Category: Crag Archives

The pipes and detention tanks of our city’s stormwater drainage system are taken for granted by most residents, who see it as something that can be left to others to worry about! One matter of concern to some residents, however, is a new ‘Stormwater Charge’ of $25 on their Willoughby City Council rates notice. This charge will contribute to the program of works that Council requires to upgrade and improve the efficiency of its stormwater drainage system in response to its deterioration due to age as well as higher community expectations. Increasing development pressure is generally addressed through developer-funded works.

Jeff Organ, Council’s Director of Infrastructure Services, is one who has a passion the complexities of our surface and subterranean stormwater drainage system and has guided the development of an innovative program to achieve more sustainable management of our stormwater in future. Jeff was the Guest Speaker at the General Meeting of the Castlecrag Progress Association at the Community Centre on Tuesday 24 October. His address was both entertaining and informative.

Jeff outlined the problems confronting Council, both financial and physical, in replacing and updating to modern standards the 140km of deteriorating stormwater mains in the city and 5000 stormwater pits, which can also become traps for litter. He then discussed how Council’s stormwater management and infrastructure maintenance review is looking for more sustainable water management across Willoughby City. Particular attention was being given to reducing flooding problems in the Chatswood CBD and several other flood prone areas.

Council’s stormwater management and infrastructure maintenance program encompasses an innovative water management scheme to re-use water from Civic Place and harvest stormwater from the Chatswood CBD. Although other councils have been reusing water, particularly for watering playing fields and ovals, the system to be introduced in Chatswood is the first of this scale to capture the water run-off from the many hard surfaces of a CBD. This initiative is being supported by significant grants from both the State and Federal Governments.

State Government Grant for Willoughby Water Management

Willoughby City Council announced on 5 September that it had been awarded a $1.88m grant by the NSW Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability through its Water Savings Fund of Sydney for Council’s Chatswood CBD and Civic Place Integrated Water Management System. This grant matches an earlier Federal Government WaterSmart Grant of $1.88m dollar for dollar.

Civic Place will incorporate a range of smart water technologies and fittings throughout its facilities and open space areas. They were devised during the planning of Civic Place by Council’s drainage and environmental engineers who designed a leading, environmentally sustainable solution to conserve and reuse water while improving water drainage in Chatswood.

Willoughby Mayor Pat Reilly said “The grant is a recognition of Willoughby City Council’s innovative actions to create an economically and environmentally sustainable CBD for Chatswood. It is a result of the leading edge, environmentally sustainable design embodied in our community’s Civic Place project and is the first of its kind in Australia.”

Samantha Taranto

Professor Frank Talbot, the chairman of the newly established Sydney Institute of Marine Science, will be the guest speaker at the annual general meeting of the Progress Association on Sunday 18 May. Dr Talbot has been a director of the Australian Museum, the Californian Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian Institute. He was appointed foundation professor of Environmental Studies at Macquarie University in 1975, where he is now Adjunct Professor.

When he came to Australia 44 years ago, Frank Talbot fell in love with Sydney Harbour and he has worked tirelessly to establish the Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS). It is a joint venture research facility based on Sydney Harbour’s North Shore at Chowder Bay. It will bring together teams of leading scientists to work on issues that are critical for the management of our coastal and oceanic environments. The Sydney Harbour urban marine environment is a major research focus of the Institute. SIMS brings together key researchers to form cross-disciplinary teams of leading scientists working on issues that are critical for the sustainable management of our coastal and oceanic environments.

Professor Talbot will speak about the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and show a 9-minute DVD about its research interests. He is particularly keen for all residents of harbour foreshore suburbs, such as Castlecrag, to come to the meeting and exchange information about our marine environment.

All residents are welcome to attend this gathering, hear our most stimulating speaker and join together for a picnic lunch and get together in the delightful grounds of the Castlecrag Community Centre. The meting commences at 11.30 am on Sunday 18 May and ‘business matters’ will be kept to a minimum. Please bring a picnic lunch and drinks to enjoy a social get together after the formal proceedings.

In response to concerns from Raeburn Avenue over traffic problems in their street, Willoughby Council’s Traffic Engineer has commenced a six month trial of ‘No Parking’ zones near the top of. the avenue. The aim is to reduce traffic blockages and the danger to pedestrians. Council surveyed all Raeburn residents; more than half responded. Some 82 per cent had experienced traffic problems associated with parked cars; 71 per cent supported the introduction of short No Parking zones. The engineer decided on a ‘No Parking’ zone on the east side next to the doctor’s surgery, so that two lanes of traffic could pass. This seems to have achieved its aim of clearing that access/egress blockage.

More contentious are the ‘No Parking’ zones being trialed from No.1 down the street. Nearby shop-owners say trade has noticeably reduced without real benefits to traffic flow. Some locals had proposed limited duration parking to reduce all-day parking and assist surgery patients and short-term shoppers.

Council also agreed to mark all driveways to show the parking spaces available. This appears to have been successful in enabling householders to keep their driveways unobstructed. Council’s Compliance Unit has allowed a period of grace but is now enforcing the new restrictions.

Like all trials, some parts will work better than others. Residents may wish to give the trial its full six months, and then submit their views to the Council’s Traffic Section in July, for example, as to whether short-term parking would be preferable north of the shops’ laneway. Whatever the result of further fine-tuning in July, Council and its engineers are to be congratulated on the extent of consultation by survey and meeting, and the speed with which the trial’s format was implemented.

Meanwhile please do not use the junction as a turning circle, a major cause of blockages in busy times, and a danger to pedestrians and motorists. Use the roundabout at Rutland Avenue, or turn down Raeburn and do a three-point turn further down.

Bruce Wilson, Raeburn Avenue

A number of Castlecrag business owners have joined with their colleagues in Northbridge in a move to establish a local Chamber of Commerce to represent their interests. A foundation group of businesses representatives came together at the inaugural meeting at the Northbridge Golf Club on 16 March and they are seeking wider support from local business houses before formally establishing a chamber.

The impetus for the move came from the Northbridge Rotary Club, which hosted an event to promote the concept in February at which Scott Haddinott, president of the Chatswood Chamber of Commerce, Lindsay Dominique, president of the Cammeray Chamber of Commerce, the Member for Willoughby, Gladys Berejiklian and the Mayor of Willoughby, Pat Reilly, provided briefings on the potential role of a local chamber. Rosemary Macey, proprietor of Castlecrag’s Momo Interiors, was nominated as the interim president.

In addition to Momo Interiors, Ganache Patisserie and Roger Page Real Estate were represented at the inaugural meeting. Both the Castlecrag and Northbridge Progress Associations were also represented and indicated their support for the move.

Scott Haddinott advised the meeting that a local chamber would need clear objectives and demonstrate that it is an effective voice for the local business community. It should also serve a networking function to assist its members with specific business problems towards agencies or individuals who can provide the assistance they need. While the Chatswood Chamber of Commerce faced difficulties in meeting the diverse interests of its members, a smaller and more focused chamber would have the advantage of being closer to its members and the local community.

The inaugural meeting identified the goal or purpose of the Chamber of Commerce focused on the need for a ‘voice’ to represent the business community of the Northbridge and Castlecrag village shopping centres. A range of potential strategies was put forward to achieve the goal, including improving the environment and attractiveness of the Northbridge and Castlecrag shopping centres; publicity on local newspapers and other media in order to draw more customers to the local businesses; and awards for successful businesses. Building links with the local communities, such as support for local fairs and events, was also seen as important. A follow-up meeting was to be held on Tuesday 9 April.

Rosemary Macey told The Crag that she sees enhancing the streetscape as a priority for the Castlecrag shopping village. She is also interested in promoting the unique heritage and environment to a wider range of visitors as a means of making the suburb better known.

Bob McKillop

The death of Cissie Godfrey at the age of 104 on 16 July 2007 marked the passing of one of the last characters of the early Castlecrag community.

Born Sarah (Cis) Leveson to Polish parents in Glasgow, Scotland, she married Tom Godfrey, an engineer and they immediately emigrated to Sydney. Living in the Griffin house at 136 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag from 1931 to 1939, they became actively involved in the local community.

Cissie and Tom hosted music evenings at their house every Monday. Cissie remembered that these evenings usually ended in discussion, and that Marion Griffin would often raise arguments about mathematics and music. Walter and Marion never failed to turn up on Monday nights.

In her later years Cissie often discussed Castlecrag and had a remarkable memory for conversations, events and life in Castlecrag, even recalling conversations of 70 years ago. The years did not dim her memory of Walter and Marion Griffin. Or of personalities such as Betty Roland, author and playwright and her partner, Guido Barachi, a well known socialist; Guy Manton, Professor of Greek; writer Bernard Hesling, and his wife, Flo; lawyer and politician, Edward St.John; architect, Hugh Burhich; sculptors Bim Hilder and Anita Date; artists Lorna and Edmund Harvey; and bushwalkers Anice and Frank Duncan. The Godfreys shared the Griffins’ love of the bush and were avid bush walkers.

When the Godfreys moved to Avalon during the war she maintained her links to Castlecrag and enjoyed her role as keeper of a part of Australian history. She visitedBeyond Architecture, the Powerhouse Museum exhibition curated by Anne Watson in 1998, and made a cameo appearance in Bronwyn Mason’s ABC/Film Australia documentary, City of Dreams: the Collaboration of Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin (2000).

To her friends Cis Godfrey was special, not because she lived to be 104 but because she defied convention. She was fun, gentle, kind, forgiving, a great confidante. She had a robust sense of humour which could be at times quite outrageous. She meant many things to many people.

Courtesy WB Griffin Society newsletter

The journalist and television producer John Crew will be most remembered by Castlecrag residents as its serving representative on Willoughby Council during the heady days of the anti-expressway campaign in the 1970s.

After arriving in Castlecrag in 1956 John and his wife Laura immediately fell in love with the place and stayed until his retirement in 1986. The family was raised here, vegetables were grown in the back yard and everyone enjoyed the rock, the bush and Middle Harbour. They only moved from Castlecrag after they had found an equally magnificent spot on the south coast, in Bermagui, for their retirement. There they stayed fit and well until John had an unfortunate fall while getting onto his pushbike on 27 December 2007 that resulted in a slow bleed on the brain. This caused him to fall into a coma that night, from which he didn’t recover, dying three days later.

In the 1970s John was incensed by the state government’s renewed attempts to push forward with the opening of the proposed expressway corridor across the Castlecrag peninsula. John joined the committee formed by the Progress Association in early 1974 to lobby against the challenge of the Warringah Expressway and soon assumed a prominent role in its affairs. With his journalist background he was cajoled into standing for local council on an environmental platform and he was elected to represent the Middle Harbour Ward in September 1974. His period on Council coincided with a period of community activism stimulated by the expressway threat. Following the election of the Wran Government in May 1976 and its decision to fulfil its election pledge to abandon the Warringah Expressway extension to Seaforth, John announced that he would not contest the 1977 Council elections. He remained active in the anti-expressway committee, however, and played a key role in the decision of the Wran Government to launch the Commission of Inquiry into the Warringah Transport Corridor headed by Mr DS Kirby.

John Crew held strong environmental and social justice principles and here in Castlecrag he made a significant contribution to protect and preserve the natural suburb we all love. He was a much loved husband, father and community member. He is survived by his wife Laura and children Mark, Ross, Christopher and Lara, and six grandchildren. A precis of John Crew’s life can be found in the obituaries of the Sydney Morning Herald dated 9 January 2008.

[On the Internet, get: http://newsstore.smh.com.au/apps/newsSearch.ac?/
then type in Search Items ‘John Crew’ and selected the appropriate time frame back to 9 January 2008 and click the ‘search’ button. A payment is required for accessing the archives.]

Mark Crew

You may be aware our suburb of Castlecrag has a Community Centre down the driveway on the corner of The Postern and The Rampart.

This centre is utilised primarily by the Kindergarten Union (KU) kindergarten during the day from Mondays to Fridays during the school terms. It also houses a sub-branch of the Willoughby City Library which operates on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings – details of the operating hours are indicated on the notice board at the top of the driveway entrance to the centre. There is a small car park available for visitors to the centre.

At present the centre is used for a variety of local resident interest group meetings, including the Castlecrag Conservation Society and the Castlecrag Progress Association. It is also used as a voting booth for elections.

The centre is also available for use by local residents for private functions including children’s’ birthday parties and larger family and community gatherings for weekend day and evening functions. It serves sometimes as a back up for The Haven shows if weather is inclement.

Hire of the hall currently costs $50 for a child’s party and $100 for an evening function. A cleaning bond may be payable as well. For adults wishing to use the hall where alcohol may be served, additional insurance may be necessary at the hirer’s expense. Some restrictions apply for the use of the hall – these include hours of availability, the use of alcohol on the premises, security and insurance.

A small kitchen is situated in the Community Centre. The centre has a wide range of facilities including air-conditioning, reheating of food in a reasonable sized kitchen, refrigeration, tables, chairs and an outside children’s’ playground with climbing equipment.

If you are interested in booking the centre, further details can be obtained by contacting the booking officer, Warwick Hutchinson on 99584230.

Warwick Hutchinson

As advised in The Crag No 165 (p5), the October general meeting of the Progress Association celebrated 60 years of activities at the Castlecrag Community Centre. Residents and former residents recalled community efforts to build the centre and its use over the years.

Barry Duncan, son of Frank and Anice, recalled his father’s key role in the establishment of the Centre as the driving force behind the cooperative society established to manage its construction and operation. The community raised funds for the Centre and put in long and arduous work for its construction. Barry expressed pleasure at visiting Castlecrag again and meeting many people he knew when he was a child, and hoped that the Centre would continue to be put to good use. Adrienne Kabos advised the meeting that a transcript is available on the Walter Burley Griffin Society website of an interview by Sue Randle of Frank Duncan and Edgar Deans, videoed 19 years ago, where they described establishing the Community Centre and community life in the Crag at that time.

Elizabeth Lander lauded the vision and efforts of earlier residents who in 1943 at a time of crisis during World War II proposed and built our Community Centre. It was a remarkable achievement by a small community and Elizabeth expressed special thanks to the Deans family, early friends and colleagues of the Griffins. Lindy Batterham spoke of her mother, Joyce, who played a key role with Frank Duncan in establishing the Centre and many other aspects of community life. The Helene France School of Ballet which Lindy and other aspiring balletomanes attended was one of the many activities held at the Centre. While the kindergarten operated during the day, it routinely cleared furniture away to facilitate use of the Centre for a wide range of activities.

Jonathon Mason spoke with emotion about the building blocks made by his father, Jim Mason, in 1947 for the kindergarten and still in daily use. One of his earliest memories was playing with the blocks at home when they were being made. Jim Mason also made and installed a gym—‘Jimmy’s Jungle’—that has now been removed. Jon noted that in the late 1940s residents walked everywhere: security was no problem because everybody, including the shopkeepers, knew everybody. There were many extra curricular activities such as music, painting, scouts, etc and there was a genuine community spirit.

Neil Buhrich spoke of his parents, Hugh and Eva, refugees from Germany who bought land in Castlecrag in 1941 but could not own it due to their status, so almost from birth Neil has owned land in the suburb. He spent most of his childhood exploring the bush with other children, sailing on Middle Harbour being popular. Discussion groups were held fortnightly in various houses, needing preparation and thoughtful input. Eva was very strongly involved in the anti-expressway effort. John Gibson told the meeting that when he and Joan built their house in The Rampart in 1953 the young population and the Community Centre were among the key attractions. Their house was ideally sited with the kindergarten at one end of their street and the Infants’ School at the other.

John Kabos brought things to the present day describing the work of the Community Centre 530A Management Committee, resurrected in the mid 1980s. The Centre was in a run-down condition; the fence at the rear of the playground was dangerous and needed reconstruction. A Plan of Management was prepared by an architect and approved by Willoughby City Council. All its objectives have now been achieved including disabled access, the storeroom, the extension to the library, the new deck and resumption of land which had been alienated at the eastern end of the playground. Several speakers, including Dorothy Fraser and Lindy Batterham, urged stronger community support for the library to ensure its survival.

Editors

Valda Wilson of Raeburn Avenue has been awarded the prestigious Rockend National Opera Studio London Scholarship and will take up the award next month. The scholarship, valued at $82,000, will enable Valda to study at the National Opera Studio in London for 10 months.

Proud parents Bruce and Karen travelled to Melbourne in May to hear Valda perform with five other finalists at a public recital at Federation Hall in Melbourne. The Chair Adjudicator, Robert Allman, noted that: ‘Valda Wilson’s win was based not just on her outstanding performance, but also on the workshop which showed her versatility and ability to take direction.’

Valda’s inspiration for music was generated here in Castlecrag where she gained support and guidance from Christine Corrigan, her long-time piano and music theory teacher, Rodna Fitzsimons, who her taught her piano and singing at the Castlecrag Infants’ School, and the flautist Judy Huxtable. Nancy Fleming of the Sydney Opera Society also provided support and guidance over the years, while the Haven Carols and ‘Opera at the Haven’ offered opportunities to develop her skills.

Valda is a graduate of the Diploma of Opera at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where she studied under Stephen Yalouris. She made numerous performances with the Conservatorium Opera School and with various Sydney amateur musical societies. Over the past three years Valda has performed in concerts throughout NSW and presented live recitals on radio 2MBS-FM as part of the Young Performers program. During 2008 she has been performing as Rosina in Opera Australia Schools’ Company production of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia.

North Shore Times, 30 May 2008; http://valdawilson.com.au

Bruce Wilson

Editors: This item was put forward by David Scobie to the new Northbridge & Castlecrag Chamber of Commerce. We think they provide a good basis for further discussion on the elements that might be addressed in improving the attractiveness of our Castlecrag shopping village as the ‘gateway’ to Castlecrag and David has kindly updated the article for use in The Crag. We welcome your ideas on this important subject.

The following ideas are put forward as part of a broader strategy to improve the Castlecrag and Northbridge business precincts. They are proposed in the context of the current consultations regarding the Northbridge Plaza MasterPlan. The premise is that with any further development of the Plaza, it will be essential that the surroundings are improved to meet increased demand, to satisfy the concerns from local residents about their immediate environs and to take advantage of any improved retail and business opportunities that may arise. It is also likely that the tenant mix within the Plaza will change thus opening up possibilities for a more diverse range of business uses within the traditional shopping areas.

The theme binding the proposals is that Northbridge and Castlecrag shopping areas should continue to develop as villages with their own unique and distinctive character. Suggested improvements include:

• Pavement finishes to be non-slip and tactile, with an attractive appearance and mobility curbs;
• Improved street lighting for both traffic and ambient pedestrian areas, including protected under-awning spaces;
• Increased use of street trees and planters where appropriate;
• Opportunities for outdoor dining in appropriate locations;
• Policies and incentives to encourage businesses to improve their presentation, shop-fronts, mobility access, awning safety and awning lighting, signs and shop lighting;
• Appropriate and distinctive seating;
• Complimentary litter bins;
• Vehicle parking spaces for accessible users and standard timed zones;
• Appropriate delivery and service vehicle standing spaces;
• Appropriate blister elements to improve pedestrian access and crossing distances; and
• Support for improved street address numbering through a standard street number ‘plate’ on each property.

David Scobie