Sydney Olympic Park Vision and Strategy Engagement
Sydney olympic Park authority
The announcement that the Sydney Metro will have a station at Sydney Olympic Park created the catalyst for a considered long-term vision and strategy to be developed with community and stakeholders to ensure Sydney Olympic Park can reach its true potential.
In July 2021, SGS Economics and Planning were appointed as project lead along with CRED Consulting as community and stakeholder engagement lead for the Sydney Olympic Park 2050 Place Vision and Strategy project. CRED Consulting designed and delivered a Covid-safe engagement program that sought to build trust, allow a mix of stakeholders to hear from each other, and was inclusive through targeted consultation with a broad range of stakeholders representing the diverse interests in Sydney Olympic Park.
CRED Consulting in partnership with First Nations community and engagement specialist, Susan Moylan-Coombs (Gaimaragal Group) took a First Nations first approach to the engagement. A bespoke Acknowledgement of Country specifically celebrating the 70,000 years of continuous significance of the place to First Nations people was developed and shared at all engagement events; we undertook First Nations stakeholder mapping and identification (which revealed a Traditional Owner Wangal woman, with whom Sydney Olympic Park Authority did not have a relationship previously); and we held a First Nations focus group and asked a line of questioning about care for Country throughout the broad engagement. First Nations voices and visions for the future were elevated throughout the consultation.
HOW WE DID IT
Our engagement program consisted of the following:
- Five online community focus groups, targeting the following stakeholders:
- Visitors from surrounding suburbs
- Visitors from across Greater Sydney
- Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) residents
- Young people (aged 15-18) who live in and around Sydney Olympic Park
- Local residents
- An online First Nations stakeholder focus group
- Seventeen stakeholder interviews
- Three online round table sessions with targeted stakeholders
- One online round table session with NSW Government stakeholders
- An online community survey
- An online stakeholder survey
- Online consultation with the Sydney Olympic Park Authority Board, staff, DPIE Reference Group, Project Control Group and Parklands Advisory Committee
- An engagement webpage that contained project information, the online community survey, mapping tool and a ‘love letter’ engagement activity
- A full day face-to-face visioning workshop, and
- Webinar.
OUTCOMES
CRED is proud to have been the engagement lead and social infrastructure and community needs specialist consultant in a consortia of consultants supporting SGS Economics and Planning to co-create the community-led 2050 Vision and Strategy over eight months.
CRED provided advice to the consortia regarding the social infrastructure needs of the current and future community at Sydney Olympic Park – a particularly important consideration in such a high-growth suburb, where the local community have historically had restricted access to the facilities there.
On 30 June 2022, the NSW Government announced its bold new vision for the future Sydney Olympic Park to become ‘Sydney’s Beating Green Heart‘. Proposing a highly-connected series of diverse neighbourhoods and experiences, and a commitment for more than half of all housing to be diverse, innovative and affordable by 2050, the Vision will unlock so much environmental, cultural, social and recreational potential for the City of Parramatta, the Central River City, and for NSW.
A Welcome to Wangal Country was performed by in-reisdence First Nations dance troupe, Jannawi Dancers. (image credit: Matthew Duchesne)