Creating an inclusive and iconic Sydney waterfront destination, together with community

Infrastructure NSW

Bank Street Park communications and engagement support

The NSW Government is planning for Sydney’s future and transforming public access to Blackwattle Bay. The redevelopment of Blackwattle Bay offers an exciting opportunity to reconnect the harbour, its surrounding neighbourhoods and the city; to showcase Sydney’s living culture and stories of Country; and to build an inclusive and iconic waterfront destination that celebrates innovation, diversity and community.

As part of the redevelopment, there will be a new harbour foreshore walkway that connects to and throughout a new one hectare waterside park at Bank Street, Pyrmont, currently known as the Bank Street Park.

The park will surround the southern pylon of the Anzac Bridge and is a rare and exciting opportunity to create a new open space for the existing and future community.

The new park will:

  • expand the offerings of recreational, community and cultural amenities in the Blackwattle Bay Precinct
  • maintain and enhance the connection to water through views, uses and activities, and
  • create a place for everyone that is inviting, unique in character, socially inclusive and accessible.

In June 2022, Infrastructure NSW engaged Cred Consulting to design and deliver two phases of community engagement. The outcomes of Phase One Community Engagement will help inform the design brief of the new waterfront park. Phase Two Community Engagement will test design options for the park with the community.

While consultation was aimed at all ages, it provided an opportunity for people to get creative and visualise some of the activities they like to do when visiting a park – something our younger participants enjoyed in particular!

Services
  • Engagement
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Project Partners

Susan Moylan-Coombs, The Gaimaragal Group

How we did it

Some of our younger engagement participants answered questions around, “What activities do you like to do when visiting a park?”

Senior Consultant, Katie Wearne (right), seeks feedback from some young consultation participants.

Phase One Community Engagement was undertaken from 22 August to 25 September 2022. The consultation aimed to:

  • understand community priorities for the new Bank Street Park
  • explore how First Nations connection to Country can authentically be included in the Bank Street Park concept design
  • generate a collection of ideas that will help inform concept designs of the park
  • understand the character and identity of the place – learning from stories from years ago to now
  • understand how the community would like to use the new park and the features that would need to be considered to accommodate these activities
  • build on ideas that have been raised in previous community consultation, including the UrbanGrowth NSW Call for Great Ideas in 2015.

The engagement program consisted of a mix of online and face-to face opportunities for community to participate, including an online survey (available in English and Simplified Chinese) hosted on the INSW webpage; pop-up engagement events in various locations in Pyrmont, including Pirrama Park and the Sydney Fish Markets; a community drop-in session on site at Bank Street; online community workshops; and a First Nations workshop and site walk, which included an Indigenous weaving session and vox pop interviews with participants.

We also designed and distributed postcards and posters to local businesses and schools, prepared in English and Simplified Chinese, and developed a brand look-and-feel for this project that was used on all collateral.

The outcome

Rigorous community engagement allowed us to gain a strong understanding of the community’s priorities to inform the Bank Street Park concept design and understand what the community wants for the future.

The community told us that they valued the opportunity to share their ideas and that they enjoyed participating in the various engagement activities.

The outcomes of Phase One Community Engagement are being used to inform the design brief for lead design consultant team for Bank Street Park, who have subsequently developed an evaluation framework to test their design concepts, based on community priorities and feedback.

Phase 2 consultation occurred from 23 February to 22 March 2023 to test three design concepts, and options for a play and youth space.

 

At our Pirrama Park playground pop-up, this participant told us one of the things she would like to see is more spaces to gather to socialise with her friends that are not specifically for sport-based activities.

Cred hosted pop-up engagement events in various locations in Pyrmont.