In recent weeks,there has been some chatter among urban planning nerds on the internet:what if we brought it back? At relatively little expense,the government could finish the platforms and sell the air rights above to developers for housing – or build a high-rise school.
It’ll never happen,of course. But it should.
An illustration shows how a train station at Woollahra might have looked had it been built.Fairfax Media
The sad fate of Woollahra station is a classic Sydney tale. Residents,who used the grassy area as a park,opposed it from the start. They even chased an injunction all the way to the High Court over construction noise and hours. Ultimately,the station became a victim of ongoing lobbying from neighbours and cost blowouts of the Eastern Suburbs Railway Line.
A decade later,on Australia Day 1990,theHerald carried a story outlining a familiar tale. The then Greiner government wanted to rezone the train station land for medium-density housing:as many as 80 dwellings. But the idea was opposed by nearby residents and Woollahra Council,with the late alderman Margaret Carter calling it “totally inappropriate for the area”. Six weeks later,theHerald reported the plans had been deferred.
Fast-forward to 2024 and another state government,from the opposite side of the aisle,is – especially near transport. So,why not do both?
Contemporary Woollahra councillors are acting much the same as their forebears. Liberal mayor says it will be “catastrophic” if the municipality has to build 1900 new homes by mid-2029,as its new housing target stipulates.
The station that never was:the 1972 plans for the Woollahra rail station from Wallaroy Street,looking towards Edgecliff.Grant Peterson/Fairfax Media
Last week,the council formally endorsed a response to the Planning Department on its proposed low- and mid-rise housing reforms,which enable gentle lifts in density around train stations and “town centres”. The department nominated four sites in Woollahra:Edgecliff commercial centre,Double Bay town centre,Rose Bay (New South Head Road) and Rose Bay North (Old South Head Road). The council objected to all four – plus two in neighbouring LGAs:Bondi and Darlinghurst.
Deputy mayor Sarah Swan,also Liberal,said the government had shown “no regard to the heavy lifting and the very difficult decisions that we’ve made in this chamber”,following a decade of community consultation on its own development strategies for Edgecliff and Double Bay.
This is where Woollahra’s messaging gets a bit muddled. It says the targets are catastrophic,and would place unbearable pressure on roads and schools – but at the same time,it can meet them through its long-honed Edgecliff and Double Bay plans.
In reality,it can’t. If it has taken 10 years to decide on a draft strategy,you can guarantee there won’t be much change in the next five. And the plans only conceive of about 900 new dwellings across both precincts – about half the five-year target.
But a new train station with some towers on top would get that number a lot closer. It would also help mitigate some of the council’s concerns about traffic by providing better public transport to Woollahra’s long-suffering citizens.
Of course,there would be outrage. Not to mention disruption to the T4 line. And in the end,the justification for it is probably dubious unless you were to rezone and redevelop the surrounding areas,which contain some beautiful and expensive homes on steep slopes.
Nonetheless,it would be the Minns administration putting its money where its mouth is.
The government showed its fondness for a big,shiny and possibly premature announcement with the fanfare at Rosehill racecourse late last year. Rosehill,we were told,would get a metro station in return for the Australian Turf Club selling the land to developers to build 25,000 new homes in Sydney’s central growth belt.
Although the unsolicited proposal is creeping through the system,there’s still a huge question mark over it,not least because of loud and growing in the NSW racing fraternity who want to hang on to their prized track.
If it fails,Rosehill will one day be regarded as the Woollahra of the Metro West line. Or perhaps Lilyfield,which really should have had a metro station,will gain that dubious honour.
Woollahra Station would be a lot easier. If there’s no appetite for apartments above the station,why not a new school? The government has been pressured for years to build a new public high school in the eastern suburbs. Woollahra Public,a primary school,is across the road from the ghost station.
Federal MP for Wentworth Allegra Spender,who has campaigned for a new eastern suburbs school,said she was always interested in measures to increase public transport and reduce traffic – though community consultation would be critical for any serious proposition.
Next stop Woollahra? Perhaps,though it’s impossible to imagine everyone will be on board.
Michael Koziol is theHerald’s Sydney Editor.