Sydney’s kids paint picture of the future

27 July 2007

Lord Mayor Clover Moore announced the City of Sydney's Sustainable Sydney 2030 project is heading to the City's primary schools this week, with students from eight schools creatively expressing their visions for Sydney through poetry and art.

"We have spoken to industry leaders, cultural icons and the broader community and now we are speaking to primary students from inner-city schools, to hear their ideas on what Sydney should be like in 2030.

"Sustainable Sydney 2030 is not just a City of Sydney vision; it is also the vision of the citizens of Sydney and a true vision draws on ideas from a broad base of people, particularly children, who will be living in the city in 2030."

"This vision is all about making the city sustainable for the next generation. We care about what kids think about the future of their city," Ms Moore said.

Travel tubes linking a person's home and work without traffic or smog is just one of many ideas children dream about for Sydney's future. Throughout the two-hour workshop, the children are helped to create a poem and painting to illustrate their ideas.

Plunkett Street Public School is the final inner-city primary school to take part in the Schools Poetry Project. Paddington Public School, known for its outstanding commitments to a green future, and Ultimo Public School, supporters of Earth Hour, were also involved in the project, encouraging their students to think about a future they want to live in.

The Schools Poetry Project is a fun way to invite young people to be involved with the Sustainable Sydney 2030 project, a major City of Sydney initiative to provide a planning framework to deliver a sustainable future.

Sustainable Sydney 2030 is a collaborative project that requires support and input from all sectors of our community through the most extensive public consultation the City has ever undertaken. It will create a plan to guide the development of the City of Sydney for the next 20 years and beyond.

To date, the City has directly consulted with more than 2000 Sydneysiders from all walks of life through forums, workshops, talks, roundtable lunches and the poetry project. Sustainable Sydney 2030 also has a web site that encourages visitors to leave a message for the future through a comments page.

The primary schools project is being led by the City of Sydney and The Red Room Company, a group of poets who work within communities to inspire creative writing.

Find out more about the City of Sydney's Sustainable Sydney 2030 project at www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/2030