What are the threats?
Over many years, successive NSW governments and their agencies have come to look on Moore Park as vacant space, with chunks and slices being appropriated for light rail, roadworks, footbridges, parking – anything but its original intended purpose: public recreation.
The SCG and SFS were built on part of what was the original Sydney Common set aside by Governor Macquarie for the citizens of Sydney. However the level of degradation of some areas of the park is so severe that it hasn’t been possible for years for them to be used as playing fields for junior and community sport, despite there being a desperate shortage of such fields in the Sydney metropolitan area.
The proposed stadium, the Tibby Cotter Walkway and the massive construction activities associated with the light rail – not least the ‘temporary’ diversion of Anzac Parade - are all testament to the fact that Government sees green space as vacant space, something to be filled with projects of one sort or another. Green space is not viewed as having a value in itself or if it is, then its value is certainly less than that of the projects.
Being so close to the City and to major sporting venues, history tells us that the threats to Moore Park will never go away. Governments and their agencies will continue to come up with ideas for using bits of the Park for non-recreation purposes. And this is despite the rapid growth in population expected to the west of Moore Park over the next decade, with the commensurate increase in demand for active and passive recreation space.
It is because of these threats that Saving Moore Park Inc. exists. It is because of these threats that we need your support.