Photography courtesy City of Sydney

April 27 saw the first instalment of the City of Sydney’s much anticipated Small Bars Seminars. The free start-up seminar ’sold-out’ only days after being advertised on 4bars.com.au, Timeout and City of Sydney websites. The next session, on 28 July, is already fully booked with seats for the November 5 session filling up fast showing a real ground swell of interest in changing the landscape of Sydney’s licensed premises (to book a seat for the 5 November, 6-8pm, session email: smallbarsinfo@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au).

The City of Sydney had organised a number of speakers for the evening held at Customs House’s Barnett Long Room, including Councillor John McInerney, Architect Craig Allchin, Ross McCulloch from OLGR and owners of Sydney’s Small Bar, Luke Herd and Chris Lane.  

Councillor John McInerney, who was instrumental in the New South Wales licensing changes, welcomed the large crowd of prospective small bar owners who had gathered for the event. McInerney talked about the context and events that lead to the City of Sydney’s 2007 push to wrestle free the AHA’s stranglehold on the state’s licensing legislation.

Special mention was made of John Thorpe’s (former AHA NSW president) comments during the small bars debate in ‘07 concerning Melbourne’s laneway bar scene which has long been used as an argument for a licensing change in Sydney. Thorpe said that: “Melbourne - a land of skivvy-wearing, chardonnay-drinking book readers - is fundamentally different from Sydney in its drinking culture.” McInerney pointed out that Thorpe’s out of touch sentiments incensed Sydney-siders and, in turn, swung support in favour of licensing reform.

Architect Craig Allchin was asked to take to the stage to explain the success of Melbourne’s vibrant CBD nightlife; in doing so he made one of most inspiring presentations of the evening. Allchin’s firm, Six Degrees, did a lot of work on Melbourne’ laneways during the mid-nineties before relocating to Sydney.

Allchin pointed out  that cafes were originally intended for Melbourne’s laneways, but that small bars started to see success in areas with less foot traffic. This success, however, didn’t hit till the mid-nineties - a decade after Victoria’s licensing reforms when Melbourne was in the grip of a recession. The consequent reduction in rental prices spawned the bar scene that is now the envy of other states.

Allchin argued that small bars are the “cafes of the night” important in creating a sense of community and identity in the CBD. Sydney, a geographically beautiful city, has always struggled with its identity. Inner-ctiy planning has, in the past, attempted to complement the landscape with buildings that include large plazas rather than being in touch with being a big city and building to the edge of the street as is long standing policy in Melbourne. Allchin pointed his finger at poor planning in creating a city with few low rent shop fronts suitable for a vibrant café and bar culture.

Allchin went further. Darling Harbour was described as “bain-marie” area that now resembles and “old piece of schnitzel” that desperately needs to be brought into the 21^st century.

Allchin ended by quoting Jane Jacobs; “New things happen in low rent areas” and highlighted areas such as Haymarket and underground arcades as being ideal for a new wave of bars.    

Next to take the mike were City of Sydney area planning managers, Sue McMahon and Andrew Rees. Their main message was about the amount of thorough communication and preparation required before applying for a DA. They encouraged aspiring operators to speak to all parties involved before application including; neighbours, body corporate, landlords, local police, the Heritage Branch of the Department of Planning and council to get a feel for possible objections and issues before filing for a DA.

OLGR’s senior project officer, Ross McCulloch proffered the law’s point of view next making clear the fact that a ’small bar license’ is, in fact, a hotel license with a few restrictions placed on it and referred to as a ‘general bar license’. While the city of Sydney’s policy for small bars restricts capacity to 120 patrons McCulloch reminded the audience out that the law makes no such distinction. For clarification on legislative matters he pointed the crowd in the driection of the OLGR website.

To wrap up the presentations, Small Bar operators, Luke Herd and Chris Lane, described the experience  with the opening of their own venue - Sydney’s first with a general bar license. The pair encouraged operators to be open and honest during the application process and to make sure that their research includes the financial feasibility of their project.

“There is no magical silver bullet for success” explained Herd, “just hard work.”

After the presentation seminar guests were invited to question the speakers and other key resources in person including legal experts, police and music licensing representatives.      

While so far only two ’small bars’ have actually opened seven more Development Applications have already been approved with four more expected to be lodged shortly.

For more information on the small bar process visit City of Sydney’s site here.