Joy, glee, and excitement are in the air! - Progress Hall re-opeing

The Progress Hall is looking absolutely amazing, and the CPPA Committee is beyond thrilled to be throwing open the doors once again! We warmly invite you to join us for a festive Re-Open Day on Saturday 22 March 2025, from 10am to 2pm.

This special event is a wonderful opportunity to catch up with locals, soak in the cheerful atmosphere, and celebrate the incredible achievements of our community group. We can’t wait to welcome you back to our beautifully refreshed hall—see you there!

10:00- 10:30 Welcome members of the community back to the Hall, seeing is believing, it’s an amazing transformation. Share your ideas for future uses and events.

10:30 – 11:00 The official re-opening of the hall ceremony, with the Honourable Greg Piper MP, cutting the ribbon and turning on the urn. A time for some heartfelt thanks and reflections on the community contributions that have maintained this community asset for the past 74 years.

11:00 – 11:30 Celebrating 30 years of Landcare in our community. Who are the landcarers, what do they do and where do they do it. Join us in a slice of community cake and a cuppa.

11:30 -1:30 Drop by and say hi. Explore the hall, immerse yourself in a display of local weeds and how to get rid of them. Purchase a native plant that can replace your weed. Chat about your trees and see if they have the potential to be a hollowhog-hotel. Join the CPPA and support what we do. There will be members-a-plenty to propose and second your application.

To add to the festive atmosphere throughout the day there will be some light music so visitors can appreciate the acoustics and test out the well sprung floor if you like to move and groove. On stage will be Bobby Paquet, a French folk guitarist and on the recently tuned piano will be Helen English, accomplished pianist.

There will be a rolling morning tea with some tastebud tempting treats provided by the Cleaver crew.

1:30 – 2pm Join in the Annual General Meeting of the CPPA where the achievements of the year will be shared, the financial report delivered, plans for 2025 discussed and the election of the Committee undertaken. Nominations received so far for the Committee have been from Suzanne Pritchard, Nico Marcar, Cath Fairs, Selma Barry, Helen English, Nicole Haigh, Pam Sharp and Ros Cornish.

If you are coming along please send an email to cppasecretary@gmail.com so we can make sure we cater adequately.

Thank you to the refurbishment contributors

The refurbishment of the kitchen started in 2023, on the back of the discovery of a very significant termite infestation. Since then the community and CPPA combined to create something very special, and for that our heartfelt and genuine thanks are given to:

Selma Barry, for the thoughtful practical kitchen design and coordinating the whole project and carrying much of the stress involved in such a project

Cath Fairs & Family, for the attention to detail and decluttering skills, re-setting the hall with enthusiasm and gusto for the next stage of its community life.

Ian Dennison for his timber transforming talents, commencing with the kitchen deconstruction dealing with the worst of the termite damaged timbers and following up with carpentry detailing at the kitchen completion end of the project

David Israel for being our trades consultant and overseeing the technical aspects of reconstructing the kitchen

Langford Windows for a lovely new window and a $1000 discount

Reece Plumbing Warners Bay for the donations of taps (warnersbay.plumbing.nsw@reece.com.au )

Dave the Plasterer – D & C Senior-for doing a top job for a great price in ensuring the kitchen walls were perfect for the kitchen installation

Brody Geddes from MKB-Joinery and Benchtops who created and installed a lovely kitchen and was very patient with us throughout the process (mkbjb@outlook.com)

Guy Brauer and Ross McGrath for coming to the electrical rescue and donating their expertise and time

CoolWatt Air and Electrical for a prompt quote and installation of additional power points and ensuring the oven electricals had capacity.(Mitchel Davies - 0457124406)

Dean, The PlumbOn Plumber for a quick quote, quick job and community discount

Luke Fairs for the carpentry work in completing theframing and undertaking the gyprocking to get the walls resurrected and replaced.

Tom and Kay Scott for the timber donations that helped us stretch the dollars that little bit further

Toronto Sunrise Rotary for responding to an urgent plea to paint the kitchen prior to the kitchen installation

Carpet Court- Toronto for the newly levelled floor and enduring vinyl flooring

Wangi Mens Shed for supplying Peter Bowen to provide advice ()

Bennetts Painting – Kyle and Graeme for painting the Hall interior in a super quick timeframe and going above and beyond the call of duty to get the tint right and doing all the fiddly bits. (m:0451370045)

The Landcare team for making the grounds and surrounds look so wonderful for the re-open day.

Toronto Workers Club Community services to go

Image from https://www.theweeklysource.com.au/community-living/toronto-workers-club-in-nsw-plans-to-expand-its-existing-elements-of-toronto-retirement-village

The Toronto Workers Club (TWC) plans to demolish the only bowling green and tennis courts in our community to build more units.

The TWC 2024 Annual Report states the club’s short-term goal is to exceed members’ and guests’ expectations in facilities, products, and services. Their long-term objective is to provide the community with high-quality services in a safe and friendly environment, generating profits to reinvest into improved services and community support.

Despite these statements, TWC has directed the bowls and tennis clubs to wind up by June 2025. Both clubs are financially viable and self-sustaining. TWC is pushing for this deadline without lodging a DA with Council or consulting any community or club members.

Residents of the Elements retirement village will also lose access to these on-site activities—facilities they expected when buying their Villas.

TWC is a member-owned, not-for-profit organisation created to provide activities and facilities for the community. Removing bowls and tennis will impact our seniors, local schools, junior bowlers, and tennis players, who will lose these precious facilities forever.

Over 70 people attended a community meeting at The Hub on 4th March to discuss how to stop TWC’s plans. Sadly, no club representative attended. Many spoke passionately about the loss and challenged claims that the bowls green and tennis courts are underused. They are well utilised.

Over the years, TWC has already reduced facilities, removing two tennis courts and bowling greens. Now they’ve told financially healthy, well-attended clubs to close.

Elements residents who bought in when bowls and tennis were part of the lifestyle were not told they’d be removed. They now face years of construction and the possibility of their homes being overshadowed by a motel.

Please give your feedback to the Workers Club at enquiries@torontoworkersclub.com.au.

This is OUR club, OUR bowls green, OUR tennis courts. Our community deserves better. Once gone, these clubs—and what they bring—will be lost forever.

- Maree Smith

CPPA AGM 2025

A brief and efficient Annual General Meeting will be held on 22 March from 1:30-2pm, at Progress hall, 197 Skye Pt Rd, Coal Point.

The Agenda will be as follows

• Welcome
• Minutes of the previous AGM held 30/6/24
• President’s Report
• Financial Report
• Election of CPPA Committee- Nominations received so far for the Committee have been from Suzanne Pritchard, Nico Marcar, Cath Fairs, Selma Barry, Helen English, Nicole Haigh, Pam Sharp and Ros Cornish
• Confirmation of Public Officer - Suzanne Pritchard

If you would like to join the Committee a nomination form is available and nominations will be called from the floor.

Treasurer's Report for 2024- Harvey Mitchell

The course of financial events described in this report follow somewhat predictably from last year’s report. In that report it was suggested

that Progress Association activities would be dictated by the need to cope with the discovery of termites at the hall. This problem will require significant spending to refurbish the infected structural work, as well as to restore the furnishings which have been destroyed in the rebuilding work so far. In addition, the Association plans to take the opportunity to enhance the aged kitchen area. Fortunately, the Association has benefitted from income in the form of an $8000 donation from the Eraring Site Community Support Programme, an $8000 grant (i.e., with restrictions on how it can be spent), from the state government’s Local Small Commitments Allocation Program, plus a $500 donation from the Toronto Lions Club, and notably a total of $2000 in donations - to date - from the community.

Until that report was presented, the planned work had seen only a small amount of expenditure because of the need for significant preparation work. Since then, the kitchen refurbishment is essentially complete, with around $40,000 being spent on hall repairs and refurbishment. This report for 2024 can therefore be summarised by saying that the Association’s total liquid assets are just a few thousand dollars. The Association clearly has no capacity to carry out further work unless there is significant income, and a review of routine expenses and incomes is appropriate.

As far as expenses are concerned, our significant routine costs, primarily relate to council rates, (approaching $4000 per annum), insurances (both building and personal, especially for Landcare workers, approaching $2,500 per annum), electricity supply and similar matters, and an annual cost of over $1000 for continual termite inspections and treatment.

Throughout 2024 we also lost income from Chronicle sponsorship, our most significant income source, because of limited volunteer capacity to produce the usual number of issues.

Membership subscriptions, which comprise the Association’s third main form of income, have been good as members have been as supportive as ever.

As far as income is concerned, it is hoped that hall hiring, which is normally one of the three main sources of Association income, and which fell to almost negligible levels, due to the renovations will pick up again. Even so, the Committee may need to consider other fund-raising measures, such as trash-and-treasure events.

Taking all this into account, the Association’s financial position is still not in a secure state, and Association activities need to reflect this situation.

Thank you Harvey

Sincere thanks go to Harvey Mitchell who is stepping down from the CPPA Committee this year. Harvey has been an enthusiastic supporter of the CPPA, as a landcarer, committee member, Vice-President, newsletter distributor and for the past two years Treasurer. A working-bee enthusiast, if there were a pair of hands required, they were provided. Harvey’s attention to detail and cautious deliberations have been an asset to the Committee and we thank him for his contributions to our community.

DAs In Play 30/1/25 to 10/3/25

The CPPA endeavours to provide a summary of active applications in our area as outlined in the table Please consult LMCC’s website for a full listing: 

• DA = Development Application
• BC = Building Information Certificate
• TA = Tree Assessment
• CC = Construction Certificate
• CDC = Complying Development Certificate
• REF = Review Environmental Factors
• SC = Subdivision Certificate.
• MU = Mixed use
• RFB = Residential flat Building

TASNG Talk

The Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group (TASNG) has been shortlisted for a LakeMac Award for Environmental Leadership. This nomination recognises TASNG’s ongoing efforts to rehabilitate the wetlands under the Fennel Bay bridge every 2nd Wednesday, their commitment to reducing graffiti, with the group currently pursuing a grant for a mural along the passageway to Aldi as the next phase of the anti-graffiti campaign. 

TASNG has a long history of supporting Cleanup Australia Day and campaigning for recycling bins at fast food restaurants. 

TASNG is planning a meeting with the new Mayor to push for more accessible recycling (e.g. soft plastics, fabrics, e-waste, cardboard and polystyrene, and even toys among other products) in most suburbs, with the aim to reduce waste and lower our emissions.

TASNG continues with its education campaign to the public about the Circular Economy and Recycling, working with police, Council and businesses to try to keep Toronto clean, graffiti free and safe, landcaring near the Fennell Bay bridge (Crocodile Point) and advocating for better cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.

We are always keen to have new members and friends. Annual membership is only $5, donations are always welcome.

We also support access to the Chronicle by extending its distribution to Kilaben Bay and Toronto. Contact Nico (Secretary) for membership forms, torontoareasng@gmail.com and bank account details are;

Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group, BSB 650 000, A/c no: 505782001. 

TASNG have a landcare site Crocodile Point (TASNG)

The group meets on 1st and 3rd Wed of the month

8:30 - 10am meet under the Fennel Bay Bridge.

2025 is looking to be a big one for the CPPA!

We’ll be doing a lot of celebrating and socialising this year. The first major event is an open day at Progress Hall on Saturday 22nd March, from 10am-2pm, celebrating the kitchen completion and hall refurbishments, 30 years of local landcaring and holding our AGM! 

CPPA members and the local community are warmly invited to visit Progress Hall and inspect the recently completed  kitchen and hall facilities. The new kitchen now has all the mod-cons including a dishwasher, induction cooktop, large oven, a very neat bin system, places for everything and everything in its place. The $35,000 project has been overseen by Selma Barry who has done an amazing job coordinating the transformation with funding provided from an $8,000 grant from the State Government, a donation of $8000 from Eraring Energy’s Community Fund, and an incredible $2000 in donations from our members!

Thirty years of local landcaring will be celebrated with a special cake and a display of freshly picked local weeds and some ‘grow me instead’ options to purchase. Landcarers will be on hand to share their weed treatment techniques and knowledge of our reserves and local biodiversity. https://coalpointprogress.blogspot.com/p/bonza-backyard-gardening-guide.html 

There’ll also be an opportunity to express your interest in having habitat hollows installed in large trees on your property, utilising the Hollowhog approach, as part of a funding application under consideration to enhance the number of hollows for our local wildlife within our community. It takes over 100 years for a hollow to form, a significant number of our fauna require hollows for shelter and nesting. The Hollowhog approach fast tracks hollow creation.

The CPPA Committee will be on hand to hear your thoughts about activities that the CPPA can undertake, especially around utilising our unique community-owned hall. There will be a rolling morning tea and nibbles on hand and an opportunity to join or renew your membership to the CPPA.

A brief and efficient Annual General Meeting will be held from 1:30-2pm. The Agenda will be as follows

• Welcome
• Minutes of the previous AGM
• President’s Report
• Financial Report
• Election of CPPA Committee

If you would like to join the Committee a nomination form is available.

Drop in for a quick visit or hang around for a while, the Open Day at the hall is an opportunity to catch up with some locals and share your thoughts on what you’d like to see happen in our community or at our hall. 

Membership renewals are due ...

or join our progressive progress association.

CPPA membership aligns with the calendar year and membership renewals are due, or join up now!

Our annual membership fees are $8 for an individual, or $13 for a household (defined as people living at the same address, whether a family or not). Five-year memberships are $32 and $52.

There’s a membership form on the website and inside.

Wanted: Civil construction advice on addressing access to Progress Hall.

The CPPA will be applying for funding to improve access to the hall and would greatly appreciate some advice to guide our application.Please contact  cppasecretary@gmail.com or 0438 596 741 in February to discuss.

Coal Point Progress Landcare

Coal Point Progress Association Landcare is a small, dedicated group of landcarers who are happy to welcome and provide training to new members. We meet every Thursday 8am-12pm, rotating around our local reserves

According to the  Awabakal seasonal calendar we are at the end of the hot dry time of the year and looking forward to cooler weather with some rain. The kararkarmatara (banksia) is a common flowering plant on Awabakal Country during wunal (summer). The kararkarmatara exudes a rich nectar from its muraban (flowers), and it was common practice among Aboriginal people to enjoy its sweet taste. At Landcare we enjoy spotting the flowers and watching the pollinators at work. The Banksia serrata (Old man banksia) is the one in flower to look out for now. 

We also spend a lot of energy working on eradicating weeds to give the native plants room to grow. A sleeper weed that is awakening at the moment is the formidable Formosa lily. It looks pretty, with its bold white trumpet flowers, has a fun seed capsule that makes a great rattling sound and the seeds are flung far when shaken. This makes them very attractive to pick and play with while walking through the bush. But today’s fun is tomorrow’s bane of the bush and the rapid increase in Formosa lily numbers is a problem.

Our botanically enthusiastic landcarer, Ros Cornish, conducted an experiment to observe germination of the “scales” from the Formosa lily bulbs. She evenly spaced 50 scales in a seed tray containing potting mix, and covered them with soil.

After a few weeks there was some evidence of germination with a few thin leaves visible. Two months later leaves were quite visible on the germinated scales with 60% germination.

What was interesting, disturbing and unexpected, was that several plants germinated from the one scale!

In the wild this possibly explains why there can seem to be a few plants close together when we weed.

The twinning of the Formosa lily was on display at the February landcare session on the the old water tank site on West Ridge, where Nico was dwarfed by the monster twin-lily (The Lily flower and seed pod are not to scale). 

After years of methodically removing Formosa lily flowers from our bushland the odd plant or two still manages to emerge over summer. If the flower gets pollinated hundreds of seeds form, get blown on the wind and the process continues.

The flower buds are forming now and it’s time to get this garden escapee out of the bush. If you like cut flowers feel free to collect this ornamental and scented flower and take it home, just leave enough of the stalk so the landcarers can remove the garlic like bulb.

If you’d like to have a go at removing the whole plant to give the bush a breather there’s an instructional video that the local landcarers put together on the website- Formosa foe not friend.

There’s lots of information about our Landcare sites and the calendar on our website https://coalpointprogress.blogspot.com/p/guardian-group-information.html

Want to join us?
If you would like to receive weekly emails about where we are landcaring and what we will be doing? email  Ros cppalandcare@gmail.com 

Housing Diversity plan on pause for pondering

Council’s Housing Diversity Planning Proposal, a major planning document which has the potential to reshape residential zones across the City, was presented to the new Councillor cohort in December 2024. 

Thankfully the new councillors were concerned enough about the lack of genuine community consultation and city-wide impacts of this controversial issue to not support the proposal, request more information, have more options considered, and have several internal workshops to better understand the issues, options and implications. 

To address the housing crisis the State Government has already directed local governments to permit increasing housing density within 400m of designated train stations (Fassifern is not a ‘designated’ train station) and local business centres, including Toronto. 

In addition the State government is aiming “to permit three to six storey flat residential buildings in the R3 Medium Density Residential Zone within 800m proximity of town centres and train stations. It also aims to permit multi-dwelling housing, attached housing and two-storey residential flat buildings in the R2 Low Density Residential zone within 800m proximity of town centres and train stations” (p12 LMCC’s Recommendations to the Development and Planning Standing Committee Meeting - Monday 2nd December 2024)

Council is, however, proposing to allow for potential density increase in every R2 and R3 zoned block across the entire city, subject to their suitability. It will also allow suitable blocks to be subdivided down to 200sqm. 

From a local perspective where our community is dominated by large, often bushland, blocks in a R2 zone (low density, the proposed changes have the potential to see a land use change that would decimate our bushland corridor as building footprints are increased at the expense of our biodiverse assets. Council states the planning proposal applies to residential zoned land and will not increase risk to critical habitat or threatened species, populations or ecological communities, or their habitats. Within our community threatened species, such as Squirrel Gliders, Powerful Owls and Tetratheca juncea, do exist, fragmentation of vegetated corridors is a key driver of local extinctions and in a biodiversity crisis this should be acknowledged. Indeed,  Council’s own species management plans recognise this. 

Additionally, as many would be aware, our existing infrastructure is inadequate for the current population  let alone the projected increase. Footpaths are almost non-existent locally and Council has repeatedly advised that new ones will not be constructed due to geography and low population; increasing density in a geographically constrained area will still not result in more footpaths. Local roads are already too narrow in places hampering parking and access during construction projects. Public space per capita for the Toronto area has already been identified as not meeting the needs of the projected population increase.

Genuine community consultation is required to better understand the Council’s proposal and its impact. Only 20 submissions were received during the public consultation period. The question has to be raised, is this a representative sample of the residential population that will be impacted by the city-wide Housing Diversity Plan?

Our local councillors are keen to ensure that the community is aware of the very real impacts this proposal would deliver. 

Take a chance to read the Housing Diversity plan and communicate with your councillors. https://shape.lakemac.com.au/housing-diversity 

Cr Anthony Swinsburg is actively seeking community feedback. 

All Councillors have a workshop on the Housing Diversity proposal in early February. 

Our West Award Councillors are; 
Anthony Swinsburg (Ind) - aswinsburg@lakemac.nsw.gov.au 
Madeline Bishop (ALP) - mbishop@lakemac.nsw.gov.au 
Kate Warner (LI) - kwarner@lakemac.nsw.gov.au
Jason Pauling (Lib) - jpauling@lakemac.nsw.gov.au 

Hall for hire again

The kitchen and communal space of Progress Hall has had a major renovation and freshen up making it a vibrant and serviceable community asset. We are looking forward to opening the hall back up to the community in March. 

Community halls are vital spaces that bring people together, fostering connection, creativity, and a sense of belonging. We invite local individuals, businesses, and groups to make use of our hall for a variety of activities. 

Whether you’re hosting a creative arts or music class, an exercise group, a birthday celebration, a family gathering, or a meeting for your business or community organisation, our space is designed to support your needs. Let’s build a vibrant community together—one gathering at a time! 

Please call our Hall Co-ordinator Cath Fairs on 0405297830 to discuss your needs.

Cath Fairs- Hall coordinator