The parklands bill passed NSW Parliament on 17 September. It will open Callan Park up to cafés and other businesses and change who has a say, but the ban on selling the park stays.
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Image credit: Greater Sydney Parklands
What’s Changing
Callan Park has had its own protective law since 2002. The Government says it’s the most restrictive of any park in NSW, and that it hasn’t been able to find tenants for vacant buildings. The new law loosens it in four main ways.
Businesses allowed: Development at the park has been limited to not-for-profit uses such as community, arts, education and health facilities. That limit goes, so businesses like cafés could seek approval to operate commercially.
Longer leases: Leases of up to 50 years will be possible anywhere in the park without going to Parliament. Currently, most are capped at 10 years.
Fewer steps for short leases: Under the amended Callan Park Act, leases of five years or less won’t need the Minister’s sign-off or the Act’s 30-day notice process. Longer leases will still need the Minister’s consent after 30 days for submissions.
More room for new buildings: New buildings won’t have to sit on old building footprints, although the park’s total building floor space stays capped.
Callan Park’s community trustee board also loses its sign-off on the park’s plan of management. Greater Sydney Parklands will still have to consult the board, but won’t need its approval.
What Isn’t Changing
No sale: Callan Park still can’t be sold, in whole or in part. A new power to sell “supplementary land” only covers land the Trust owns or manages outside its parks.
Banned uses: Hotels, function centres and retirement villages are still prohibited.
Open space: Development still can’t leave the park with less open space than it had in 2002.
Gardens: The Broughton Hall, Kirkbride and Charles Moore gardens stay protected.
Council’s role: Inner West Council will still decide proposals that require a development application, and heritage laws still apply.
The law’s list of goals has changed, though. It no longer mentions keeping the whole park in public ownership or preserving its 2002 open space. The Government says the rules above still cover both. The Greens tried to put the old goals back and lost.
Will There Be a Café?
That’s the plan, though nothing has been approved yet. Cafés have been the Government’s main example. Announcing the bill’s passage, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said “people should be able to enjoy a latte and banana bread at the park”. The Government has also pointed to spots along the Bay Run and near the new swim spot.
One building that’s been floated is the Cane Room, near the Bay Run at Waterfront Green. Greater Sydney Parklands chief executive Joshua French told the ABC in May that a café was “one possible future use” for it. The draft foreshore plan, which closed for comment in June, says only that the building will be “retained and adapted for a future use”.
Before a café can open, the new rules need to start and an operator needs a lease. Any required planning approval will also have to be obtained, and the proposal must fit the park’s plan of management. No timeline has been announced.
Where People Stand
Labor and the Coalition backed the bill. The Government says long leases will help bring empty heritage buildings back into use and fund maintenance of the park.
The Greens supported the final version too, largely because of changes won by Member for Balmain Kobi Shetty. Registered charities will be able to lease without an open tender, the floor space cap is fixed at this year’s level and development will have to fit the plan of management. But the Greens lost their bid to keep the public ownership goal and Parliament’s oversight of long leases, which the upper house voted down 24 to 5.
What Happens Next
The Government still has to set a start date for the new rules.
In the meantime, another Callan Park decision is open for comment. Inner West Council has lodged a review of the Local Planning Panel’s June refusal of a synthetic field at Waterfront Drive. The Panel refused the first plan unanimously, citing flood-pollution risk and insufficient consideration of less sensitive sites. Council says an all-weather field is needed for reliable wet-weather play and disputes the Panel’s flood finding. The review proposal uses organic infill. It’s a separate planning decision, not part of the new law. Submissions close on Tuesday 6 October.
The new tidal baths are due to open this summer, and nine unsafe buildings are due to come down by late 2026, returning about 1.6 hectares of open space.
For background, read our February explainer on the bill as introduced, our May story on the foreshore plan and our June story on the sports fields decision.
