The familiar sight of skydivers dropping into Stuart Park at North Wollongong is under review as a part of Council's consultation process for the best uses of the city's popular waterfront area.
In recent months, Wollongong City Council has sought community views on what should happen in the coastal strip between Fairy Meadow and Wollongong Golf Club. With the consultation period over, Council will review feedback in finalising its new Wollongong City Foreshore Plan of Management.
As part of that plan, Council will determine which activities and developments should be allowed on Council land and forwarded to the Minister for approval.
Wollongong has been a haven for skydiving since the late 1990s and over the years Council has been supportive of the business.
In April 2015, Council voted 8-4 to directly negotiate with Skydive the Beach over the future lease of Stuart Park rather than opening up for a competitive process that would allow other businesses to express an interest. This went against the recommendation of Council officers at the time who felt skydiving should go to open tender.
At a public meeting hosted at the Council in February, community members questioned why ongoing Skydive the Beach activities at Stuart Park were still proposed after more than a quarter of a century of exclusive use.
Their principal concerns were that a popular area of community open space and a parking area had effectively been locked up to allow skydiving activities seven days a week. Questions were also raised about whether Council and ratepayers were receiving appropriate financial return for this commercial activity because rent had been set by staff and not by registered valuers.
Calls for the park to be returned for community use
Over many years the community group Neighbourhood Forum 5 (NF5) has called on Council to return Stuart Park to the community and relocate Skydive the Beach to a large area of Council land approved 20 years ago, and used by the company as an alternative site to the north of Fairy Meadow Surf Club.
In its submission to Council's consultation on the Foreshore Plan of Management, NF5 says the area currently being used by Skydive the Beach "was gazetted about 140 years ago as a public park" and it claims the current operations "contravene case law, legislation, the plan of management (2000 and 2008) and licence conditions..."
The submission says the Stuart Park Master Plan, which was adopted by Council in March 2023 after feedback from about 1200 people, "makes no provision for continuing skydiving in the park."
Referring to correspondence from Crown Lands and Ministerial approval in 2000, NF5 says: "Skydiving activities on Stuart Park oval were to cease by December 2005, and the oval returned to a village green, providing unrestricted access and use by the public."
Has Council been getting value for money?
Concerns have also been raised about the annual 'peppercorn' rental charged for the use of Stuart Park over the past 20 years, and it is claimed revenue for Council has been set at about $25 per jump less than for similar commercial operations elsewhere in Australia. It is claimed that over the years Council has foregone hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue that could have been used for improvements for the parkland.
A Council spokesperson has denied any problems with the ongoing operation of skydiving at Stuart Park but confirmed that in future there will be a competitive process to ensure Council gets best value for money.
"The skydiving activities at Stuart Park operate under a lawful Development Consent and are a permissible use of community land under the Wollongong City Foreshore Plan of Management (2008). The draft POM … lists proposed permissable uses of the community land to include existing commercial recreational activities. This includes activities like skydiving and personal fitness training.
"Skydive the Beach is on a holdover lease agreement for the cottage and separate licence agreement for the landing area located at Stuart Park. Subject to finalisation and adoption of the draft PoM, consideration will be given to granting a longer-term lease over the site. This would occur via an open market tender process and include a market valuation undertaken by an independent valuer to ensure market rental income is being achieved.
"Landing areas at Dalton Park and part of Puckeys Estate are also subject to a holdover agreement. Council will review the strategy for that site concurrently with any tender process."
Journalist Jeremy Lasek is a member of NF5 and in 2001 he successfully Skydived the Beach.
