Who are we?
Friends of Ku-ring-ga Environment (FOKE) is a community group with membership drawn from across Ku-ring-gai, opposing inappropriate and unsympathetic overdevelopment within Ku-ring-gai, and defending and promoting the cultural and natural heritage of Ku-ring-gai.
FOKE is not anti-development. We work on behalf of residents and friends for the maintenance of Ku-ring-gai’s heritage and the enhancement of the existing traditional character and amenity of its environment, both built and natural.
Read more about Ku-ring-gai’s Unique Environment
Ku-ring-gai’s Housing Strategy – Further changes!
Ku-ring-gai Council is preparing yet another Residential Housing Strategy, a planning process driven by the NSW Dept of Planning to periodically rezone more and more of our established garden suburbs for ever denser and taller apartment blocks. As we have expressed in...
NSW’s Catastrophic Summer Needs Action
New laws are urgently needed to protect Ku-ring-gai’s bushland, forested landscapes and biodiversity. Australia’s unprecedented 2019-2020 bushfires have changed everything. Never before has Australia witnessed an 11,000km fire edge that has burnt so much of...
NSW Planning agenda for megacity Sydney!
Ku-ring-gai Council has prepared a draft 20 year Local Strategic Planning Statement (LSPS) for Ku-ring-gai that meets the objectives and population targets established by NSW Planning, and its implementation arm, the Greater Sydney Commission. All Councils are required to do likewise.
Ku-ring-gai’s Plans for our Future: Massive increase in High Density!
Following many months of deliberation, the Greater Sydney …
The Once Lucky Country
‘The Once Lucky Country’ article makes some poignant warnings about where Australia’s cities, especially Sydney and Melbourne, are headed under current planning policies in terms of housing cost, liveability and jobs. The article appeared in the City Journal and is written by Joel Kotkin. He is the presidential fellow in urban futures…
Celebrating 25 years
This year marks 25 years of FOKE working to protect the Ku-ring-gai’s heritage and environment.Over this time, we have made hundreds of submissions to Council, various NSW Government departments and the Greater Sydney Commission on issues pertinent to...
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Finally, the Berejiklian Government is having a moment of pause in their developer driven destruction of our suburbs. In May 2018 Planning Minister Roberts responded to the pressure caused by the rapid growth of apartments by stating he will put a suspension on new...
Higher Density: The Facts Don’t Stack Up!
By Tony Recsei, President of Save our Suburbs. Save Our Suburbs, a community group with members across Sydney, is alarmed at planning policies being introduced to force high-density into suburbs originally designed for low density living. The NSW Planning …
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A Population Policy or a Pre-Election Mirage?
Since our 2017 AGM when Dick Smith spoke of the need for a Population Policy and limits to what our cities can absorb each year, the concerns have only increased and are peaking in the pre-election promises of both our State …
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High Impact Recreation in Bushland – a Trojan Horse?
Ku-ring-gai Council is currently promoting more ‘recreational use’ of our bushland reserves. FOKE has real concerns that these high impact sports will seriously threaten Ku-ring-gai’s natural environment by …
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