The City of Canada Bay is calling on the NSW Government to urgently deliver the long-promised ferry wharf at Rhodes, as State-led planning decisions push the peninsula towards becoming Australia's most densely populated community.
When fully realised, the NSW Government's housing strategies for Rhodes will see density climb to around 20,000 residents per square kilometre. This would make Rhodes denser than Potts Point-Woolloomooloo, currently Australia's highest at 16,400/km², and surpass some of the busiest cities in the world.
Mayor Michael Megna said it was unacceptable that the same government pushing record housing growth in Rhodes has repeatedly failed to deliver the ferry wharf previously identified in its own plans.
"This level of density is not accidental - it is the direct result of State Government planning decisions," Mayor Megna said.
"For more than a decade, successive State Governments have signed off on intensive residential development in Rhodes. They have approved the apartment towers and population growth, but they have not delivered the transport infrastructure the community needs."
The Rhodes East Precinct Plan and Rhodes Place Strategy both describe the ferry wharf as critical infrastructure to support high-density growth. Earlier still, the 2013 Sydney's Ferry Future strategy identified Rhodes as a new stop. Despite these repeated commitments, residents remain without a ferry connection
The inequity is highlighted when comparing Rhodes to neighbouring areas to the East.
This year, two new ferry services were announced in the Inner West - at the Sydney Fish Market and Balmain West. The Balmain Peninsula, with just 14,000 residents, now enjoys three wharves.
By contrast, the Rhodes Peninsula, with a population similar to Balmain's and growing quickly, has none.
"While NSW Government representatives pose for photo ops at new wharves to our east, apartment blocks continue to rise in Rhodes - delivered by State Government planning decisions. This stark inequity in transport infrastructure is untenable."
With Rhodes Station regularly over capacity and local roads gridlocked, the Mayor said ferry services are essential to making State-driven growth sustainable.
"Once a ferry service is delivered to Rhodes, the benefits for local residents will be immediate and the flow on effect for the whole City will be significant - every person commuting into Barangaroo from Rhodes on the ferry will mean one less car on Victoria road, one less person on a train network already at capacity."
"A ferry wharf is not a luxury. It is a long-promised, essential service that the State Government owes to the community it has chosen to grow."
