“‘Missed opportunity for Sydney’: secret plans for Cockatoo Island”
By Deborah Snow
READ THE COCKATOO ISLAND FOUNDATION SUBMISSION TO THE REVIEW HERE →
Transcript:
Controversy over the future of a key asset owned by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is set to intensify, with a private philanthropy group unveiling a bid to lease and "re-imagine" the whole of heritage-listed Cockatoo Island for at least 50 years.
The Cockatoo Island Foundation Limited wants to transform the prize Commonwealth-owned site into a "permanent art island for Sydney", complete with major art installations, permanent and temporary art exhibitions, "immersive" visitor experiences, food and beverage offerings and other unspecified "potential uses".
The foundation says a new body, not the trust, should manage the site, because the island has been "severely underused" and is a "missed opportunity for Sydney and Australia".
"Our observation is that there is no clear vision for the future of the island, and no clear sense of what its owners and stakeholders want the island to be" it says, in its submission to a review commissioned by federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
The foundation, led by prominent business and art world figures Tony Berg and Danny Goldberg, says they can guarantee at least $80 million in philanthropic funding, but only if the federal government commits to finishing remediation of the site, likely to cost around $190 million.
Another key backer of the foundation is corporate adviser and arts benefactor, Simon Mordant, who sits on a range of national and international arts boards.
Mr Berg, the group’s chair, insisted on Sunday that "there is absolutely no personal commercial benefit in this. We have this vision for something really fantastic to happen on Cockatoo Island, make it a place of excitement, but if at the end of the day, the review and the government say that is not the way they want to go, we will pack up our stuff and go away," he said.
"We think we are making a generous offer… these sorts of offers are few and far between."
The group points to Japan’s art island of Naoshima and MONA in Hobart as successful examples of leveraging philanthropy to "re-imagine" existing sites.
The foundation says its audacious plan will "transform Cockatoo Island into a sustainable, world-class arts and culture destination while preserving its history, public ownership and access".
But the submission also envisages an unspecified degree of commercialisation, arguing that strong visitor numbers are needed "to drive commercial revenues and a sustainable business model for the island."
Revenue would be ploughed back into the not-for-profit enterprise to make it "sustainable to the maximum extent possible", Mr Goldberg said.
Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese told The Sydney Morning Herald last week he opposed any granting of long leases over the trust’s assets because that would amount to "de facto privatisation".
"Sydney Harbour is a national asset … a precious resource, not a plaything for corporate interests," he said.
Similar concerns have been expressed by community groups such as the Headland Preservation Group, who want use of the former defence sites vested in the trust to comply with Parliament’s original aim of conserving "land in the Sydney Harbour region for the benefit of present and future generations of Australians."
Mr Goldberg said on Sunday he saw nothing in the foundation’s vision that was inconsistent with the goals of the act.
The foundation wants to change the island’s name to "Waremah" or "women’s place" reflecting its Indigenous history; it later became a convict site, a place for a girls’ reformatory and eventually a naval dockyard.
The foundation says ownership of the island should remain with the Commonwealth but management should pass to a new structure, comprising "a partnerhsip" between federal andNSW governments, and philanthropic board members.
It has not outlined who should control the board. The review panel is due to report by the end of March.
Ms Ley set terms of reference which included "developing commercial strategies for trust sites to maximimise revenue in a way that is consistent with broader public access and amenity objectives of the Act."