Today I opened a demonstration centre for sustainability at Balls Head at Waverton on the site of a former coal loader.

The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability will serve as a practical source of information and guidance for Sydney families interested in making their homes and gardens environmentally sustainable.

It will be a great place to help Australians learn how to reduce their carbon footprint with information and displays of recycling and water conservation, waste minimisation systems and use of non-toxic and recycled building materials.

The centre is a reality thanks to the almost $1.9 million it received as part of the $1.1 billion from the Gillard Labor Government to help the nation’s councils renew and expand their infrastructure including sports grounds, swimming pools, town halls, parks and community centres.

As well as leaving a legacy of more and better facilities around the country, this unprecedented Federal investment was a key measure in our Economic Stimulus Plan which kept hundreds of thousands of Australians in work and our economy out of recession during the Global Financial Crisis.

A total of 40 jobs were created during the conversion of the former industrial facility into the Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability and will support at least 50 volunteer positions into the future.

The centre is an example of a council identifying a local need and working hand-in-hand with the Federal and State Governments to meet that need.

I congratulate the North Sydney Council for initiating this valuable project.

The former coal loader operated for more than 70 years from the early 1920s and served as a transfer depot for coal from bulk carriers to smaller coal-fired vessels.