Page: 21443
Mr DAVID BARR (Manly) [5.46 p.m.]: In December last year the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust released its draft management plan for North Head. That plan is basically a blueprint for the protection and maintenance of the intact and rare ecosystems at North Head, including flora, fauna, biodiversity, geodiversity, and for the facilitation of the adaptive reuse of the former defence buildings for appropriate uses. The management plan takes in 72 hectares, which is the site of the old School of Artillery, out of a total of more than 300 hectares of North Head, which is basically owned by the State. It was Crown land that belonged to the colony of New South Wales before Federation and to New South Wales after Federation. In 1910 an agreement between the State and the Commonwealth allowed the Commonwealth use of the land for defence purposes and for a quarantine station.
In 1984 the agreement was varied and part of the quarantine station land was returned to New South Wales. The agreement provided that when land was no longer need for the quarantine station or for military purposes, the site should revert to New South Wales. The School of Artillery relocated in 1997. The only connection the military has on North Head is the North Fort. New South Wales is the legal owner of North Head, including the Manly Hospital site, but the State interest has been dormant for many years. The Commonwealth is still in possession of the site occupied by the Australian Institute of Police Management. We are awaiting a memorandum of understanding to be signed between the State and Federal governments that will allow the site to revert to New South Wales once remediation and restoration has been undertaken. The Federal Government is prepared to spend, through the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, something like $20 million on that process, and has done excellent work on all sites with which it has been involved around the harbour.
New South Wales has insisted on the right to determine the terms of the leases and the lessees. The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust Act specifically excludes any land owned by the trust from the operations of State planning law. That has delayed things for the moment, but the point is that the Federal Government is willing to put $20 million into that site. It will then revert to the State, so the State is a clear winner. One of the themes of the plan is the benefit that would flow from including all of North Head in a draft plan of management rather than just the School of Artillery site. The comprehensive plan proposes the creation of a sanctuary for all of North Head, which all parties have endorsed, including the State Government. The draft plan says:
Although the implementation of the sanctuary concept would ideally include all landowners at North Head, the Trust is only responsible for the management of the former School of Artillery site.
It is a pity we cannot have a draft plan for all of North Head. One of the issues is what will happen to the management of this site when the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust has finished its 10-year tenure. There is still five years to run before it lapses. What happens in the long term? Ideally, the North Head Sanctuary Foundation should have a role in the management of the sanctuary and that body should manage all of North Head. I have often referred in this place to the quarantine station site and what is happening there. We are still waiting for a lease to be signed but it keeps getting delayed. The hope of the Government is that it will be signed before the end of this financial year. It has been dragging on and there are whispers that there are some serious complications. If that is the case, there may well be an opportunity for the State Government to step back and work with the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust on an integrated management plan for all of North Head. We could have one body responsible for the care, management and betterment of that site to provide a good green gateway to Sydney Harbour.