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The Residents and Friends of Manly: Community Based Resident Action
The Residents and Friends of Manly Inc. was a pioneering community-based action group established in November 1985 in the Sydney seaside suburb of Manly, NSW, Australia. Initially the residents’ fight was against over-development in the municipality but expanded to embrace environmental, planning, social and financial reform enveloped in a framework of open and accountable government. The group became an early model for resident-based independent political groups (Alexander, 1997, Manly Daily p.10; Burridge, 1993).
The trigger to the group’s formation was a protest against a proposed 14-storey high-rise building on council-owned land behind the historic Manly Corso which would have cast shadows on Manly Beach, the public school and other amenities (The Manly Guardian, First Issue March,1986; Burridge, 1993, p.30). The group campaigned relentlessly, making submissions to Manly Council against the development and also requesting changes to the proposed Development Control Plan (DCP) which was set to increase the height limits for buildings on the waterfront.
Following a series of public meetings, including the use of a blimp to illustrate the height of the proposed Leighton development, the organisation attracted a large membership and presented a petition with 6,000 signatures to the then Aldermen of Manly Council. They refused to accept the petition (Burridge,1993 p.38; Minutes of a Special Meeting of Council Held On 19th December, 1986 in Manly Council Minute Book, 5th August 1986 to 19 December, 1986).
The Residents and Friends of Manly (R and F) were unhappy with what they regarded as biased coverage in the local newspaper, The Manly Daily. The group started its own newspaper, The Manly Guardian, which residents hand-delivered to 28,000 households. The first edition of the paper was published in March 1986, and it continued to be published three to four times per year until 1996 (Burridge,1993 p.30).
Subsequently, the Residents and Friends of Manly formed a ticket to contest the local government election of 1987. The group polled the highest number of votes in the election and four people were elected to Manly Council (Gibbs, Manly Daily, Sept 29, 1987, p. 3 and September 30, p.1).
The four elected aldermen (later the name was changed to councillors), were all professional people with young families: David Jacobson, an architect, Anne Maria Nicholson, a journalist, Michael Heraghty, a lawyer, and Dr Peter Macdonald, a general practitioner. All of them lived in their own homes in the Manly Municipality and none of them had been involved in politics before. This reflected the organisation which was non-partisan to any political party and was truly independent, representing the values and concerns of local residents. However, their political opponents dismissed them as “renters from the hills, and squatters and flat-dwellers” (Heraghty, 1992).
Once elected, the Residents and Friends aldermen voted down the high-rise building which was to be constructed by Leighton. This put them at loggerheads with half the other aldermen who favoured the development on land which at that time housed the local library and public carpark in Wentworth Street (Thorpe, Manly Daily, 22 October, 1987 p.1).
The R and F group obtained legal advice against Manly Council to fight the case and ultimately the Council withdrew the development application. The Council was both the owner of the land and the consent authority (Burridge,1993, p.39).
This victory was the beginning of a period of social, financial, planning, developmental and environmental reform enveloped in a framework of open, transparent government (Burridge, 1993). But it put the aldermen in the front line in sometimes aggressive confrontations with developers and their political supporters on council. (Burridge, 1993 p.34; Manly Daily 9 November,1985).
The Residents and Friends of Manly continued to fight for resident and community based rights for over two decades with five councillors being elected to Manly Council in 1991: Peter MacDonald; Susan Sacker, Nina (Nancy) Burridge, Judith Burns and Michael Heraghty. The Manly community elected the first publicly elected Mayor, Councillor Susan Sacker in 1995 as part of the Residents and Friends of Manly team.
The independent movement has continued to spread throughout Sydney and the nation not just in local politics but in State and Federal governments. In 1991 Dr Peter Macdonald, a leading member of the Residents and Friends also became the Independent member for the Manly electorate in the NSW Government, a seat which he held until his retirement in1999. The impact of the independent movement on politics at all levels is continuing to be felt by the previously embedded two-party political structure that dominated Australia’s electoral system for many decades in the past (Turner, 2022).
Residents and Friends Achievements
The Residents and Friends of Manly Group, through their activism enabled many initiatives to be set up within the Municipality of Manly and empowered citizens to act in the best interests of their community. These achievements included:
A major reform of the development control plans (DCP and LEP) which limited the height of developments on the beach front.
A Master plan that enabled the relocation of Manly Library to the centre of Manly
Supporting Environmental change – The creation of the Manly Environment Centre
Cleaning up the Ocean
New Childcare Centres and playgrounds
Saving the Manly Art gallery and Museum
Greater focus on our Indigenous history
References
editReferences
Alexander, Peter., 1997. Formed to Keep Manly Special, Manly Daily, 20th September, 1997.
Burridge, Nina., (1993) The Residents and Friends of Manly: A Case Study in Resident Action. Research Project. Macquarie University. Available at the Manly Library
Gibbs, Sheila,1987. Seven New Faces in Council Seats, Manly Daily, September 30th 1987
Gibbs, Shiela, 1987. Friends Voted in as Count Goes On. Manly Daily, September 29th 1987.
Heraghty, Julie., 1992. Interview with Anne Maria Nicholson on the Residents and Friends of Manly. Sound cassette recording held at Manly Library, November, 1992. Accessed 24th May 2024
Manly Council Minutes, September, 1987. Manly Library Records. accessed 24th May, 2024
Manly Council Minute Book Manly Municipal Council Minutes 5th. August 1986 To 19th. December 1986 & Index. Accessed 11th August 2025
Thorpe, Debbie, (1987) Pavilion is Scrapped!, Manly Daily, 22nd October 1987 p.1
Turner, Brooke, (2022) Independents’ Day. Allen and Unwin, Sydney