ABSTRACT
This chapter shows Sydney's beachfront parks came to be seen as sanctified and inviolable, in many cases preventing the creation of new beachfront amusement parks, despite ongoing commercial and local government demand for private lease opportunities. Jack Mundy, who earned national fame during the 1970s as the union leader of the 'Green Bans' on demolishing heritage buildings and maintaining green space, insisted on behalf of the Australian Conservation Foundation that the government had a 'social responsibility to maintain the essential spirit of Luna Park'. Howard Tanner from the National Trust, the very organisation tree-lover Annie Wyatt had helped to create nearly half a century earlier, and which had listed the face and towers as having heritage value, also spoke in favour of retaining the park and recognising its architectural significance to the harbour. The government also commissioned a heritage study that concluded that Luna Park was 'an outstanding item of environmental heritage significance'.
