Godden Mackay Logan

Behind every step in the transition of the former Moore Park Showground to its new life as Fox Studios Australia, Godden Mackay Logan has provided the careful advice and required assessments to facilitate the protection of the site’s heritage values.

As well as assisting the relocation of the Royal Agricultural Society to Homebush and in providing a lease to Fox Studios Australia to establish a film studio at the showground, the NSW Government established a site-specific statutory process (known as State Environment Planning Policy No. 47) to guide this transition.  In turn the SEPP 47 identified the need for a site Masterplan and a Conservation Strategy.  Each Development Application prepared for the site involving items of heritage significance was accompanied by a Heritage Impact Statement (HIS). 

In preparing the Conservation Strategy, Godden Mackay Logan identified the importance of the former showground as a cultural landscape and the contribution made by the roads and other landscape elements to its urban form.  The Conservation Strategy identified the relative significance of all heritage elements to enable good decisions to be made.  It has been a critical element in allowing the Heritage Impact Statements to be of sufficient detail to address all heritage impacts during the development. 

The Conservation Strategy also identified requirements for archival recording and interpretation and was accompanied by an Archaeological Management Plan (AMP).  The AMP indicated the processes appropriate for protection of the site’s archaeology, which includes Busby’s Bore, an industrial heritage item of state significance that carried water from the Lachlan Swamps to the city in the nineteenth century. 

Heritage Impact Statements were prepared for each of the Development Applications lodged during the construction phase between 1995 and 1998 when the film studio and the family entertainment precinct were opened.  Subsequent to the construction phase, Heritage Impact Statements have been prepared to accompany Development Applications submitted for variations to uses and activities on the site, including at the end of 2001 when the operations of the working studio and the family entertainment precincts were separated. 

Each Heritage Impact Statement includes an identification of the history and significance of affected elements and identifies and evaluates the heritage impacts of the proposed uses and works.  Often the HIS contains guidelines and suggestions for undertaking the works and suggestions for how to further mitigate any heritage impacts.

Godden Mackay Logan has worked closely with Fox Studios Australia and construction professionals during the project and has consulted with key stakeholders such as the National Trust and the NSW Heritage Office.  The project shows that with careful planning and the clear identification of significant elements, a site of the size and complexity of the former showground can be retained, and adapted to provide for a new and exciting use.

Location: Moore Park, Sydney NSW
Client: Fox Studios Australia
Project Type: Heritage Impact Statement, Heritage Assessment