Liberty Grove, New South Wales

Infobox Australian Place | type = suburb
name = Liberty Grove
city = Sydney
state = nsw


caption = Liberty Grove highrises
lga = City of Canada Bay
postcode = 2138
est =
pop =
area =
propval =
stategov = Drummoyne
fedgov = Lowe
near-nw = Homebush Bay
near-n = Rhodes
near-ne = Concord West
near-w = Homebush Bay
near-e = Concord West
near-sw = Homebush Bay
near-s = Concord West
near-se = Concord West
dist1 = 16
dir1 = west
location1= Sydney CBD

Liberty Grove is a small suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Liberty Grove is located 16 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay.

Liberty Grove is squeezed in between Homebush Bay Drive to the west and the Northern Line railway to the east. It is surrounded by the suburbs of Rhodes to the north and Concord West to the east and south and shares the same postcode of 2138.

The Liberty Grove [ [http://www.libertygrove.net/ Liberty Grove] ] development won the 1999 Urban Development Institute of Australia award for excellence. [ [http://www.udia.com.au/ Urban Development Institute of Australia] ]

History

European Settlement

Free settlers who arrived on the "Bellona" in January 1793 began farming the area and knew it as 'Liberty Plains'. The name has been adapted for the modern residential development of Liberty Grove.

Liberty Grove opened in 1998 to much fanfare. It was built on former industrial land to cater for the increasing number of people buying investment properties in Sydney in the lead up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Its opening day attracted much attention in Sydney.

Developments

Though lots within Liberty Grove are either Strata Title (high rise and low rise units) or Torrens Title (town houses, duplexes and free-standing dwellings), all property within Liberty Grove is subject to a Community Scheme (registered as DP270371), with common property owned by the community association. Lot owners pay a community association fee which is used for maintenance of common property. The by-laws of the community association are binding on all lot owners in the same way as the by-laws of a strata scheme.

Amenities

The Liberty Grove complex contains swimming pools, tennis courts, basketball court, gymnasium, village green and parks, function room, convenience store and entrances to Rhodes and Concord West. Rhodes Shopping Centre is only 100m from the northern entrance. Every home in the estate is connected to a common television antenna system by means of underground coaxial cable. The system was originally designed only to handle analog transmissions, but from March 2006 has been upgraded to also handle digital free to air channels.

Transport

Vehicle access to Liberty Grove is only available from Homebush Bay Drive.If travelling south, there is a turning lane and entrance to the centre of Liberty Grove.If travelling north, take the left hand turnoff that also leads to Rhodes Waterside, and then drive underneath Homebush Bay Drive to access the northern vehicle entrance.As well as the two vehicle entrances, there are two pedestrian entrances, one to the east, leading underneath the railway line to Queen Street, and one to the south, leading to Concord Avenue and King Street.The northern (vehicle) entrance is only a 10 minute walk to Rhodes station and the southern (pedestrian) entrance is only a 10 minute walk to Concord West station and Bicentennial Park.

Issues

The community association bylaws govern some aspects of residential life. These are some of the issues that have arisen.
* A common recurring issue within the community is whether to make Liberty Grove a gated suburb, somehow restricting vehicle entry to residents and guests.
* Parking can be a problem - there are sometimes insufficient visitor parking spots and parking on the side of the road is disallowed. Security patrols will affix violation stickers (which are difficult to remove) to cars parked in violation of the bylaws. Liberty Grove has threatened to take repeat offenders to tribunal in an attempt to fine residents who violate these laws.
* Mobile phone base station antenna - one of the high rise units was approached by a mobile phone telecommunications carrier to have a 3G base station antenna installed on the roof of their building, in return for a rental fee. The residents of the building agreed (voting at a strata meeting), but this was overturned at a general meeting of the community association, on grounds of aesthetics and perceived potential safety issues.
* Aesthetics - while no two dwellings in Liberty Grove are identical, there is a common aesthetic theme throughout the suburb. Any changes to the exterior of a dwelling (including change of paint colour, or installation of a satellite dish or air-conditioner) must be approved by the community association executive committee.
* Rhodes Waterside - this large shopping centre has opened very close to Liberty Grove, which is very convenient but also increases traffic flow past the northern entrance, and it is fairly common for vehicles to travel through Liberty Grove in the mistaken belief that it's a shortcut. Residents also sometimes bring shopping home in shopping trolleys and then leave the trolleys on the side of the road, hoping they will be collected by the shopping centre.
* Use of community facilities - the pools, barbecues, play equipment and parks are privately owned by the community association and for the use of residents and their guests only. However, this is impossible to enforce and occasionally non-residents will use these facilities. Some residents are concerned about this and is one of the reasons they advocate for making Liberty Grove a gated suburb.
* Security - while crime in the area is in general quite low, Liberty Grove does employee security guards to patrol the grounds and also to help enforce some of the bylaws.

While not everyone agrees with the decisions of the executive committee, the overall level of concern is quite low. Positions on the community association executive are not hotly contested.

References

External links