Cash-strapped Sydney council votes to charge for NYE fireworks vantage point

Australia Broadcast Center

28-07-2025

Viewing Sydney's multi-million-dollar New Year's Eve fireworks show from North Sydney Council's prime vantage point will cost at least $50 — even though it is public land.
It is one of the ways the council is trying to generate revenue to overcome a "serious cashflow" problem brought about by an infrastructure project that has doubled in cost to more than $120 million.
The council is also looking to make money from the wealthy schools in the area, including by encouraging them to pay rates and by negotiating the sale of at least two public assets.
"We still have the hurdle of a cash liquidity issue," Mayor Zoë Baker told ABC News.
"We have to find $6 million in savings or new revenue," she added, and "cut back or defer $12.5 million in capital works."
The redevelopment of the council's Olympic pool has ballooned in cost from about $60 million to $122 million, tying up money that would otherwise be spent on services and upgrades.
Plans to have residents help bail the council out by imposing a rate increase of 87 per cent over two years were shot down by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal in May, forcing the local government to look elsewhere.
Council officers proposed selling tickets to view the New Year's Eve fireworks from three vantage points within the government area, at Blues Point, Lavender Bay Parklands and Bradfield Park/Mary Booth Reserve.
But at a council meeting on Monday night, councillors voted five-to-three to ticket Blues Point only — the local government area's prime spot — keeping the other two vantage points free.
Council officers estimate the council would make $400,000 by selling 8,000 tickets at $50 each to access the area. After $95,000 in costs, the council estimates it will be left with $305,000.
This would help offset the $1.086 million budgeted to host crowds in the council area on New Year's Eve.
Cr Baker said the council's "precarious" cashflow was stopping it from absorbing the cost.
"It's with an exceptionally heavy heart that I see myself supporting the motion for one year only," she said.
Those opposed to the motion acknowledged the cost would impact young families.
About nine out of 50 vantage points around the harbour foreshore were ticketed last year, according to the City of Sydney.
Two wealthy private schools are independently offering to buy the public roads running along their properties — and the council is seriously considering it.
But there is also an effort underway to have private schools in the area pay rates for the land they own.
Councillors at Monday's meeting considered an offer from The Sydney Church of England Grammar School, more commonly known as Shore, an all-boys primary and secondary school where tuition ranges from about $30,000 to $46,000 a year.
The school expressed an interest in purchasing a portion of Edward Street in North Sydney with the intention of closing it because it owns the properties immediately surrounding it.
"The section of Edward Street in question is adjacent to existing school grounds and does not include any residential properties or homes."
The councillors resolved to investigate the offer.
"The reality is that once you've sold a piece of land or a property, that's it, it's gone," Cr Baker said.
"In a place like North Sydney, where the land values are so high, once you sell something, would any future council be able to afford to acquire it back or an equivalent?"
One option the council resolved to investigate was a land swap of a nearby pocket park.
Shore is not the only wealthy private school circling the council in the hope of snapping up public land.
Redlands, another Sydney Church of England co-educational grammar school, initially approached the council to purchase Monford Place at Cremorne in 2021.
Similarly, it owns the properties around a 791 square metre cul-de-sac.
The council originally shot down the overture about a year later.
But at a meeting in November last year, a decision was made to have the council negotiate the sale.
There is another way the council is hoping private schools can help it raise funds — and this one does not involve the sale of public assets.
The council said the six private schools and the Australian Catholic University could raise more than $1 million if they volunteered to pay rates.
"Ten per cent of our land in the local government area is occupied by schools, the majority of which are private schools," Cr Baker said.
But all of them declined the offer, saying payment for "any purpose other than for operation of the school" would result in government financial assistance being withdrawn under the law, the council said.
Deputy Mayor Godfrey Santer rejected the schools' and university's rationale.
"To my untrained eye, I don't understand how this section enabled these schools to claim that they are unable to contribute financially to the services we provide them, which are surely not of a commercial or profit nature as specified," he said.