Standing room only in the Mona Vale Memorial Hall for the rally organised by the Save Our Suburb (SOS) Mona Vale community group on Saturday July 25 2026 was a clear indication residents across Pittwater will not quietly allow developer-led proposals for that suburb to ruin Pittwater.
In the lead into the NSW State Election of March 2027, a further protest focussed on Macquarie Street itself, should their invitation to Premier Chris Minns and Planning Minister Paul Scully to meet them and listen go unheeded, is likely.
SOS Mona Vale is a local community group opposing high-density state rezoning and developer-led monstrosities in Mona Vale that does not recognise local roads, wastewater systems, and public transport cannot accommodate population increases.
Residents point out that "affordable housing" density bonuses are imposing towers of 29 metres in 8.5metre height zones and being used to build luxury apartments instead of genuinely affordable homes.
Residents stated:
‘’We don't want no development, we just demand considered development i.e. no 6-8 storey buildings amongst 2 storey homes and townhouses. Our infrastructure is not sufficient to cope with overdevelopment.’’
‘’I live in the area and have worked in Mona Vale for over 8 years. This area does not have infrastructure for large developments. This is pure greed from developers and politics - they don’t care what the people want. It’s very frustrating watching developers all across Sydney ruin suburbs and communities.’’
‘’Mona Vale struggles already with inadequate infrastructure. Our public transport can't cope with the current needs, there is not enough parking, the roads that lead into and out of the area are inadequate, and adding completely unaffordable high rise luxury apartments will not add anything positive to this area, except line the pockets of developers at the community's expense.’’
‘’I have a six-month-old baby who has a sleep during the day – until recently. All the building works going on directly around our home in Mona Vale have increased the noise levels, even with all the doors and windows closed. I am now permanently anxious about what comes next when more are approved.’’
‘’Pittwater is a Series of Villages Connected by Bush, Beach and Water. It is houses among trees – not trees among houses.’’
Speakers for the rally were:
Shane Withington - the Saviour of Currawong Beach was MC.
Independent Member for Pittwater, Jacqui Scruby, outlined her latest efforts the community’s behalf, and spoke of how State Significant Developments were once a mechanism for the state government to facilitate new education facilities, hospitals and waste management facilities, port, airport and rail facilities, not for destroying communities. Ms Scruby, expressed concern that Sydney itself, a city known for its beauty, may be wrecked by the developer-led proposals.
Former Pittwater Council General Manager Angus Gordon spoke on the Warriewood Wastewater Treatment Plant [for sewerage] which is already beyond capacity, and with 1000 homes in Pittwater still not connected to water, millions would be required to bring it up to where it should have been years ago. With faeces already running down some streets and into homes during rain events, or straight into the ocean, untreated, when the system is overloaded during storm events, where will 20,000+ plus more flushes each day flow?
Greens Councillor Miranda Korzy spoke about vacant properties in Pittwater - over 7000 at the last census – surmising that many of these new builds, already costed at 3million dollars plus, would also stand empty as millionaires ‘weekenders’ outside of summer amd contribute nothing towards putting rooves over heads.
President of Protect Pittwater Simon Dunn spoke on the work being done to reinstated Pittwater Council, a Council that was For, About and By Pittwater residents and renowned for its ability to design communities for community.
Michael Gencher, Liberal candidate for Pittwater in the 2027 State Election, outlined his views on the blanket rezoning and the Liberals stance on housing being planned and supported by infrastructure.
Save Mona vale Hospital Campaigner Parry Thomas spoke about lessons learned during the fight for Mona Vale Hospital and how residents should choose an MP who will represent them, not a political party where members are required to toe the party line.
An edited transcript of their speeches is available in the PDF below.
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Protect Pittwater President Simon Dunn, Angus Gordon OAM, Parry Thomas
Residents also spoke about Mackellar MP Dr. Sophie’s Scamps 2025 election pledge to seek a Heritage Listing for Pittwater and how that may be versed as it advances through processes required if what it seeks to celebrate is being destroyed.
As Pittwater has Culturally Significant sites and events (place where Australia’s constitution was drafted at the Basin, Barrenjoey Lighthouse, the sacred Aboriginal sites, the place where surfboards were championed as lifesaving equipment), and outstanding Environmental values with state and federally listed endangered and critically endangered ecological communities and migratory birds that both underline Pittwater having ‘outstanding heritage value to the nation’, what would occur if these were no longer part of what makes Pittwater where the throngs all go, all year round to visit these sites, because profiteers were given permission to sell it out?
See April 2025 report: ‘’Dr Scamps’ plan to protect Pittwater: Nomination For Heritage Listing’’
Residents again queried the 15-years then ‘sell out again’ affordable housing quotas that are allowing 29 metre high buildings in 8.5metre height zones, with people left with 29m storey towers overshadowing their homes, permanently.
The allowing of builds in flood and fire zones, builds that will only exacerbate flooding, was discussed, as was the already permanently choked roads - how would people be kept safe during floods and fires evacuations?
Residents being harassed by Developers to sell from the moment the new rules were announced, and developers including in their SSD proposals that those two-storey home owners they will be granted permission to install towers over, will also ‘sell out’ once they realise nothing can stop them, was pointed out.
However, one of the highest concerns was the repair Bill bequeathed to todays and future children, along with the fact that in an area where housing prices continue to rise, the low-to-medium rise housing policy is a complete furphy.
Residents state they will fight for their children to have what they have had – homes among trees, access to bush reserves, sailing on Pittwater, room for their own littlies and their dogs to play in, in their own backyard.
Pittwater is not a Place for 'Affordable Housing' - the data
On Thursday July 23 2026 Domain released their June 2026 House Price Report. This stated:
‘’ The broad-based upswing that defined the past three years has ended. In its place is a more fragmented and uneven market, where performance is increasingly driven by local conditions, affordability and buyer confidence.’
However, the same report embeds a mechanism for checking how much prices have ‘fallen’ locally, which records they haven’t, and correlates with the data retrieved from RealEstate.com run in last week's report.
Median: units
Mona Vale $1,492,500 YoY: +17.3% 5 Year: +22.3%
Newport $1,410,000 +14.6% +30.6%
Narrabeen $1,235,000 +5.1% +14.2%
Collaroy $1,359,500 +14% +39.3%
Dee Why $1,100,000 +11.7% +27.9%
Brookvale $1,090,000 +10.1% +30.4%
Manly Vale $1,050,000 +1% +26%
Manly $2,022,500 +14.6% +19%
Balgowlah $1,382,500 +4.3% +20.7%
Median: Capital cities are calculated by using a stratified median price. All other geographies use a middle sale price.
QoQ: The quarterly change in the median house or unit price.
YoY: The annual change in the median house or unit price.
5YR: The five year change in the median house or unit price.
From: www.domain.com.au/research/house-price-report/june-2026
John David, Convenor of Save Our Suburb (SOS) Mona Vale shared an analogy to illustrate what residents identify as a mistaken perception about Pittwater’s capacity to accommodate towers of units and thousands more cars.
Mr David stated:
‘’I'm a bus driver. If I have a bus, and everybody seated is a resident of Mona Vale, and everybody standing is a resident of Mona Vale, and the bus is full, if I drive up to a stop and I have people waiting at the stop, it is unsafe for me to let them get on my bus – I’m not allowed to. But what the state government wants me to do is to tell people to shove back and to squeeze more people on the bus. Our issues around the evacuation routes for, in the case of bushfire, [are evident] to the many people here who remember 1994. The only evacuation route for people north of here is Barrenjoey Road, the only other way after that, Mona Vale Road. In 1994, the fire jumped Mona Vale Road and it closed. So, if you shove a whole lot of people into this area, you increase risk of property loss and loss of life. And the government is saying, well, ‘just go ahead and do it, shove more people on your bus’.
There's nothing they can do, geographically, to fix that. We back onto bushlands, which we love, but we are susceptible to bushfire risk. It's just the way it is here.
At one of our meetings a couple of weeks ago, we had Greg Mullins, who fought his first fire at Terrey Hills when he was 13, beside his dad. Greg Mullins AO AFSM is a former Commissioner of Fire and Rescue New South Wales.
He predicted the fires on the south coast in the summer of 2019-2020. He was warning Scomo for six months before that, that that was going to happen. They ignored him. Greg said at our meeting all the conditions that occurred at that time are happening right now. A lot of undergrowth is growing as we’ve been having a lot of rain, and the potential for a very dry summer, as recently recorded in the La Nina we’ll have this coming summer, are combining.
So, the conditions for that to occur again are percolating right now, and he has suggested that we will have a major bushfire event, hopefully not the same as the south coast, but in the early new year. If the evacuation routes do clag up because of overpopulation, there's only one place we'll be looking to; the beach. Yet they want to put more density into the area. I say they've either been conned by the developers or they've made a terrible mistake. Hopefully they will come and meet with us, as requested, so they can get an understanding of what’s at stake.
‘’What we need is support from the community. Now, I know people can't make it to meetings. A lot of people wanted to come today, but they've got kids' sport, other commitments. Everyone has busy lives and careers to get on with, I get that. But what we need is support.
If you have not signed up for SOS Mona Vale updates, give us your name and your email address so you can get on to our newsletter, and you'll hear about the meetings, and you'll hear the results of those in Minutes we’ll send out to you. There is so much of an assault on our suburb right now, that you need to be kept up to date with it.’’
We've got an online petition.
When you sign that petition, it costs you nothing to do it, and your suburb is recorded. I think we're knocking on the back door of 2,000 signatures on that right now. The vast majority of those are from people in the local area.
We've got a number of these state-significant disasters on the table right now. We get just 14 days to make a submission. You don't need to be a neighbour of those things to have to make a submission.
If you are a resident of the area, you're entitled to put in a submission. My view is every one of those should have hundreds of submissions. Most people who are members of the suburb, you know right now what you want to say. You don't have to be technical and say 'the windows are too high and the setbacks are incorrect' or 'this will undermine our home, next door, when they dig to install a three storey carpark underground in the creek zone'.
You don't have to do that. The neighbours around those things will take care of all that stuff. But you could write a one-page submission today, this afternoon, and have it ready. Have it ready. Have your say. They took our voice away. It's one of the few ways we get to have our voice back. And they will know that the community are watching them. It's not hard to do and when the 14-day tiny period comes up, you just go to the portal and you submit it.
If you want to know how to do that, come to the meeting on the 22nd. And then write a letter to Jacqui. Inundate Jacqui with letters. She's our member, our MP for Pittwater. I've asked her on many occasions, ‘how do we empower you?’ By sending those letters to Jacqui, you are giving her the tool that she needs to go and have a say in Parliament for us. Whoever our local member is, they need to be empowered, but they also need to know that they are accountable. We want them to look after us. They're elected for that purpose.
‘’We've got 770-odd people as members of our little group. We started with 69 in October 2025, so it's growing fast. There's a lot of concern in the area, concern that’s growing fast, but what every single one of you who are here today can do for us is gather people over the next month or find one other person, and we'll double the size of our group in a month.
''There's an election in March. It's one of the very few times when politicians pay attention to us. We’re looking at every way we can to encourage them to correct their mistake. If we get to 1,100, we get to 10% of Mona Vale residents and they'll be paying more attention. When we get to 5,000, they will not ignore us. We can swing an election with 5,000 people.
Thank you. Thank you. That's all I've got to say.''
Residents can join or get updates from SOS Mona Vale by signing up for them at: www.sosmonavale.com.au
Data in last week's report available at: Affordable Housing In Mona Vale More an Uplift in Grift than a Home Solution
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Mona Vale Rally – edited Transcript of Speeches from Speakers.pdf Size : 320.748 Kb Type : pdf |
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