Companion Animals Management Plan

Callan Park Revitalisation webinar transcript

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Welcome everyone welcome. I’m just going to wait for people to jump on in. Getting more and more attendees. Welcome. Thanks for spending your evening with us tonight it's so cold. I hope you’re all warmed up. Welcome, we're just waiting for a few more people to come on in so they don’t miss the commencement of our webinar tonight. All right, we might kick off thanks for your patience everyone. Welcome. My name is Jen guys I’m a director with Cred Consulting and I have the pleasure of facilitating our webinar. Where we are talking about various initiatives around the revitalisation of Callan Park this evening. I’d like to commence by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we are all meeting this evening and pay my respects to elder's past and present and warmly welcome into our digital meeting tonight any First Nations people joining us.

So tonight's agenda we're going to be hearing a series of updates from the Greater Sydney Parklands and New South Wales Health on various initiatives towards the revitalisation of Callan Park. We’ll be talking about the Companion Animals Management Plan which was launched today, the waterfront revitalisation and heritage projects and from New South Wales Health we’ll be hearing about some of the heritage projects. Following the presentations, we will have time for questions, so let me talk you through how to submit your questions. At the bottom of your zoom screen, there is a Q and A button. Please submit any questions you would like answered by our panel tonight through the Q and A button, not through the chat. We will only be answering questions through the Q and A button. The chat, however, is open. It's a public chat so please be respectful of each other as it's a public document. If you have any comments between yourselves or general comments around the presentations that you're hearing. But just remembering if you have questions, please submit those through the Q and A button, which is at the bottom of your screen. If we can't get to all your questions this evening, we will provide you with an FAQ after the fact and try and answer those and provide them online for you. And as you probably heard at the beginning, the webinar will be recorded and we will provide a link to that for anyone who misses out on watching us live tonight. So now, I have the pleasure of introducing you to Suellen Fitzgerald who is the Chief Executive of the Greater Sydney Parklands and is here to welcome us. Thanks Suellen.

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: Thanks so much Jen and welcome to everybody who's on the webcast. I’d also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the respective lands from which we come, and to pay my respects to their leaders past and current and for the future. And thanks to everyone who's attending the website and for taking the time on, as Jen said, a pretty cold Monday night to attend this session, and I also wanted to thank everybody who made a submission to the draft plan. It's a big effort to make a submission to a government plan like that, it wasn't a small document. So people have read it and carefully considered it and I wanted to thank everyone for their considered opinions. It's been one of the most evenly spread responses to a plan that I’ve seen in a long time which is great because it allows us to create a balanced plan for the future. This is what GSP is about; wanting to work with the local community to transform Callan Park into a place for everyone and we're really interested in getting diverse opinions about and from the diverse community that loves and enjoys Callan Park. I also want to give a really big shout out to Sarah Cameron, Megan Parker and the team from Cred for all the immense amount of work that they've put into this draft plan and into finely assessing and considering all of the responses we've had so great, great work team and I’m really looking forward to tonight's presentation.

It's the result of a lot of hard work, and I think that it's a balanced plan and a balanced outcome that protects the heritage and it stories and the environment. But also, what we want to do is make Callan Park, a place for people of the future I’m really excited about the work we've been able to do so far at Callan Park.

Many of you will have seen how we've started to knock down some of the most intrusive buildings down by the waterfront and the next stage of Sarah’s work will be to transform that area to a place for everyone to enjoy for the future. So it's a big it's a big task. The stories and richness of Callan Park are things we need to conserve very carefully for the future. But I’m very proud of the way GSP and Sarah and her team are moving forward with it so with those words I’m really looking forward to hearing what everyone's got to say tonight and the presentations. We've got a great collaboration going with Sue-Ellen Douglas, yes, I know there's two Suellen’s, but she's got a hyphen, I haven't. I’m really looking forward to hearing her presentation tonight as well too cause we work very closely with Health on this combined side, so Jen back to you.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks for that Suellen. So, it's now my pleasure to introduce you to Sarah Cameron who is the Senior Manager at Callan Park and probably known to most of you 52 of you on the line tonight. Sarah is going to firstly introduce you to the Companion Animals Management Plan which we're really excited about and then, subsequently talk to you about some of the water revitalization and heritage projects. Thanks and over to you, Sarah.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: Thanks Jen and also thank you Suellen for those really lovely words. This has been a really big team effort across 18 months, and I want to thank everybody tonight as well who's attending tonight. This is an auspicious occasion as we launch the inaugural Companion Animals Management Plan for Callan Park. As Suellen said for those of you here tonight who contributed ideas and suggestions and were interested in the process, this plan has been developed as a result of your involvement and your feedback. It's been really, really appreciated the level of involvement and the level of interest. You're a great community, you love the park and we love the park and I just wanted to say thank you at the outset for all of your amazing contributions over the past 18 months. Next slide please.

And so, first of all, just a little bit of you know, going back to the beginning. The purpose of the plan is really to provide direction to Greater Sydney Parklands on our management of companion animals in Callan Park in a way which really prioritises safe and equitable access for all of our visitors. One of the principal objectives and aims is to ensure that there is a balanced approach to the way that we manage dogs and other companion animals in Callan Park, so that we minimise any potential for any sort of conflict between dogs and other park users. The CAMP also considers the relevant legislation. Which is quite a complicated little bunch of legislation. There is the Companion Animals Act of 1998, the Callan Park Special Provisions Act and the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust Act and Regulations. All of these things are read together and work together as a combined legislative framework for managing companion animals in Callan Park. The Inner West Council companion animals action plan is also a policy of council that they apply within this LGA, which also has been taken into consideration as we have developed the plan in addition to our landscape structure plan which was released in January 2021. Thanks Kristy.

So let's go back a little bit and have a look at how we've developed the CAMP. Really early on, it was so important for us to understand what was important to the community, what people felt we should include in the plan and what we should give consideration to, and what we should prioritise. So right back at the start before we even put pen to paper, we talked to you. We did that first community webinar right back in May 2021 and at that time, we also had a social pinpoint website. And we did face to face surveys in the park, which was amazing given the Covid context in which we were working within at the time. And we had pop ups in the park and focus groups. Right at the very beginning, from the beginning we've been working with Inner West Council staff and we formed a working group early on in the process in order to make sure that we understand, as Greater Sydney Parklands, what the issues are in terms of managing companion animals and how Inner West Council have been managing dogs right across the LGA. So from that initial engagement, we were then able to go away and actually produce a draft which we brought back to the community last December. We held another webinar and we did an online survey. We had a formal submissions portal, and thank you again for all those people who took the time.

As Suellen said it takes a lot of time to make a submission and we had over 450 individual pieces of feedback, so thank you again. Just moving this. And that led us to basically be able to refine the plan. All of that feedback that we received, we were able to analyse all of the submissions and analyse all of the primary themes and the feedback that came through and we took the modified plan to the Greater Sydney Parklands board in April this year and it's very pleasing today that we're now able to share the final CAMP with you. Next slide please.

So, as I said, we have refined the plan, and it has its slight tweaks in it from what we presented to you in December last year. We got over 450 responses and submissions which was just an amazing amount of feedback for us. And we also had submissions from Inner West Council, Writing New South Wales, Callan Park Bush Care Group, the Callan Park Dog Lovers Facebook group, and welcome to all of the members tonight and Luisa. The Friends of Callan Park and we had 99 individual community submissions and 214 form submissions. All of the issues raised have been analysed and addressed, and we had 145 survey responses as well.

Next slide, thank you. So this is probably a little bit difficult for people to see, I apologise for that. I think what we're just trying to show here is just the diversity of views, but not only that. There were a few key themes that really emerged from our exhibition of the draft plan. And one of those was that people in this community really understand that a companion animal management plan is needed for Callan Park and that was universally accepted so that was really great to see. Just how engaged, you are, as a community and how you understand that as a park manager, we are responsible for safety in the park and making sure that there is equal access for everyone, and this plan is really been designed to help us pursue that objective and that goal. Some of the other key themes that emerged, not surprisingly, were that people really value the natural environment of Callan Park, the cultural landscapes. The European heritage and the Aboriginal cultural heritage, these are things that people are absolutely passionate about and have an expectation that those elements of the park will be safeguarded and will be cherished and celebrated so they were all things that not surprisingly came through and we heard those things very loud and clear. Next slide please. And so what we talked to the community originally was a set of objectives and really there are I think three key objectives that we will implement through actions. The first objective is that Callan Park is a welcoming place for dogs and their owners to visit and to be within. That's really important and that came through the community engagement very clearly. Actions to assist Greater Sydney Parklands to actually meet that objective are these actions here, so we are determined to provide a positive safe and a friendly environment within the parklands for dogs and people to enjoy. We are committed to providing better facilities for dogs and their owners, such as bins and watering stations and off-leash areas and other things that people and their dogs would like to see in Callan Park. And we will provide designated dog off-leash areas as part of meeting that objective. Next slide please.

And the other really important objective in implementing this plan is to ensure that the Greater Sydney Parklands can protect sites that are culturally significant to First Nations people. To protect heritage and environmental areas and wildlife habitats, the actions that we will be implementing to achieve that objective are to ensure that First Nation sites and areas of cultural significance are protected. One of the things that we will be bringing to the community within the next year or so is a management plan for Callan Point that really seeks to make sure that the very significant First Nations sites that are present on Callan Point are better looked after than they are currently. We’ll ensure that significant native vegetation and bush regeneration sites are protected and one initiative that we will be pursuing is to seek a designation for the bush regeneration site to have it designated as an environmentally sensitive area by Inner West Council. And that will really help us support the bush regeneration group, but also to seek more grant funding to do that very important bush regeneration work. The other thing is to ensure that there is protection for native wildlife and habitats and ensure that heritage buildings and cultural landscapes within Callan Park are protected. And that's all enshrined within our selection criteria in terms of how we've determined where off-leash zones are appropriate and where they're not appropriate. Next slide please, Kristy. Thank you.

And the other objectives that really underpins this plan is to make sure that we have much better communication tools to talk with people to raise awareness about how Callan Park is a park that we would like everyone to share respectfully. And to make sure that when people do visit with dogs that they make the right decisions about not impacting other people and choosing the right places to walk their dogs off lead. So the actions that we will take to implement this objective is, we will be rolling out a community awareness campaign with information about visiting Callan Park with dogs. And that will include tonight's webinar, it will include a brochure that we're going to send out next week or so to suburbs within the area, there will be on site signage which will tell people where the on and off-leash areas are. And our ranger service, when we roll that out, we’ll be asking our rangers to talk with people about where the on and off-leash areas are located, and I guess supporting people to visit Callan Park in a way that with dogs that doesn't impact on other people. The other really important action that we'd like to take is to make sure that in all of our messaging that we're supporting the positive sharing of spaces within Callan Park for everybody. And part of this is advocating and supporting responsible dog ownership and eventually commercial dog walking practices in Callan Park. Next slide please.

So what the CAMP will deliver. So we took these initiatives to the community and they've been resoundingly endorsed. There will be off-leash access to just over 20 hectares of Callan Park under Greater Sydney Parklands management; that means that 18 hectares will remain on-leash as they are now. We will be providing a fenced off-leash area up near Balmain Road Green and will investigate provision of a second. We will be installing new amenities, such as drinking stations and more waste bins for dogs and their owners. We are designating off-leash access at Callan Point Beach. We will be increasing connections from Balmain Road into Callan Park and we're proposing to formalise what is a fairly informal opening at the moments part of the brick wall which has collapsed so we'll be looking at improving that access and making it accessible for everybody. And we'll be introducing a second access along Balmain Road as well, to try to increase the permeability into the park and make it easier for everyone to get into Callan Park. We’ll also be protecting significant heritage sites and sensitive vegetation in Callan Park. And eventually we will undertake a traffic and pedestrian management plan to resolve any potential conflicts that might arise between pedestrians and vehicles. We’ll be doing that over the medium term and will be obviously encouraging responsible dog ownership by working with Inner West Council on a suite of education programs for Callan Park. Next slide please, Kristy.

Now we took this off-leash selection criteria to the community in the draft plan, and it was overwhelmingly endorsed by the Community. People felt that this was really sound decision making and obviously the thinking behind this is what will help us to achieve those objectives I talked about earlier. So the selection criteria, there are really four of these. Off-leash areas should be accessible and easily identified. They shouldn't impact on heritage buildings or landscapes, it should have minimal impact on other park users, people that aren't in Callan Park with dogs, people who are working at Callan Park. And they should not impact on sensitive and significant sites. So that selection criteria is really the underpinning and the basis for us to look at where off-leash areas might be provided in Callan Park. And going forward into the future, if there are any adjustments made at all, it will always come back to this selection criteria. Next slide please, Kristy.

So this is the new off-leash area map for Callan Park. So just over 20 hectares of Callan Park will be designated for the first time. Giving legal certainty to everyone that wishes to walk their dogs off lead, legal certainty about where they can do that with permission. So those areas are Callan Point beach, the area from Gate A through to Balmain Road and Central Green on the southern side of Park Drive. There will be a fenced off-leash area adjacent to South Lane, and we intend to eventually demolish a series of intrusive buildings here in order to provide for a fenced off-leash area which would provide more space for that off-leash area without actually taking away or removing open space, the open space that's available currently. Kirkbride Gardens between the weather station to the Sunken Garden. We agreed with the community that this area of Kirkbride Gardens is less environmentally and heritage sensitive, so we are designating that area as off-leash. The Council sports fields there's no change there and they are shared off-leash spaces when there's no sport bookings in those ovals. Wharf Road Gardens which is the area down the bottom near Waterfront Green. And Bonnyview Cottage Gardens with a 10-metre curtilage exclusion zone around the building, because it is very heritage sensitive. Thanks Kristy, next slide.

So, in terms of implementation, the implementation will roll out from the first of July, and what that will look like is an education campaign so we have updated the information on our website, we will be letterbox dropping a brochure. We will be doing social media, we've got this webinar tonight, and we'll be talking to people throughout the park to really help people understand where the new off-leash zones apply. We’ll be rolling out an interim signage package, this will include information about where dogs can be exercised off-leash and it will include a QR code that will go back to our website where you can obtain more information on walking dogs in Callan Park. People might know that currently we have a security service in Callan Park. We will be going to a ranger service in the future and we’ll be instructing rangers to be part of our education program and to talk with the community proactively about the new arrangements in Callan Park. And, finally, there will be a monitoring and review roll. It'll take a while, this will be a change for people, so we understand that it would be very important to not only do the education and provide information, but also to come back eventually in time and fullness of time and look at where we've landed and how the plan is working. Thanks Kristy, next slide.

And this is a copy of the brochure, which those of you who live in the suburbs of Lilyfield, Rozelle and part of Balmain will shortly be receiving in your letterbox. This is the front cover to the to the brochure. And we’ll also be, as I said, including information on our website, so thank you for putting that up, Kristy. Next page, please. Thank you. As I said, there’ll be interim signage that will be installed in Callan Park. Now, we understand that no one wants a park full of cluttered signage. During the settling in and the change period, it will be important to visually mark the places where off-leash is permitted, so you will see these signs. They'll be installed from the first of July. Thanks Kristy. That’s the end of that part of the presentation. If you want more information and you want to view the document itself and you'd also like to see the exhibition report, you can go to this address and grab the plan from there. Please read it as I said it's really designed to help Greater Sydney Parklands manage the park for the benefit of all of our visitors. Thanks back to you, Jen. Oh, are we going straight to this.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Going straight to this, Sarah.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: Great. Excellent. Okay, so the next part of our presentation is just to give you an update on the Callan Park projects. We’ll turn to the major projects and other initiatives that are currently underway at Callan Park. Next page please, Kristy. Thank you.

So waterfront revitalisation. As many of you know Greater Sydney Parklands has been working on revitalising the waterfront as part of the community identified priority projects from the Callan Park landscape structured plan. Revitalising the waterfront by providing accessible toilets, planting new trees, providing places for picnics and informal gatherings and opening sightlines to the waterfront are our key priorities for this area, along with upgrading the Bay Run and removing vehicles from the Bay Run. In December 2021, we removed two intrusive buildings here and actually you can't see my cursor. Those two intrusive buildings did obscure sightlines to Iron Cove. Now that they've been removed the sight lines to Iron Cove have been greatly enhanced. A development application for the waterfront green area was approved by the local planning panel in April. And we have redesigned the plans in line with heritage expectations and we're awaiting final approval on those redesigned plans. And we're hoping for that approval in the not too distant future, along with an approval for an accessible amenities building which the Community voted on last year. Subject to final approvals being granted, we expect construction works will commence in Spring this year and we're targeting completion by mid-2023 which is really exciting. We’ll provide further updates on clear date of commencement once we get close to the time, so please keep an eye on our electronic newsletter which, if you've subscribed to, you will get automatically and also our website for updates. During that period, access to the Bay Run and the sporting fields will be maintained, but from time to time, there will be traffic control in place to enable access for construction vehicles and the like. Next page please, Kristy. Thank you.

And we recently lodged a DA for the Wharf Road car park and Military Drive upgrade so we're really hoping that we get that approval this year. We aim to commence construction late 2022. That will really allow us to then move vehicles off the Bay Run and to be able to upgrade the Bay Run so that it becomes a wholly pedestrian and cyclist space, and we will be looking at making sure that we have separate zones for cyclists and pedestrians on the Bay Run to minimise any conflicts. And the Wharf Road car park will be a really great facility for Callan Park. It's designed to maximise plantings and tree covers and it will blend with the surrounding parkland environments so it'll be really exciting once we can take those vehicles off the Bay Run and put them in a car park. Landscaping improvements also will include new shade trees and ground cover plantings and the removal of one derelict building which will increase open space again. This DA has been launched, as I said, and we are targeting construction and completion mid-2023. Next page please, Kristy.

And some other really fabulous projects that Greater Sydney Parklands has been working on. In collaboration with Public Works Advisory and the Minister Stonework Program, you would have seen the main gates opposite Cecily Street. This has been such a fabulous project to be involved in. I’ve just been really grateful that I’ve been involved in this project. I think everyone has really been able to benefit from this. The gates are now being used actively by pedestrians, who are coming in and out of the open gates so we're starting to really see a really great pedestrianisation of Callan Park. Next slide please, Kristy. Thank you. The repatriation would be also known as building 497. We've done a number of stages of repair and upgrades to this building. We have development consent now for a final stage, which will enable us to do an adaptive reuse process so that it can become a new community and sporting facility, which would be just amazing for Callan Park. Works will include new disability access, reopening the verandas, bathroom upgrades and a fit out. It's going to be a really amazing asset for Callan Park when it's finished. We have had an RDQ process in the public domain to find a tenant and that process is ongoing. Next slide please, Kristy. Thank you.

Nature play pop ups. Look these have been such a great addition to Callan Park and we've had so much wonderful feedback from families. Who have really warmed to these pop-up facilities. We've had educators on site just supporting the free play and the nature play, and it's been really, really great to see so many people, especially little children and families in Callan Park enjoying Callan Park. It's just been great. In the next school holidays, the Spring school holidays, not the winter ones, we’ll have another nature play pop up back down at the back of waterfront sports. So please watch out for that when it comes up again, but in the interim, please make use of other two spaces that we've previously had installed. Next slide please, Kristy. Thank you. And those of you who have been in Callan Park the past few days would have seen that we've done some very important resheeting and asphalting work to the roads in Callan Park. We received Cities and Active Transport funding for this work, so we've been really appreciative of the support from the agency to be able to carry out these urgent safety and maintenance repairs. Not really very interesting or exciting but we've done a whole lot of repair work to drainage pits which I think will really start to have an impact, when we get that rain again apparently towards the end of this year. And we're also going to be doing some work on the Bay Run in the coming weeks and we're also doing some upgrades to an electricity substation in Callan Park as well.

So that’s the end of the Callan Park updates on the projects, thanks to everyone for your patience, some as we've carried out this work in the last couple of weeks. I hope that you find these works do improve your visit and make the park a safer and more pleasant place to be in. Thanks everyone.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks for the update Sarah. So fantastic, great work. Just a reminder everyone if you do have questions for Sarah or Suellen, or Sue-Ellen, please do post them in the Q and A button, not in the chat. So it's my pleasure now to introduce Sue-Ellen Douglas who is the Manager of Property and Business Continuity with New South Wales Health, and Sue-Ellen’s going to provide an update from New South Wales Health around some of the heritage projects. Thanks Sue-Ellen.

Sue-Ellen Douglass – NSW Health: Thank you. Hi everybody, and thanks for joining tonight. My discussion is really just a run through of some of the projects that we're working on, I don't have a fancy presentation. But you just have to bear with me on that. I’m just going to go by precinct so one of the precincts that we manage is precinct four or, also known as Broughton Hall. And what we're doing at Broughton Hall in that precinct four at the moment we're working with We Help Ourselves on some building upgrades for them, because their buildings have really suffered in the in the recent wet weather that we've had. So we've been doing, and we have more scheduled as well, some roof repairs and plumbing repairs and drainage repairs, as a result, which will give them better premises to operate this service from. We're also working with WHO’s next financial year, which is coming very soon to do a separation of electrical services between the male and female dormitories and their cafeteria. So that involves a complete rewiring of those buildings, because it's time and new electrical distribution broad so that'll be quite a big project which might take us a few months to get done. With the support of WHO’s obviously we'll be looking at doing that.

The other thing for precinct four is we're doing a traffic management plan which we hope will actually provide a secure and safe pedestrian and vehicular access for the residents and the staff who actually work in that precinct to occupy that precinct. So there there's some good things to look forward for us with some precinct four because I think these are well overdue. Then moving on to all of Callan Park’s side, we've been working with Greater Sydney Parklands to look at separation of electrical services across the side as Sarah mentioned substation upgrades, electrical upgrades and a new power supply across the different precincts. So we’ll be managing our own electricity, Greater Sydney Parklands will be looking after their electricity and Sydney local health district too have the University of Tasmania and the nurse’s accommodation will have their own substations/power supply and that'll be a lot more a lot easier to manage if there are any electrical faults moving forward.

We are supporting Greater Sydney Parklands with a Companion Animals Management Plan and working with Inner West Council to ensure the sites are aligned, and we fully support the work that Greater Sydney Parklands are doing with Inner West Council for the Companion Animals Management Plan. And I'm looking forward to seeing that implemented. It is going to be exciting to have the off-leash areas, as well as the on-leash areas and just to be able to see people really enjoying the park to its fullest.

As far as it goes for Kirkbride, which is the main property that we spend a lot of time looking after since we since it was handed back from University of New South Wales, sorry, University of Sydney for the Sydney College of the Arts. We have recently completed, about the same time as Sarah’s gates, the upgrade and restoration of the South Gate or the men's gate with the Minister’s Stonework Program that was completed basically. It was finished in about February, March this year with some rain delays, but it looks pretty spectacular. We were really pleased with that. So I know that the North Gate or the women's gate was done a number of years ago, so we’ll be reviewing that again. What else they're doing on site within Kirkbride with the Minister’s Stonework Program is we're looking at building 13, which is the administration building at the roundabout. We’ll be looking at the upgrade of the exterior of that of that building, which includes some lead lining to protect the sandstone and restoration works there and looking at restoring the steps down from Kirkbride Way at the roundabout down to the road below it. So this is all exciting stuff.

The other works that we're doing with the Minister’s Stonework Program isn't so exciting but it's just as important. And that includes some rain works and guttering works across some of the buildings just to ensure that the buildings remain watertight and protect the sandstones fabric. With respect to the security of the site, we have installed quite a number of CCTV cameras and we have security on site on the weekends and we’re working with GSP with their ranger service and securities Monday through Sunday nights. And we generally staff building 13 Monday to Friday, so we try to provide a presence on site every day where possible. And we have a handyman coming one to two days a week at the moment to maintain the interior of the property and just keep everything as upgraded or maintained as we can at this point. Let me look at precinct three, which is New South Wales Ambulance. And now we're what we're doing with that is we're working with Ambulance for their eventual relocation to their new purpose, built purpose design space, and so, from my perspective, what I’ll be doing with my team is just make safe whilst the planning is in process for future health uses for that precinct. And, to be honest that's really all I’ve got, but that is actually an awful lot. Keeps us very busy on the site and it's been really good working with. And it's always a pleasure working with Greater Sydney Parklands collaboratively to ensure that the sites operating in a really unified fashion. Thanks.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks so much Sue-Ellen for that update, that was fantastic. So we now have time for Q and A and I’m going to try and get to as many as I can. Thank you everyone for submitting those. So panellists I hope you're ready as there's a quite a few coming in, which is great. If, as I said before, if we don't get to your questions this evening, we will prepare a FAQ and come back to you with answers after tonight. Alright, so let's start with a question from Madelaine Joel, thanks Madelaine for submitting. Is there a time frame for the plan about the road usage to be prepared? For you, Sarah.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: Sorry, I was just trying to find the mute button. The question was sorry?

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Is there a time frame for the plan about the road usage to be prepared.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: There's not at this stage, but we will be looking at it over the next year as we look at what our priorities are and as we review and monitor the implementation of the plan.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks Sarah, a question from Gretchen, when are the plans for the amenities facilities to be on view that will be included, and where is it to be located, please.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: I believe the amenities have already been on exhibition through Inner West Council. I can find the DA number and send you the DA link, but I don't have it to hand at the moment. Inner West Council exhibited the plans twice. Once late last year and then it was also on exhibition until quite recently, I believe, so it's already been on exhibition, but I can find the DA number and pop that in the chat for you.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks Sarah. Question from Brett who has authority over Rose Cottage at the moment and are there any plans to use that area and who would be involved in those decisions?

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: Thanks Brett, and Rose Cottages is one of the buildings that is within the Convalescent Cottages precinct. It's a beautiful building. It was originally designed by Barnett as part of that group of buildings. There are no plans at the moment to use that building, but as we move forward with our adaptive reuse and upgrades of the Convalescent Cottages, no doubt we’ll have a future use for that and we’ll consider future uses for that particular building.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks Sarah. I think this one might be for you Sue-Ellen Douglas. What is currently happening about the leasing of Kirkbride complex and you might have already touched on that. You’re just on mute.

Sue-Ellen Douglass – NSW Health: I know I realised that, thank you. We haven't touched on it and it's actually still a work in progress so it's not something I can talk to you in in a public forum at the moment.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: Sue-Ellen Douglas you're on mute.

Sue-Ellen Douglass – NSW Health: I’m not.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: No, she's good. Thanks Sue-Ellen we got that loud and clear.

Sue-Ellen Douglass – NSW Health: Thank you.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thank you. So next we have from Anne Therese King. When will local residents and community groups be formally notified about the DA on carpark? For their comment for you, Sarah. Finding that mute button again.

Kristy Pelekis: I’ll unmute you Sarah. You should be good to go now. Sarah.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Are you responding Sarah. Oh, I think we might have lost Sarah's audio.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: Is that for me Jen to answer that question?

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Yes.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: Sorry I seem to have lost my audio could you repeat the question, please.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Sure, when will local residents and community groups be formally notified about the DA on the carpark?

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: I can't hear you at all, can you hear me?

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Yes.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: I’m sorry about this, I will just try to get my audio back.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: That’s okay let's move on to another question, let me find one for Sue-Ellen.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: On to the next question.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: So this one looks like it's for you Sue-Ellen Douglas from Bronwyn. What's been done about preserving the health of the old Morton Bay fig trees in front of ambulance administration?

Sue-Ellen Douglass – NSW Health: That's an interesting question. I actually don't have an answer for that at the moment because we are not managing the Ambulance administration site at this point. Once it’s handed back to me we will certainly be able to find some kind of response to that that will hopefully provide a solution to those trees, but at the moment I don't have any carriage over that site.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks Sue-Ellen. Another one for you while you’re there. Gladesville hospital has hundreds of health staff in refurbish buildings. Are there any plans to move health staff over to Callan Park?

Sue-Ellen Douglass – NSW Health: Most of our Health staff from Gladesville have now relocated to One Reserve Road with the exception of medical review tribunal and some Ambulance project teams and training centre. So there aren’t those plans at this point, there may be in the future, but there definitely aren't at the moment.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks Sue-Ellen. Sarah do we have you back online. Let's test your audio. Sarah you're on mute.

Kristy Pelekis: I don’t think Sarah can hear us okay moment. I'll try and get contact with her.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Okay, it looks like we might have lost Sarah's audio so what I’m going to do is ask Sarah if you could answer some questions in the chat and type answers, so that we can get through a few more questions we have 10 more minutes. Sue Ellen Fitzgerald.

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: I might be able to answer some of the things. I don't have all the detail that Sarah Cameron does. There was a question about the carpark DA?

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Yes, when will the community be notified about the DA for their comment?

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: Okay well look that's up to the Council. We've put in our DA application to Council, and they'll determine when in coming weeks. It'll go up on public exhibition, so that's a question for Council.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks Suellen. Would you like to take a look at the questions in the Q and A. I’m looking at the one around traffic coming on Wharf Road. Is that one that you could answer for us?

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: Again, that's a really great question and as we get more and more usage of the car park on Wharf Road and get more and more people coming down to use the waterfront green area, we will have to consider that, so I think that's a really good suggestion and one we’ll take on board.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks Suellen, and another one here from Jillian as well is are we proposing any agility structures in the fence dog areas?

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: Look, we haven't got down to thinking about the detail and what might be in the fenced areas, but I think that's a great idea. I know we've done a lot of agility structures and so on in our dog off-leash area at Shale Hills in Western Sydney Parklands so I think that would be great. The area that we're proposing for the fence dog off-leash area is relatively free of heritage features and so on. It's a beautiful part of the park with lots of shade and it's close up to Balmain Road, but being able to sort of sensitively locate some agility structures would be a great idea.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks, Suellen. There’s been a few questions or comments really in the Q and A around would there be future consultation of where the pop-up play might be located in the park?

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: Look, we hadn't thought about that because I guess there are femoral things that come and go, but if anyone's got suggestions that they want to put through to us, yes please. The first one we put in place was just behind the sports ovals, and one of the things we realised from that was that it could have been in a difficult position once cricket got underway with certain direct line of fire of the wicket, and then we tried another one just further up the slope and further into the park as well, so suggestions absolutely love to hear them. And I noticed there's a couple of comments to about some of the structures from those pop-up play being left after the pop-up playground has closed, so we can certainly look and see if that's causing an issue for people run the park as well.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks Suellen. Another question from Madeline. Do we know when the fence dog area might be ready, and I know that you just said we're not at that point yet, but do you have a time frame?

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: No, we're not at that point yet. It's one of the things we know is going to be really popular in Callan Park. So it's one of our next priorities, but at the moment our current funding is all focusing down on completing the Bay Run, getting the waterfront green, the car park and the new amenities block. But I do think that the fenced area, two things. One I think it's a really high priority for us next to consider. And two, I don't think it would be a major capital expenditure so we'll look to get straight on to that as soon as we get through these current works.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks Suellen, you're doing a great job here. And Sarah is madly typing answers to your questions since she's lost audio.

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: Oh. Well, I hope her answers to the questions ...

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Are aligned?

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: Are the same as mine. You’re the expert.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: You’re answering separate ones so that's all good. So I have a question here from Paul. Suellen you might be able to answer this one. Have you considered repurposing the air raid shelter as the new toilet box block for the waterfront green?

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: I looked at that question, Paul. No, we haven't looked at doing that. But what we've frequently found is that by repurposing a building that's designed for a completely other use, particularly when it's a toilet block that requires sewerage, electricity and water, and so on. It's often not as effective, you know to repurpose a building built for another purpose, but I do think that those air raid shelters around the site are particularly intrinsic and important to the look and feel of Callan Park, so I think certainly could be repurposed for things that are perhaps a little bit less specific than toilet blocks.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks Suellen. One that's just comes through from Gretchen. Will consideration be given to having some of the internal roads be made one way?

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: Gretchen, can’t answer that decisively, but I do think we have to really think carefully about how vehicles move around the site, and particularly to reduce conflicts with pedestrians and obviously with people who are there with their dogs and their children so. One way may potentially come up in that that discussion. I think we will certainly give things like that a consideration.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Okay, thanks so much Suellen. And I think that leads us to the end of the majority of our questions. I can see Sarah’s typing an answer to one more right now. Cynthia, I see your question there around the derelict building. I will talk to Sarah and she will contact you directly about what building she was referring to. I don't have her answer. I think her internets dropped out so apologies everybody. And if we haven't gotten to a couple of questions here, that I think are probably for Sarah and we haven't got to those, I’ll have her answer those. They will be on the FAQs. We will get back to you. And we have just a few more minutes, I see a few more questions popping in, thank you. Hi Louisa, welcome. Thanks for joining us. So a question here Suellen from Louisa. Speeding traffic in the park is a major problem and I’d like to suggest that pedestrians are a priority and that speed cameras clock people who speed through the park. Could you consider traffic cameras?

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: Jen I think that was a really timely bark from your dog. That is quite threatening, and I think it was about the speed of traffic. Luisa, thanks for that. I don't have speed signage around the park at the moment, but I know that one of the things that Sarah has been putting a lot of work into lately is to forming really close working relationships with the local area police command. Things like speeding around the park those sorts of things are managed by the local area police command so I think that we've got a lot of collaborative work to do with them, but signage yep absolutely and I think that this traffic and pedestrian plan that we want to do for the park will be really helpful there as well.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks Suellen, apologies about that dog bark, but how fitting for the conversation.

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: No, I thought it was good.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Madeline has a really good question here and it's a good point around could we meet again and when would we meet again to review how it's all going assuming Madeline is referring to the Companion Animals Management Plan, but possibly to everything.

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: Look, I think it’s a really good idea. We've put into the plan a 12-month transition for introducing these new arrangements, because obviously you know dogs in Callan Park have been long time users, so we recognise that and we want to give ourselves time as a community and as a management agency to transition to the new arrangements, and if that involves some kind of ongoing discussions to get people's feedback we'd be happy to do that and to raise.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks so much Suellen. Sarah are you back with us.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: Yes I am, apologies everyone. I've just had a bit of a tech fail there so apologies for that. Were there any questions that you'd like me to answer Jen?

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: I think we're at the end of our questions. Sarah and I saw that you were answering a lot by typing so thank you for that, and everyone should be able to have seen those and, as I said, we are recording tonight's session so anyone who hasn't been here, you could share the recording with them. We will endeavour to provide an FAQ that describes answers to all of your questions and we have time for probably one more which, let me have a look here. I’m not sure who this is for. This might be for you, Sarah or it could be for you Sue-Ellen Douglas. It's an interesting one. Katie says that they read recently there are 1000 graves at Callan Park and 100 unmarked graves. Is there a map of where they are, and will they be affected by any of the plans at all?

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: Perhaps I could answer that first and then I might hand over to sue Ellen. To my knowledge, there are no burials in Callan Park but Sue-Ellen Douglas you may know more about the history about that than I.

Sue-Ellen Douglass – NSW Health: I can't say definitively if there are, but I know that as far as I understand, there are no formal burial areas at Callan Park, so I think that's going to take a bit of more investigation and maybe going back through some archives or history because I haven't heard of any. I do know we have a cemetery. The Classified Memorial Cemetery at Gladesville but that's not Callan Park, so no I can't answer that sorry.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thank you both. So that leads us to the end of our webinar this evening. As I said, we will endeavour to get an FAQ up online answering all of your questions and apologies for the dropout with Sarah’s internet. It's NBN I suppose. But thank you all for being with us tonight. We do have a very short, one question poll for you all, just to test whether you enjoyed this process and Kristy is going to bring that up right now for everybody. Thanks Kristy. You can see, probably see that, on your screen right now. Sarah or Sue-Ellen would you like to say farewell to everyone before we sign off this evening? Lost Sarah again. Sue-Ellen would you like to?

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: It’s okay I’m here.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Oh great.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: Thanks everyone for coming along. I apologise again about the tech fail. These things always, I suppose, expect the unexpected, to a certain degree. If there are questions in the chat that I didn't get to as Jen said, we will actually be posting this session to our website and we will endeavour to respond to all of the questions and we'll post those to the website as well. So thanks everyone for coming and I’ll just hand over to Sue-Ellen Fitzgerald for some final words.

Suellen Fitzgerald – Greater Sydney Parklands: Ah me. Look, I’d just like to reiterate Sarah your words. I know that there's been some comment in the chat to about what a great deal of work you've put into this Companion Animal Plan Sarah so well done on that. And thank you everyone for coming tonight. Really appreciate it, and we will get back to any of the questions that we didn't get to in the discussion. Thank you again and let's look forward to a great place for dogs and people at Callan Park.

Jen Guice – Cred Consulting: Thanks everyone have a great night.

Sue-Ellen Douglass – NSW Health: Thank you.

Sarah Cameron – Greater Sydney Parklands: Thanks everyone good night.