By ANNA USHER

Furious Kirribilli residents will pack a town hall meeting on Tuesday night to demand Premier Chris Minns order Transport for NSW off Bradfield Park South, clean up the contaminated soil and hand their trashed harbourside park back to the community.

The park sits at the foot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, directly opposite Circular Quay and the Opera House, but its lawns have been fenced off as a Transport for NSW works compound, buried under shipping containers, orange barriers, stacked pipes and machinery.

Locals say the damage is hitting the most vulnerable. One wrote on the campaign’s Instagram it was “impossible” for her “otherwise active 98 year old mother to get her walker across to catch our closest accessible ferry”. “Disgusting,” she wrote. Another remembered walking the same grass with her grandson, “now a dust bowl in that spot”.

The Save Bradfield Park South campaign, run by the Kirribilli and Lavender Bay precinct groups, wants Mr Minns to direct the agency to “vacate the site, remediate the land and restore Bradfield Park South to its former beautiful green space”.

The town hall meeting runs at 6.30pm in the Great Hall at St Aloysius College, 47 Upper Pitt Street, Kirribilli. Organisers are also gathering petition signatures and running a community letter-writing push.

A park named for the bridge’s builder

The park honours John Bradfield, the engineer known as the father of modern Sydney, who championed and oversaw the Sydney Harbour Bridge that opened in 1932. The parkland at its feet was set aside for public recreation in the 1930s and now carries his name.

But the local campaign says the state has wrecked it. In one post calling the compound “a work site for unauthorized works”, claiming Transport for NSW “has acknowledged the land is contaminated and are doing nothing to mitigate this health and safety issue”.

Council already backing the fight

North Sydney Council threw its weight behind the residents in May, voting unanimously to escalate the long-running dispute to the NSW Transport Minister.

A mayoral minute from Mayor Zoë Baker, carried without dissent, demanded a firm timetable for Transport for NSW to vacate the park, pull out its compounds and fund a full clean-up at its own cost. Cr Baker told councillors the land was proclaimed in 1935 and 1939 to be held by the council in trust for parks and recreation.

The meeting heard the soil was contaminated with lead and other chemicals above safe levels. Kirribilli Precinct chair Michael Bracka told councillors wind blew contaminated dust into nearby homes and heavy rain washed the muck straight into Sydney Harbour. “The condition of the park is appalling,” he said.

What Transport for NSW says

Transport for NSW is standing firm. A spokesperson said the agency acquired the land while building and running the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, and kept it to meet obligations under the Roads Act and because of underground infrastructure. Most of it, the agency said, stays open to the public.

A “small portion” is being used as a compound for bridge maintenance, which will include repainting the bridge ahead of its centenary.

“Transport for NSW owns the land it currently occupies at Bradfield Park and has planning approval,” the spokesperson said. The agency said public safety was its priority and there was “no risk to the public”, with erosion and sediment controls regularly monitored.

It said the government understood community concerns about amenity and access, and was “working closely with North Sydney Council to identify a pathway forward”, with an update promised “in the near future”.

For the residents packing St Aloysius on Tuesday night, that update cannot come soon enough.