By ANNA USHER

Mosman Mayor Ann Marie Kimber has asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to walk back federal government plans to sell part of HMAS Penguin.

In a letter sent to Canberra on August 19, Mayor Kimber directly appealed to the PM, saying he had made an about-face on previous comments regarding the harbour land.

“Speaking on the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust Amendment Bill 2021, you described Sydney Harbour as “an asset that is a jewel for the entire country”, Mayor Kimber wrote.

“You also described the Middle Head headlands as nationally significant assets and reminded Parliament, through the words of Tom Uren, that this land belongs not only to Mosman or Sydney, but to all Australians.”

Mayor Kimber referred to comments made by Mr Albanese in 2021 when he said “if we get it wrong once, it disappears forever”, while speaking against selling harbour land in the area.

“The encroachment you warned against is now being contemplated by the Commonwealth itself,” she wrote.

The Mayor, who also wrote to Defence Minister Richard Marles and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, said Mosman councillors had unanimously resolved to oppose any sale of HMAS Penguin land, seek the protection of the Angophora forest in its entirety and advocate for the site’s retention in permanent public ownership.

“The land at Middle Head is a national asset of exceptional historical, environmental and community significance. The Mosman community has a deep, generational connection to this peninsula, a commitment that helped secure the establishment of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust in 2001,” Mayor Kimber wrote to Minister Marles.

“Mosman Council holds a firm view that financial return or short-term budget considerations must not drive the permanent disposal of socially valuable public land.

“In highly constrained urban and foreshore locations such as Sydney Harbour, the alienation of Defence land for private use represents an irreversible loss; once sold, this land cannot be recovered for future community or environmental purposes.”

The letters come as support continues to grow for a new bill in the NSW parliament aimed at protecting defence sites from development.

Mosman’s Headland Preservation Group is leading the local fight back with a mass rally against the HMAS Penguin divestment, planned for October 11.

It follows a public meeting in May – attended by more than 500 people – where former Prime Minister Tony Abbott called for a “human chain” to stop the sell-off.

“Everyone in this room should steel themselves to a bit of direct action,” he said at the meeting.

“If need be, we do have to form a human chain around there. If need be, we do have to block bulldozers.

“Use words until the decision is made. But if the wrong decision is made, make it impossible for them to go ahead.”

What is being sold at HMAS Penguin?

The government wants to sell part of the 16.64-hectare base at Middle Head, flagged for partial sale in the 2023 Defence Estate Audit.

Mosman Collective revealed in February that HMAS Penguin had been marked for partial divestment, part of a $3 billion national defence shake-up in which the government accepted all 20 recommendations of the audit.

Of the 68 sites flagged, 64 are to be sold in full, three in part, and one is to be kept.

Campaigners say roughly six hectares of ancient angophora forest, a bushland buffer between the base and suburban Mosman, is among the land on the block.

The government says critical Navy work will stay, including clearance diver training and the underwater medicine unit.