29°C | Sunday October 12, 2025 
Questions have been raised as to what will become of the Waverton Bowling Club site now it is destined to be controlled by the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council.
The chair of the Land Council has told the North Sydney Sun there are no present plans for development and it wants to involve the local community in what eventually happens at the site. But concerns have been stoked because the same Council intends to build new houses and retail facilities on a large site in Belrose against resident opposition.
The Council won an appeal last month against a state government directive that would have kept the site in the hands of North Sydney Council.
Chair of the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council Allan Murray, a Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man well-known on the North Shore due to his involvement with Norths Basketball, said “We are thinking of creating a Cammeraygal cultural centre, displaying what the culture means, what the Cammeraygal people were doing and explaining to others the history of the area.”
“We want everyone to share in it (the site), local people, local businesses and also any other opportunities to use the centre as a meeting point.” adding “We are certainly looking at plans for that and how to we help our elders who live in the area while working with locals in the area too. Once we get ourselves going we set up a management committee and certainly looks at having local input, so we can have synergies.”
Councillor Ian Mutton pointed out that Council was previously looking at incorporating the club site into the surrounding Waverton parklands, noting that North Sydney has very low ratios of open green space. “The Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council is entitled to realise the value for the land,” he states.
Mutton attempted to have the successful appeal discussed as a matter of public importance at the last NS Council meeting for 2022 but his request was denied by the Mayor, Zoe Baker and deferred until next year. As it stands, the site doesn’t have to be transferred to the Land Council until May. He says that one potential course of action is for North Sydney Council to resume the land at “fair value” from the Land Council.
Murray told the Sun that it would like to invite surrounding Indigenous clans to participate in the discussions about the site.
“We want to talk about the other clans that occupied surrounding areas, not necessarily in North Sydney but up to Taronga Zoo, the clans around Manly and the others up the Parramatta River up to Ryde and talk about the famous people,” he said.
Murray highlighted significant Indigenous figures the Council would like to acknowledge including Barangaroo, Patyegarang, Bennelong, Arabanoo and Pumulway. “The people who stood up, we want to explain their history and what these individuals have done and why it’s so iconic for them to be acknowledged,” Murray said.
Earlier this year a similar land claim was successful at Talus Street Reserve, Naremburn, adjacent to the Northern Suburbs Tennis Association courts. Title is yet to be handed over, yet Murray says talks have already begun with the tennis club about the future of the site.
The Land Council wants to build hundreds of new homes and other facilities at a large 75 hectare site in Belrose using new laws which enable it to bypass local council planning regulations and get state government planning approval. This has been opposed by some local residents and representatives who fear the loss of bushland.