by Michael Mobbs

Thanks to everyone who wrote in support of the Chippendale Action Plan. Your support helped Friends of Chippendale receive Council support to realise their plan for a far reaching and innovative sustainable vision for this inner city Sydney suburb.

On Monday 23 June 2025 Sydney City Councillors voted unanimously to support the Chippendale Community Action Plan proposed by Friends of Chippendale.  The plan can be downloaded here. (You can watch our presentation to Councillors on that link, too.)

The next day, at the direction of the Mayor and CEO, we – Friends of Chippendale – met with Council staff to begin work together.  In particular, we’re working out what can, may and may not be done. The second meeting with staff was held on site on Wednesday 9 July 2025. 

The plan seeks $4.5 m in funding works proposed in the plan in this financial year ending June 2026.  Of the $4.5m the sum of $1.5m is proposed to begin a trial by which the plan’s goal of ending the suburb’s food waste before 2030 may be achieved.

Each week Chippendale’s population of some 9,000 people wastes roughly 19,000 kg of food. That includes the cafes, pubs, apartments, terraces there.

With narrow streets and lanes, little open space this goal is one we welcome.  If we can do it here so can all of Australia’s suburbs.

Helps us to help you by sending your submission in support to the Councillors on our website – www.friendsofchippendale.au Even though the vote for the plan has been won your submission now can help us keep and grow momentum. 

The key stage in achieving the plan is now and the next few months – these first funding and project decisions will help staff and our community grow trust in each other.  Your submission will help grow this trust.  In turn, our example – which we’re documenting on our website and elsewhere – can become the springboard for you where you live.

If we win trust, grow confidence in council and our community you can use our example where you live, too. 

The motion which produced the vote was moved by Councillor Yvonne Weldon.  It shows the rewards of some decades of doing things within the Chippendale community and with Council and some developers:

Council decision:

“By Councillor Weldon

It is resolved that:

(A) Council note the community of Chippendale has a decades long tradition of supporting sustainable projects in the local area including:

• collaborating with the former South Sydney Council and a developer to plan, fund and build Peace Park which has edible plants and fruit trees;
• Sydney’s Sustainable House which is off-grid for water and energy, has kept all sewage and stormwater on site since 1996 and has become a local and world famous landmark;
• successfully advocating for the developer of Central Park to harvest and use rainwater, recycle and use treated sewage, and install and operate a trigeneration system for energy and hot water;
• partnering with Council to create, support and promote the City’s Footpath Gardening Policy which sets an Australian example of best practice community engagement;
• creating an extensive network of community footpath gardens and engaging 30 to 50 local residents and businesses each week to cultivate and tend them;
• implementing rainwater capture in Shepherd, Myrtle, Buckland, Meagher, and Pine Streets to absorb and keep water where it falls on footpaths and roads, using it to irrigate footpath gardens, plants, and trees;
• developing an extensive footpath composting system for food waste used by local cafes, bars, apartments and households. The community composts over 400kg of food waste each week and harvests the compost to grow over 1,000 fruit trees, herbs and plants; and
• attracting students from neighbouring universities (Sydney, UTS and Notre Dame) who regularly take field trips to study Chippendale’s sustainable infrastructure as part of their courses;

(B) Council also note the Friends of Chippendale community group have developed a Community Action Plan which sets out a vision to further develop Chippendale as a significant and pioneering community sustainability precinct including:

(i) shared zones to enhance pedestrian safety, improve traffic management, reduce noise, and create a more liveable neighbourhood;

(ii) investment in sustainability infrastructure, installing swales for rainwater capture, expanding community composting facilities, and enhancing green spaces to promote biodiversity;

(iii) dual public artwork/sustainability installations that reflect and showcase the area as a community sustainability hub; and

(iv) improving the accessibility of the Pine Street Creative Arts Centre and expanding community programs to include sustainability initiatives alongside creative arts;

and

(C) the Chief Executive Officer be requested to:

• provide advice to Council via the CEO Update on the measures proposed in the Friends of Chippendale’s Community Action Plan; and
• (ii) provide advice to Council via the CEO Update on the development of a Sustainability Precinct Plan for Chippendale or other suitable initiatives to develop and showcase Chippendale as a community sustainability hub.”

https://meetings.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/documents/s95744/Chippendale%20Community%20Sustainability%20Precinct.pdf

Thank you Councillor Weldon and all Councillors and staff.

As the Deputy Mayor Zann Maxwell said in his email replies to us:

“This is exactly the kind of community-led, forward-thinking planning we should be championing, and I will always support that. I look forward to working closely with the community moving forward on this. You can access the motion here if you would like to read and share with interested community members.

As your Deputy Lord Mayor, I care deeply about the future of Chippendale. I want to see our local neighbourhoods flourish—places where people feel proud to live, safe to walk, and confident that their community is being heard.

If there’s anything further my office can assist with, please don’t hesitate to reach out.”

Go the worms, go us and our generous Earth.

Michael Mobbs
9 July 2025