Project Background

Council's Recreation Needs Study 2015 identified that there was a high level of community demand for water-based recreation activities. It found there was a need to create opportunities for increased participation in water based recreation, including providing additional opportunities to store light vessels (boards, dinghies and kayaks) where possible.

Council currently has 8 formal storage facilities for small water craft. With the exception of the dinghy racks in Kurraba Reserve, all these facilities are at capacity, and all have waiting lists. In addition, the North Sydney foreshores are dotted with numerous dinghies, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards (SUP’s). While this informal storage has been generally condoned as contributing to the character and diversity of the harbour foreshores, the dramatic increase in the number of water craft in recent years (due to increasing affordability of kayaks and SUP’s and the lack of formal storage facilities) has created a number of problems.

Publicly-owned open space around the foreshores of Sydney Harbour is not only in limited supply, but it is in high demand for a wide variety of recreational pastimes. While Council is committed to providing opportunities for water-based recreation around the harbour foreshore, including space and facilities where small water craft may be stored, Council’s primary obligation is to ensure the general public is able to access and use publicly-owned foreshore open space for general recreation purposes.

In March 2016 Council resolved to undertake a full review of small water craft current and potential storage opportunities (both formal and informal) across the local government area, in order to determine a range of appropriate upgrading, improvement and new works, and to identify priority locations for storage. This Discussion Paper is the result.