About Our Precinct Community Forum

This page is still under construction. Yes, by request, the historic images (and more) will return.

The Fairy Bower Precinct covers residents and businesses within the zone shown on the map below.

The establishment of the Manly Precinct system was a progressive Manly Council initiative to provide a means for the elected Council and Staff to consult with and receive feedback from their residents. There were originally 12 Manly Precincts set up around 1990.

Manly Council was one of five local government areas in Sydney to have a Precinct System. North Sydney is another nearby Council that introduced this system.

Each Precinct was set up to primarily focus on local matters and issues of concern to residents within their boundaries. However it was envisaged some issues would cross multiple Precincts, or even all Precincts, so a Combined Precincts "Interforum" was set up to deal with such common issues. This would reach a consensus or common position on an issue across all Precincts, which then each Precinct could pass a resolution to adopt at their own meetings. The Precincts can thus act as an initiator for whole-of-Council matters of concern.

An example of this working well was the campaign to save the Wishing Well Pavilion on South Steyne. This started in two Precincts, one of which was Fairy Bower. The matter went to the Interforum, and after its preservation and restoration was endorsed by all Precincts, and the building gained some publicity in The Manly Daily, all Councillors voted to change Council's intensions from demolition to restoration. As a result this marvellous little pavilion still stands, now nicely restored.

A more recent contentious cross-Precinct issue was concerns about the under-Oval car park and redevelopment of Council's Whistler Street Car Park and Library Sites. However in this case the community position on elements of the scheme was not heeded by the majority of Councillors and the senior Council staff. Instead the apparent opposition was fought, and the Precinct system was attacked as being "politicised", rather than having its views respected.

The "inconvenience" created by the Precincts over this Manly CBD development matter could have been a factor why initial attempts were made to shut down all the Precincts, when Manly Council was amalgamated in May 2016. However when the public and some ex-Councillors resisted this, the continued existence of Precincts was accepted, but they are now no longer resourced with staff time and annual seed funding, as they had been under Manly Council.

Prior to amalgamation in May 2016, nine Precincts were operating. Post amalgamation, five Precincts remain operational.