CALENDAR OF ACTIVITIES & EVENTS May 2025 -May 2026
Read what FOKE did between May 2025 and May 2026!
FOKE
Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment
Welcome to FOKE
Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment is a community group dedicated to the conservation and protection of Ku-ring-gai’s built and natural environment. On behalf of residents we work for the maintenance of Ku-ring-gai’s built and natural heritage and the enhancement of its existing character and amenity.
IN CLOSING
FOKE’s ultimate mission is to work to protect Ku-ring-gai’s heritage and Environment so our generation can pass onto future generations and families of Ku-ring-gai a sustainable and healthy future.
FOKE MEMBERSHIP
I would like to express the committee’s sincere thanks for your support and for the generous donations which we receive each year that enable us to continue FOKE’s work and advocacy
FOKE COMMITTEE
FOKE’s Committee consists of a terrific group of passionate heritage and environment
advocates —Ursula Bonzol, Joy Bryan, Christiane Berlioz, Carolyn Darby, Janet Harwood, Denise Hendy, Janine Kitson, Julie McArdle, Katrina Pickles, and Tanya Wood.
FOKE’S STUDENT PRIZES
FOKE awards the Jan Langley Sustainability Award to a student at East Lindfield Public School; and the Jean Posen Environment Award to a student Lindfield Public School
FOKE WEBSITE & FACEBOOK
We thank Leo Martyn, web developer, for his ongoing availability and professionalassistance to FOKE and our webmaster Ursula Bonzol. We thank Ursula Bonzol and Janine Kitson who collaborate and continue
NATIONAL TRUST – AUSTRALIAN HERITAGE FESTIVAL 2025-2026
FOKE held four events for the 2025 Australian Heritage Festival conducted through the
National Trust.
NATURE CONSERVATION COUNCIL (NCC) MEMBERSHIP NEWS
The NCC is the State’s peak environment organisation and provides a single voice for 180 environment groups including FOKE
BETTER PLANNING NETWORK (BPN) NEWS
The aims of BPN are to actively promote the planning principles outlined in the BPN
Planning for People Charter and to represent the interests of members and communities to government.
KU-RING-GAI GEOREGION POTENTIAL UNESCO GEOPARK LISTING
In 2018 FOKE initiated a project to add extra protections to, and increase
awareness of . . . the Ku-ring-gai GeoRegion (KGR), with Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park as its centre, by extending along Berowra Valley, from the Hawkesbury River to northern Lane Cove National Park and east to the coast from Barrenjoey to Dee Why
FOKE’s SUBMISSIONS
The past year has been extraordinarily demanding for the FOKE
committee in researching and preparing submissions
Vindication and Vigilance
. . . the reality of the impacts and implementation of
the NSW Government’s State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs)
The ABC wants to hear from you
What matters to you? What is happening in your community? What worries you about the future? What gives you hope? What you think people in power need to understand?
19-25 College Street, St Ives – SSD 98363228
Montefiore Seniors Housing 19-25 College Crescent & 15-19 Link Road, St Ives - READ FOKE's SUBMISSION
FOKE E-News July 2026
Synthetic turf at West Pymble; Petition;
SSD Lourdes Retirement Village Killara deadline MON 3 August 5pm; SSD Seniors Montefiore Seniors Housing at 19-25 College Crescent, St Ives deadline by WED 5 August 5pm
Lourdes Retirement Village, Killara – SSD-88004956
95-97 Stanhope Road, Killara - READ FOKE's SUBMISSION
Climate & extreme heat
Read what UN Secretary-General António Guterres said about climate change & extreme heat on 31 July 2026
Important dates
Ku-ring-gai Development Control Plan (KDCP) Amendment 13
With the introduction of the NSW Government Low and Mid-rise (LMR) and Transport Oriented Deveopment (TOD) housing reforms, developers are claiming that the current Ku-ring-gai Development Control Plan (KDCP) does not apply.
Council’s legal advice is that the controls continue to apply despite the KDCP not being updated.
However, the advice is that an updated KDCP will ensure these controls are consistent with, and applicable to, any development introduced under the NSW Government Housing reforms.
The amended KDCP is available for review via Council’s ‘Your Say’ link KDCP Amendment 13.
You can now review and comment on these amendments until Thursday 16 July 2026.
Send your comments, marked with the reference number ‘S15328-3’ by email to krg@krg.nsw.gov.au; or Mail to General Manager, Ku-ring-gai Council, Locked Bag 1006, Gordon NSW 2072.
Deadline is 5pm on Thursday 16 July 2026.
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Friends of Kuringgai Environment
FOKE is a community group with a focus across the Ku-ring-gai area, defending our natural heritage and opposing inappropriate overdevelopment.
www.youtube.com/channel/UCYNldGFnfcDE8ItayYf7izg![]()
A must watch video "We are eating our way to extinction"
www.youtube.com
Welcome to the official Eating Our Way to Extinction YouTube channel. Eating Our Way to Extinction is a cinematic feature documentary, taking audiences on a journey around the world and addressing the...
Read FOKE’s summary of Dr Kate Shaw’s article below:![]()
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Dr Kate Shaw, University of Melbourne urban geographer recently wrote an article following her four week study tour in Turkey attending the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA).![]()
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The INURA invite local researchers and activists to see the ‘underbelly’ of a city – this time seeing the dark side of Turkey’s urban high-rise currently on “steroids”.![]()
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40 storey high rise apartment towers can now be seen across the landscape with the consequential loss of arable land and where basic infrastructure is now pushed to the limits. Discrete towns have merged into one massive high-rise city.![]()
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Despite the enormous increase in supply – prices and rents have not come down. Why?![]()
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Dr Kate Shaw argues ” . . . it is due partly to the new builds being firmly up-market, partly to collusion, and partly to many being financed by elites from war-torn countries who have no interest yet in releasing their parked holdings”.![]()
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Many governments around the world find it difficult to tax empty dwellings. Nor do they collect data about the number of vacant dwelligs.![]()
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Turkey is now being seen as an example of extreme hyper high rise development bringing massive economic and social problems. However, this is happening in most cities across the world. High rise apartments are being built for the high-end property market at higher prices that cement housing scarcity.![]()
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Incredulously in recent years an oversupply of apartment towers has been demolished in China due to poor and illegal construction. The apartments were too expensive for the local residents, or they were built in areas with low demand. Dr Kate Shaw says “the underlying motive for these enormously costly explosions is to keep residential prices high”.![]()
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China has addressed their housing surplus problem with demolition. Other cities around the world face similar challenges.![]()
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Over the past 20 years, Vancouver and Toronto’s ‘condo boom’ have increased the number of apartments. Despite the increase in supply they remain unaffordable.![]()
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“It was only when dramatic cuts were made to immigration two years ago, along with interest rate hikes and tighter mortgage tests in an effort to cool the market by reducing demand, that prices began to stabilise” says Dr Kate Shaw.![]()
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In June 2026 the Canadian government announced a program to deal with the problem of apartment oversupply. They bought unsold condos to provide “affordable” housing. This saved developers from having to lower their sale prices.![]()
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Property investors and developers have no interest in bringing housing prices down. Nor are governments interested in bringing housing prices down as they depend on housing construction and cranes to signal of economic growth.![]()
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Dr Kate Shaw says, “In Australia, real estate and infrastructure development and the financialisation of housing are among the best our state and federal governments have to offer our cities. To reconcile this with consequently glaring social injustices, they cling to the delusion that the market will build into surplus until prices come down, redressing housing precarity and homelessness, and leading us out of our affordable housing crisis, hallelujah”.![]()
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However, construction costs are now making the building of housing less profitable. Developers know that a government’s plans to fast-track new high-rise towers is not viable without a substantial increase in the prices of apartments.![]()
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Developers and investors in the Australian housing market, when faced with price downturns, tend to leave buildings empty and just stop building. They don’t yet follow the Chinese model of blowing them up or begging for government bailouts – yet.![]()
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The housing nightmare is about addiction to the free-market ideology. Government have abandoned their role in building public housing.![]()
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The global evidence is in. Private markets resist bringing prices down. Developers will never build affordable housing. They will build high-end product that brings them the highest profit.![]()
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Governments could solve the housing affordable crisis. They are in a unique position to having the resources and the capacity to build when and what the market cannot or will not. It costs a lot but Australia is a rich country and should be able to spare $368 billion to address the problem.![]()
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Cities around the world are facing densification and unaffordable housing as never before. Yet governments and commentators keep sprouting the propaganda that the solution is “supply, supply, supply”. It’s a dangerous time for cities and the people living in them.![]()
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For the full article by Dr Kate Shaw, University of Melbourne, read it HERE
www.foke.org.au/tell-council-no-to-synthetic-grass-2/![]()
Say no to synthetic grass![]()
Please share with your networks ![]()
In a move that will have serious consequences for Ku-ring-gai Council’s ability to maintain our infrastructure and fund other projects, a group of councillors have called an urgent meeting for next Wednesday 29th to increase the budget for Norman Griffith oval synthetic development to over $20.2 million with the possibility of further increases.![]()
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This is a 650% blowout from its original budget of $3.1 million and comes just a week after residents have received a 29% rate rise.![]()
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In a major turnaround from a decision made just over 10 weeks ago, Councillor Martin Smith, Jeff Pettitt and Sam Ngai have decided they can’t wait 6 days for independent expert advice on the best way forward for the upgrade of Norman Griffith oval.![]()
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Council commissioned NSW Public Works to cost alternative options for the synthetic project after it was revealed that after $12.2 million and 3 years of construction, they have to abort work and start again with a new design. (pp2,172). The flood detention system they built from aggregate is ‘unfit for purpose’ and council decided they needed to replace it with an expensive new concrete detention system to keep the synthetic oval flood free.![]()
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One would think this would be a good time to assess the right road ahead given the huge expense and financial exposure the project entails. It is already Australia’s most expensive soccer pitch.![]()
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In another backflip, they also propose to cancel the planned consultation they also voted for 10 weeks ago which they said was needed because:![]()
“ spending $20.2 million is far in excess of council’s initial budget for the Norman Griffith’s field upgrade and that the community may have formed a different opinion on a synthetic upgrade versus a natural turf upgrade had they known the total potential project cost”.![]()
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Added to their chopping board is a planned investigation into upgrading ovals around Ku-ring-gai
ATTENTION Ku-ring-gai Rate Payers.![]()
The Norman Griffiths oval development has spiralled out of control. After stopping and paying for an independent review and supporting a community consultation, councillors now want to override this review process and pour over $20 million into the development of ONE soccer pitch. (Australia's most expensive soccer pitch). ![]()
WHAT CAN YOU DO?![]()
Write an urgent email to all councillors at councillors@krg.nsw.gov.au![]()
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Ask them why they don’t want to wait for the report or hear from the community. ![]()
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Register for the public forum on Tuesday 28 July at 6pm and tell them you deserve a say on how our money is spent!![]()
REGISTER HERE: www.krg.nsw.gov.au/Council/Council-meetings/Council-Meetings-and-Public-Forums?fbclid=IwY2xjawTNN...
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