[North Eveleigh] Henderson Rd - Raglan St Bike Path meeting & Issues / Eveleigh Bridge TfNSW Docs / Homelessness Strategy / People and Place / Redfern Sydney Streets

[Geoff Turnbull (REDWatch Spokesperson)]

Dear REDWatch members, supporters and agencies,


Planning Roads, Cycleways and People Movement in Waterloo - REDWatch Public Meeting 5 March

Henderson Road - Raglan Street Cycling Improvements & Traffic Changes - Exhibition until 8 March

Some Other Traffic Issues Raised by Waterloo Tenants

Eveleigh Pedestrian and Bridge TfNSW Study Documents Revealed

NSW Homelessness Strategy Action Plan 2025-2027 Released

No Clarity on Future of Homes NSW Waterloo South People and Place Plan

Sydney Streets on Redfern Street 7 March
Please note - this email contains hyperlinks. This means that if you see a blue underlined word or phrase that you can click on it and go directly to a document or to get more information.
Planning Roads, Cycleways and People Movement in Waterloo - REDWatch Public Meeting 5 March
The REDWatch public meeting on Thursday 5th March will focus on a number of bike, bus, pedestrian and traffic issues involving the Henderson Road Bike Path proposal and flow on issues into Waterloo, Redfern and Alexandria. For more information on the proposal and associated issues see the next section. You can see the flyer on the REDWatch Facebook page<https://www.facebook.com/RedfernEveleighDarlingtonWaterlooWatch>.
Council will present on the bike plan and discuss wider traffic issues and the Stockland consortium will also attend to hear community concerns that can be considered in its traffic study for the Waterloo South redevelopment.
You can join the discussion in person from on 5 March from 6:00 pm - 7.30 PM at Counterpoint's Factory Community Centre, 67 Raglan Street, Waterloo or join us on line by Zoom http://tinyurl.com/RedwatchMeetingZoom.
Bring your concerns, support and or questions along to this REDWatch meeting, as Council has agreed to accept late submissions on the bike path until end of March 8 so people can consider what is raised at the REDWatch meeting.
Henderson Road - Raglan Street Cycling Improvements & Traffic Changes - Exhibition until 8 March
The Council proposal<https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/proposed-works-maintenance/have-your-say-walking-cycling-improvements-south-eveleigh-waterloo-metro?> links the Henderson Road dedicated bike path with the George Street dedicated bike path past the Waterloo Metro and has been well supported by cyclists but has raised concerns from locals about loss of parking and the impact of making Raglan Street bus and bike only next to the Metro.
One issue not assessed in Council's bike proposal is the missing link in the George Street bike path which currently stops at Waterloo Green where cyclists are supposed to dismount to walk their bikes across the footpath on public housing land between dedicated aged housing. Bike riders want a separated bike path across the green and tenants have concerns about the interaction between aged tenants and bikes.
During Master Planning for Waterloo Estate, Homes NSW responded to tenant concern and proposed the George Street bike path be moved to Cope Street to link with the Metro and to avoid the Waterloo Green problem. Council in its plan moved the bike path back to George Street.
It looks like this standoff will continue until the redevelopment of the high-rise public housing, if that goes ahead and aged tenants are moved from Matavi and Tarunga. That means it may be 10-20 years before a direct missing link can be added.
A dedicated bike path North of Raglan Street on Cope and Phillip Streets would allow cyclists heading from Henderson Road a bike path alternative to going across Waterloo Green. It would also provide a rideable alternative for existing George Street Cycleway users without riding across Waterloo Green. This option should be considered by Council in the absence of being able to use Waterloo Green.
A major change proposed in the Henderson Road Bike Path proposal is that motor vehicle access to and from Raglan Street Waterloo with Botany Road and Henderson Road be stopped aa only buses will be allowed in Raglan Street opposite the Waterloo Metro between Cope St and Botany Rd. It is this element that has caused major concern in Waterloo over the capacity of Wellington Street to service the Waterloo Estate and the 3,000+ new units in Waterloo South.
In 2022 the community, including Mount Carmel School, stopped a proposal in the masterplan to open up Pitt Street to McEvoy. While Council does not believe the closure of Raglan Street to general traffic will lead to this option being back on the table, Stockland which is currently undertaking a traffic study is now assessing this impact on the redevelopment. If Raglan St is closed, it may also mean that more traffic from the north headed to Waterloo will come via Redfern and use Pitt Street and to a lesser extent George Street.
You can see the Council proposal and have your say on walking and cycling improvements between South Eveleigh and Waterloo Metro<https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/proposed-works-maintenance/have-your-say-walking-cycling-improvements-south-eveleigh-waterloo-metro?>. While the exhibition closes on 4th March Council will accept submissions sydneyyoursay at cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au<mailto:sydneyyoursay at cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au> until end of March 8 to allow people to make their submissions after the REDWatch meeting.
Some Other Traffic Issues Raised by Waterloo Tenants
One of the major concerns with the Raglan St change is that Wellington St becomes the only way both in and out of Waterloo South for vehicles coming from all directions from both Botany Rd and Elizabeth St. Exiting Wellington St onto Botany Rd requires either a left or right turn across pedestrian lights with expected significant queueing at the lights. While it is possible to travel across Elizabeth St, left and right turns to Elizabeth St also cross pedestrian crossings. At both ends there are school children's movements to either Mount Carmel School or Alexandria Park Community School in the morning and afternoons.
Tenants have also raised concerns about the removal of a stop sign in Wellington St and existing car speeds on Wellington St. As there have been dangerous interactions between both pedestrians with the George St bike path and cars there has been a request for a scatter crossing to be considered at this location. Wellington St passes the busy Oz Harvest outlet.
It is possible to enter Raglan St from Elizabeth St from the south and to exit to the north. Eight years ago, buses began entering Raglan St from the north. Residents in east Raglan St have been campaigning for the 392 buses to take the same route as the traditional 355 buses via Wellington St due to the sound and vibrations in their homes as buses go up the hill between 5.25 am and 0.45 am.
>From the Redfern end, the closure of Raglan St may also see more traffic coming to and from Waterloo via Pitt St and to a lesser extent George St.
All these issues can also be explored at the REDWatch meeting with Council.
Eveleigh Pedestrian and Bridge TfNSW Study Documents Revealed
A June 2025 Transport for NSW (TfNSW) 'Optioneering Report' reveals a preferred Eveleigh Bridge concept, location and an approved way to launch the bridge across the railway corridor.
The preferred bridge would ramp from Wilson St Darlington near Carriageworks over the railway corridor to Locomotive St South Eveleigh between the Large Erecting Shop and the Locomotive Workshops. TfNSW say it is not possible to ramp in South Eveleigh and a combination of lifts and escalators are proposed at that end. This is not a desirable outcome for bike users.
Construction could be by launching a steel truss, bridge built next to the site in stages across the railway tracks. The process requires supports at both ends and a permanent pier in the middle. Two temporary piers are required for construction. A steel trust launch methodology was developed for the Redfern Station Southern Concourse in 2020 in consultation with Sydney Trains, but was not adopted as it did not result in savings for that site.
The TfNSW 'Optioneering Report' was one of the documents received when REDWatch on behalf of the Eveleigh Bridge Alliance (EBA) made a Government Information Public Access (GIPA) request for bridge studies since 2020. The 338 pages of released documents also include engineering feasibility studies by ARUP on a number of bridge and tunnel options, a 'Heritage Assessment' by Curio Projects and three versions of a 'Bridge catchment analysis' by SCT Consulting. The catchment studies are based on an earlier option to the east of the Paint shop. Costings of options were not released.
The EBA was formed by REDWatch, Friends of Erskineville (FOE) and the Alexandria Residents Action Group (ARAG) to kick start a broad-based community campaign for the delivery of the bridge.
The EBA was pleased to find that TfNSW continued to assess options after it ruled a bridge out of scope during the North Eveleigh Paint Shop rezoning. While TfNSW has addressed some of the major technical barriers, its reports also indicate it does not think that usage of the bridge will be high enough to justify the expense of building across the active railway corridor.
The EBA will work with other organisations to build the case for the bridge and test the technical studies and the potential usage figures. Even though there is a preferred location and build methodology there will be heritage concerns and issues with Sydney Trains building over the active rail corridor which will need to be overcome. One document suggests that the build after all the approvals may take 4 years.
Media reports indicate that a consortium is preparing a bid for the Paint Shop Precinct in North Eveleigh which includes a bridge. That bid is to provide sound stages and film studio facilities when the NSW Government calls for expressions of Interest in March 2026.
The EBA plans to work with surrounding institutions, businesses and the potential users of the bridge to convince the government that the bridge, promised in 2004, needs to be delivered one way or another. A website and social media presence for the EBA is under construction.
The GIPA release is a large PDF with duplication. To make the information more accessible we have broken the released documents up by areas of work or items that might be of particular interest. These include:

  *   TfNSW Preferred Option for Eveleigh Bridge June 2026 (GIPA)<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/statesignificant/northeveleigh/bridge/260301gipatfnswpref/view>
  *   TfNSW Optioneering Report for Eveleigh Bridge June 2026 (GIPA)<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/statesignificant/northeveleigh/bridge/260301gipatfnswoptions/view>
  *   Pedestrian Bridge Heritage Assessment August 2023 (GIPA)<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/statesignificant/northeveleigh/bridge/260301gipaheritage/view>
  *   Bridge Catchment Analysis v 5.0 July 2023 (GIPA)<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/statesignificant/northeveleigh/bridge/260301gipacatchment/view>
  *   Redfern North Eveleigh Bridge Feasibility Studies ARUP (2022-3)<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/statesignificant/northeveleigh/bridge/260301gipaarup/view>
If you want to work your way through the full GIPA release you can download that from TfNSW Eveleigh Pedestrian Bridge Studies - GIPA release Feb 2026<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/statesignificant/northeveleigh/bridge/260211tfnswgipa/view>. The GIPA release letter had some information about the records released and what was denied. This information can be found at the end of the REDWatch website post Eveleigh Pedestrian and Bridge documents revealed<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/statesignificant/northeveleigh/bridge/260301ebagipa>. The end of that document also has information about each of the documents we have extracted from the full GIPA release - this information is also found on the REDWatch website for each file.
NSW Homelessness Strategy Action Plan 2025-2027 Released
The NSW Homelessness Strategy Action Plan 2025-2027<https://www.nsw.gov.au/departments-and-agencies/homes-nsw/nsw-government-response-to-homelessness/nsw-homelessness-strategy-2025-2035> outlines 25 high priority actions that will help to drive a shift from crisis to prevention, from service-centred to person-centred delivery, and from centralised to local delivery, recognising people's diverse needs. Two additional Action Plans are in development, for Aboriginal people and for children and young people. This acknowledges their over-representation in homelessness and will enable us to develop specialised service responses.
It was developed in partnership with more than 17 government agencies and the homelessness peak organisations and supported by the public consultation undertaken on the Strategy.
No Clarity on Future of Homes NSW Waterloo South People and Place Plan
REDWatch held a meeting with Homes NSW on its People and Place Plan on February 10th 2026, however the meeting provided little clarity about how the People and Place recommendations might be progressed to actions. The report has been reframed from earlier consultations and the report now sits on the table as recommendations for consideration by the consortium, Homes NSW, service providers and the Waterloo Human Service Collaborative to pick up and use as they think fit. It is no longer an action plan for implementation.
Recommendations on "Working Together" starting with "community governance arrangements which support and enable collaboration between a wide range of organisations" were generally dismissed at the meeting on the reasoning that there are already too many meetings and existing meetings should be used. Homes argued it now talks directly to tenants and there is not the same need for the historical advocacy role of Council, REDWatch and service providers.
This unsatisfactory meeting leaves the Human Services Collaborative and agencies mentioned in the plan with no guidance on how they should respond to People and Place especially when the plan has no official status or funding that would allow for actions to be developed and implemented.
The Waterloo Human Services Collaborative was set up to deal with the "now" human service issues and People and Place was supposed to deal with the human service issues arising from the relocations, redevelopment and the new Community Housing Providers (CHP) run social housing model. The redevelopment is "now" underway with relocation impacts and Waterloo tenants "now" living in social housing controlled by CHPs alongside the estate managed by Homes NSW.
The "now" has changed over the last few months with new players in the human services space and human service reverberation form the rollout of the redevelopment bringing these issues into the scope of the Human Services Collaborative. The Collaborative will have to take on these changes in the "now" without a People and Place Plan implementation to help. It does look like the Consortium will incorporate some People and Place elements in its Social Impact Assessment and Social Impact Management Plan, but we won't see those until the Concept Plan is exhibited in late April 2026 at the earliest.
At the REDWatch meeting, Homes NSW emphasised its appointment of Redfern Legal Service, to monitor and assist Waterloo tenants relocating as they were experienced in taking on Homes NSW in the tribunal. It has subsequently been revealed that Homes are no longer engaging Redfern Legal Service to support tenants during relocations. Homes NSW is arguing that relocations have gone so smoothly and that there was little for Redfern Legal Service to do.
Tenants and some agencies have raised concern about this decision believing the service is needed and that some impacts have not been picked up by relocation officers. Currently there are 11 households that have not been moved from Stage 1. Homes expect to give six months' notice to the next group to be relocated within weeks. Unlike Stage 1 where there was an option of new buildings for people to move into, this will not be available for Stage where people will need to relocated into existing social or public housing.
Those with an interest in People and Place and the Homes NSW approach to the plan and discussions with REDWatch can see a recording of the meeting on REDWatch You Tube<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ben-6gmAbhU&t=4s>.
Sydney Streets on Redfern Street 7 March
Sydney Streets<https://cityofsydney.cmail20.com/t/j-l-ydtdliyk-dtilllttit-h/> is back in Redfern on Saturday 7 March for a day of entertainment, outdoor dining and fun for everyone.
Council says there will be a vibrant program celebrating First Nations culture, with a spotlight on live music, dance, games and storytellers. A dedicated Sand Circle will host First Nations performances, storytelling and activities throughout the day. Market stalls will showcase First Nations businesses, and there'll be plenty of outdoor activities for all ages.
The event runs 11am to 10pm. The area will be closed to traffic from 7am to 11.30pm between Regent Street and Chalmers Street. Special event clearway parking restrictions will also be in effect so check signs carefully, visit livetraffic.com for more info.
Regards,

Geoff
Geoffrey Turnbull
REDWatch Spokesperson
Ph Wk: (02) 8004 1490  Mob: 0418 457 392
email: spokesperson at redwatch.org.au<mailto:spokesperson at redwatch.org.au>
web: www.redwatch.org.au<http://www.redwatch.org.au/>
FB: www.facebook.com/RedfernEveleighDarlingtonWaterlooWatch/<http://www.facebook.com/RedfernEveleighDarlingtonWaterlooWatch/>


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