2014 Sydney motor show set to shift

THE 2014 Australian International Motor Show (AIMS) is in limbo pending a decision by the New South Wales government on tenders to demolish and rebuild the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in a three-year project to revitalise the Darling Harbour precinct into an international-quality show and entertainment venue.

Motor show organisers have welcomed the plan to bulldoze the current 25,000-square-metre exhibition centre – which is too cramped for current needs – and replace it with a slick new centre almost double the size, at 40,000 square metres, making it the biggest in Australia.

But it has sent them scrambling to find an alternative venue for the show in 2014, when the current centre is likely to be a pile of rubble.

AIMS director Russ Tyrie, who attended a briefing for exhibitors by Darling Harbour project director Tim Parker in Sydney last Thursday, told GoAuto: “Rest assured, there will be an Australian International Motor Show in Sydney in 2014.” Mr Tyrie was reluctant to discuss alternatives, saying the final decision on the Darling Harbour redevelopment was still pending, and probably would not be locked in for several months.

Left: AIMS director Russ Tyrie. Below: Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre.



“It is very difficult to say (if the show would have to be shifted), because there is a whole process that even the presenters could not tell us ultimately,” he said.

“I think it is likely that it may be at another venue, but until the government actually signs off on all of this, we are flying a little blind.” Mr Tyrie said he was delighted with the proposal to redevelop the centre, which would then offer the capacity to fully represent the industry.

“But we are waiting on further information,” he said.

The only realistic alternative appears to be the Sydney Showgrounds at Homebush, on the site of the 2000 Sydney Olympics in Sydney’s inner west, but that is likely to mean squeezing the show into 21,600 square metres of the Dome and adjacent three exhibition halls.

A check of the showgrounds 2014 event calendar for October – the traditional month of the motor show – appears to be clear of bookings, meaning the motor show might be held between events such as the National Rugby League grand final at the adjacent ANZ Stadium on the last weekend in September and the V8 Supercar street race on the surrounding streets in late November.

Until now, AIMS organisers have resisted a shift to Homebush, even though the management of the Darling Harbour venue will not accommodate the motor show organisers’ preferred mid-year date, to bring it in line with the Melbourne event held in July on alternate years.

Issues with Homebush include its size – which seems to preclude accommodating the ever-growing number of motor manufacturers under one roof – plus its remoteness from the Sydney CBD and lack of immediate hotel accommodation, compared with Darling Harbour.

AIMS has alternated year about between Melbourne and Sydney since 2010 under an arrangement by the joint organisers, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), which ran the annual Sydney motor show until 2008, and the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC), which previously staged Australia’s oldest motor show in Melbourne.

Pressure from cash-strapped motor companies during the global financial crisis forced the two parties to join forces to stage a single annual show, with the first combined effort in Sydney in 2010.

This year’s show is scheduled for Sydney at Darling Harbour from October 19, and should go ahead unhindered as demolition work is not expected to start until 2013, when AIMS is scheduled to take its turn at Melbourne’s Exhibition Centre, in July.

The redevelopment of the Darling Harbour precinct is scheduled to be finished by 2016, when the show is scheduled to return to Australia’s biggest city.

NSW premier Barry O’Farrell called for expressions of interest on the development last September, saying it intended to honour its election promise to revamp the 12-hectare site on Sydney’s CBD fringe into a world-class exhibition, convention and entertainment precinct.

Since then, a number of consortia have put up their hand to be involved in the massive project, which will involve demolition not only of the exhibition hall but several other major buildings in the Cockle Bay-Tumbalong Park area.

The Darling Harbour exhibition centre was Australia’s biggest when it opened in Australia’s bicentennial year, 1988, but was gazumped in 1994 by Melbourne’s Yarra-side Melbourne Exhibition Centre, nicknamed ‘Jeff’s Shed’ after then premier Jeff Kennett.

The 30,000-square-metre Victorian venue was not only bigger by 5000 square metres than its Sydney rival but boasted a much more practical loading area, vast underground carpark and plentiful public transport.

Since then, the Melbourne centre has added a massive convention centre.

The Sydney development is designed to take the Darling Harbour hall back to pre-eminence to attract international events to Australia’s biggest city.

However, Victoria is sitting on a proposal for a 12,000-square-metre third-stage extension to the Melbourne centre, which would take it to 57,000 square metres in a $242 million project proposed by the former Labor state government.

So far, Liberal government of Ted Baillieu has shelved the proposal, but Melbourne news reports say it might be considered in this year’s state budget.