Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance

Steve Lewis,National correspondent | The Australian Business August 11, 2007
High-level business support is getting behind the $3 billion-plus inland rail project, with leading retail and transport firms predicting it will slash freight costs and stem grocery price rises.
Federal Labor has so far backed the Government over the rail scheme. But the NSW Government has emerged as a critic, with the state’s Transport Minister John Watkins arguing it would be a waste of money unless it ran through Sydney. (more…)

SSROC (Southern Sydney Region of Council) www.ssroc.nsw.gov.au  received funding under the Metropolitan Greenspace Program for a project-read at - Botany Bay Trail Report 2006

Informed by the successful San Francisco Bay Trail and identified as a key recreation trail in the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources 2005 Regional Recreation Trails Framework, the Botany Bay Trail will establish a continuous public pathway around Botany Bay offering a range of levels of interaction and involvement for education and recreation, which can be safely accessed by familles and people with a disability.

The original study was undertaken by the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre -read at -  Botany Bay Trail 2003 Draft

The Metrostrategy Eastern Region Plan will be on exhibition until mid September.  It is important to challenge the unsustainable assumptions that underpin the plan.  Check it out and send in a submission  to eastsubregion@planning.nsw.gov.au
Mailed to Sydney Region East, NSW Department of Planning, Locked Bag 8, Redfern NSW 2016
Faxed to (02) 8374 5991: 

EcoTransit Sydney have released their 2007 Policy Statement. In contains some excellent suggestions for improving public transport, reducing green house gases, and reducing our oil dependency. It is well worth reading.

Submissions to the IPART Inquiry on the Review of the Interface between the Land Transport Industries and the Stevedores at Port Botany are now available.  ING submission to IPART no longer available on IPART website.

Included are submissions from BBACA and members Save Botany Beach, South West Environment Centre, and John Tourrier.There are varying comments expressed in the submissions. Some are suggesting there should be greater port-related activity around the Port. The stevedores at Port Botany DO NOT support the expansion and Railcorp would not comment on it. Railcorp state Page 28: “The economic characteristics of the Port Botany corridor and the level of required investment indicates that it is unlikely to be a commercially feasible project. This leads to the conclusion that if an infrastructure bottleneck is to be avoided the required capital investment in the rail infrastructure to Port Botany can not be left to normal commercial drivers and is a prime candidate for AusLink funding.”(26.6.07)

Auslink funding should be for Sustainable Visionary National Projects not to patch up State Government mistakes.

Greens MP and ports spokesperson Lee Rhiannon says Premier Iemma’s commitment to an expanded Port Botany will unnecessarily strangle Sydney with an increasing number of trucks and freight trains impacting negatively on Sydney’s traffic, air pollution and health.”The NSW government will never reach its 40 percent rail freight target without adopting a freight infrastructure charge which would create an incentive to move freight by rail. Its decision to duck this initiative shows it has again caved into the road lobby,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“For the government to claim there will be 300 fewer truck movements a day around the Airport, Port Botany and Marrickville and a reduction in CO2 is pure fantasy.” (more…)

Just when Sydney thought the NSW Government’s recent planning and infrastructure debacles could not get any worse, Premier Morris Iemma yesterday announced his plans to increase the number of containers to be transported on trains by up to 40% to alleviate Sydney’s traffic congestion, but this will not prevent the 300% increase in containers being transported on trucks on Sydney’s roads when the Premier plans to increase container throughput at Port Botany to 3.2 million containers per annum.”The Premier’s decision to bulldoze ahead with the Massive Port Botany expansion (which incorporates a 60 ha third terminal expansion requiring the dredging 7.5 million cubic metres of Botany Bay) is another example of gross economic and environmental mismanagement which follows on the back of the Cross City Tunnel, Sydney Airport Rail Link, the M5 and the Lane Cove bypass etc. that will create a sleeping giant and its impact will dwarf the above-mentioned developments and squeeze the last breath of from Sydney’s choking roads”, claims Greg Killeen, Save Botany Beach Deputy Chairperson.

“Transporting 40% of the current throughput of containers by rail will alleviate some traffic congestion in the short term, however, it will just shift the container trucks elsewhere and the extra freight trains will operate 24/7 and have an increasing major impact on residential properties near the freight rail tracks”, he said. (more…)

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, (IPART) is conducting a “Review of the Interface Between the Land Transport Industries and the Stevedores at Port Botany”. They have written an Issues Paper and are asking for submissions.

Telephone Betty Carter,at IPART, on (02) 9290 8483 for a copy of the document.

Submissions are due by 8 June 2007.

Meyrick and Associates describe themselves as economics, policy and management consultants specialising in infrastructure industries, in particular, the transport, energy, telecommunications, postal and water sectors. The firm was established in 1991 to provide independent advice to government agencies and state owned and private corporations in Australia, Asia-Pacific and beyond, focussing on the maritime transport sector.(www.meyrick.com.au) They have undertaken transport and intermodal studies which include aspects of the Port Botany expansion. I read one such report and responded to Mr Steve Meyrick:

Dear Mr Meyrick,

I have been reading your National Intermodal Terminal Study undertaken for DOTARS

I was particularly interested to read your comments on the Port Botany (footprint) expansion. You say the Port Botany development also demonstrates the sort of commitment required to impose efficient transport on a community which may come to enjoy its benefits, but also holds other values and privileges dear.

I would be interested to know what particular privileges you think citizens living near Port Botany enjoy. Would that include the privilege of having 62 noxious substances in their air (www.npi.gov.au) while most Sydney suburbs endure around 26 - and in much lower concentrations. Or perhaps you include the privilege of enduring the worst chemical spill in Australia and wondering whether the bore water they can no longer use has already affected their families. Would the values include a concern for the biodiversity of Botany Bay in an area where Sir Joseph Banks recorded hauling stingrays over 200lb in weight.

(more…)

The protest at Botany Beach on 3 March was a success although the heat of the day kept the numbers down. The Greens videoed the event and you can view it on YouTube. We also have a collection of images in our Gallery.