Macquarie University Postgraduate Representative Association

A team of Macquarie University postgraduate coursework students recently joined forces with North Sydney Council on the HarbourLink Sustainable Planning Project. The proposed HarbourLink project is a 3km stretch of shared off road pedestrian and bike pathway that if built will stretch from the Harbour Bridge to Naremburn. From there it will link up with an off road bike path along Epping Road and then proceed to the employment lands of Macquarie Park. It represents an opportunity to complete the off road missing bike link to Macquarie University.

The idea of the collaborative project was that a group of Macquarie University postgraduate students from the Graduate School of the Environment (GSE) would work with North Sydney Council active transport committees to prepare a sustainable plan in relation to the HarbourLink project for the Greater North Shore area. Postgraduate coursework students would have the opportunity to work on a real research project to get practical work experience prior to their graduation. The project formed part of the assessment of multidisciplinary GSE students in a course called “Sustainable Urban Regions” convened by Dr Marco Amati.

The project began when a Master Of Environmental Planning student Andrew Fraser took advantage of Macquarie University’s policy of allowing students to defer for a semester without penalty. Andrew said “I wanted to take a semester off to finish writing my play and pursue my voluntary work on North Sydney Council sustainability committees” Andrew used the opportunity to propose a joint Macquarie University/North Sydney Council project as part of his assessment for ‘Sustainable Urban Regions’ in which he was enrolled the following semester.

Andrew formed a team with two other GSE students and obtained University Ethics Committee approval for the project.  The result of the team’s efforts is published on North Sydney Council’s website