On Tuesday, 10 December Wollongong City Council issued the following statement on Yours and Owls at Flagstaff Hill.
Flagstaff Hill has been available as a potential event location since March 2014, when the location was captured as part of the Foreshore Generic Event Approval.
This generic event approval, along with other generic site approvals for 16 locations including Stuart Park, Rex Jackson Oval and Wentworth Street, Port Kembla, have been set up as a way to support and encourage events, concerts and other opportunities for key locations across the Wollongong Local Government Area.
The generic event approvals are part of Council’s commitment to facilitate opportunities for our residents to have easy access to events and activations that allow for social engagement, building community connections, and supporting a range of local businesses.
It also aligns with key Council documents, and the goals within them, including the Our Wollongong Our Future Community Strategic Plan, Creative Wollongong 2024-2033 and the Major Events Strategy 2021-2026.
These pre-approved sites were acknowledged by the Committee for Sydney in their 2023 report as a positive way to support events and are in line with the NSW Government’s Vibrancy Reforms.
See:
Our Wollongong Our Future | City of Wollongong
Creative-Wollongong-2024-2033.pdf
Wollongong-Major-Events-Strategy-2021-2026.pdf
Committee-for-Sydney-Everyday-Culture-2023.pdf
Vibrancy Reforms | NSW Government
While Flagstaff Hill has been used for a range of events over the past 10 years, this is the first time an event of this type has been proposed to be held at this location.
Yours and Owls lodged an event application for Flagstaff Hill on Friday 6 December 2024. This application has not yet been assessed or approved. It is at the applicant’s own risk if they choose to promote or sell tickets for an event on Council land without an event approval. In some circumstances Council will issue an ‘in-principle’ approval prior to final issuing of a licence where it is confident all the conditions can be met. Council has not issued in principle approval for this event at this point in time.
Before the application was lodged with Council, representatives of Yours and Owls had met with Council staff to discuss their proposal. This meeting, which is common practice for larger-scale events like this, provides an opportunity for Council to provide advice about their application. In this instance, we advised the applicant they would need to consider a range of factors including (but not limited to); sound, landowner approval, traffic management around the site, management of heritage items within the event footprint, management of environmental (weather) factors, management of waste, management of impacted businesses and other key stakeholders.
As it moves through its assessment and approval process, we will ensure the applicant can demonstrate how they will comply with the terms and conditions laid out in the Foreshore Generic Event Approval, as well as any additional event-specific conditions we see fit to include. As the application has only recently been lodged with Council it’s too early to speculate what event-specific conditions Council may seek to include and what fees would be charged of the organisers.
As with all events of this nature, Yours and Owls would be required to provide a bond from which Council would deduct funds should there be any site remediation needed after the event.