weekly demonstrations in the CBD.' An application for a counter-protest in the Sydney Harbour Tunnel by fringe pro-Israel group Never Again Is Now was withdrawn on Friday morning. NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said he respected the freedom to protest but allowing the takeover of the Harbour Bridge set 'the wrong precedent'.
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Private schools have a moral duty to pay council rates
The sandstone mansion Graythwaite House sits atop a grassy hill in North Sydney, with views down to the harbour. It was built on an early 1800s land grant and grew in grandeur as its owners became more illustrious; the fig trees they planted as saplings are now lush and shady. After the Gallipoli campaign, owner Thomas Dibbs was moved to donate it to the state government as a home for wounded soldiers, and it was used as a nursing home until around 2008, when the operator could no longer afford the upkeep. The battle to keep Graythwaite in public hands was fierce; residents worried that if privatised, it would be closed off entirely. The Supreme Court ruled it should be sold. The Commonwealth made an offer but was outbid by $10 million by Shore School. It restored Graythwaite, and now uses it as an office area. The purchase expanded the school's grounds by almost half, and the sprawling site now takes up a sizeable chunk of land to the south of North Sydney CBD. Happily for Shore, it does not need to pay rates on that growing parcel of land because schools have an exemption. Shore can keep that cash for other things – such as buying even more land. Most recently, it has asked North Sydney Council if it can buy a chunk of Edward Street, to make pick up and drop off easier for parents. North Sydney Council is, like many other councils across state, struggling financially (its position has not been helped by its disastrous renovation of the once-magnificent North Sydney Pool, which has not only been a financial nightmare, but must count as one of the most egregious cases of historical vandalism in recent history). The council may well sell the road to Shore, if it can't get a land swap deal; it needs the money. To swell its coffers, the council has repeatedly asked local private schools to pay voluntary rates. North Sydney's is an extreme case – about 10 per cent of the council area's land is occupied by schools, and many of those schools are very, very rich. In its 2024 report to the charities register, Shore valued its assets at $426.2 million, while Redlands' were worth $205.8 million, and Wenona's were worth $132 million. Some of the schools have bought up all the houses along entire streets in North Sydney, which they use for various things such as administration and teacher accommodation. The council estimates it's missing out on at least $1 million a year in rates because so much land is occupied by schools (Shore does pay rates on the 17 houses it rents to private tenants, and some of the schools are public ones, such as North Sydney Boys and Girls). But every time the council asks, the schools say no. They argue that even a voluntary payment would interfere with their not-for-profit status under section 83C of the NSW Education Act, which would in turn affect their eligibility for government funding – although that's a matter of interpretation. Others think that a contribution would have no impact on a school's not-for-profit status. A review underway into 83C is likely to clarify that schools are at greater liberty to waive their rate exemption than they might think.
