Connect Magazine – Summer edition 2025-26
Your community magazine featuring inspiring stories, exciting news and must-see events.
Mayoral message
Dear resident,
As 2025 draws to a close, it’s inspiring to reflect on the progress we’ve made together to build a stronger, healthier Canterbury-Bankstown.
This year, we’ve delivered major upgrades to local parks like Beaman Park and The Crest, making green spaces more inviting for families and sports enthusiasts alike.
Our commitment to community health continues with popular programs like the Active Adults fitness classes and the Seniors Splash swimming lessons, helping residents of all ages stay active and connected.
Our youth have also been well supported, with events and services at Belmore Youth Resource Centre and creative programs at Bankstown Arts Centre.
We’ve embraced technology to make our City cleaner and safer, introducing AI-powered street sweepers that have helped us remove more than three times more graffiti than the previous year without AI. These advances are just one part of our ongoing Clean City Strategy.
Looking ahead, we’re excited to welcome back beloved events like Australia Day at Playford Park, Lakemba Nights during Ramadan and the Campsie Lantern Festival, celebrating the diversity and spirit of our community.
Plus, new initiatives around mobility maps and environmental projects will continue to improve accessibility and urban greenery.
Thank you for your involvement and passion. Together, we’re creating a vibrant, inclusive City we’re proud to call home.
Regards,
Mayor Bilal El-Hayek
Our annual report for 2024-25 gives an overview of progress and shares our key achievements in the past financial year.
A $115.5M capital works program included an upgraded Canterbury Underpass, a number of new playgrounds, a brand new pump track (opening soon at Deepwater Park) and updates to sports and soccer fields and amenities, including at The Crest, Bass Hill.
We also delivered significant drainage upgrades in the centre of Bankstown, Belmore and Riverwood.
Our 2025 Lakemba Nights during Ramadan event attracted over 1.2 million attendees and Multicultural NSW contributed a $500,000 grant towards the event. Other grants include $240,000 from the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to undertake stage two of the Cooks River Overland Flood Study.
From little things, big things grow – we secured a scientific licence for a translocation project for an endangered native vine. You can read more about this later in the magazine.
We were proud to win a number of awards, including the LGNSW Planning Award for Rethinking Transport-Oriented Development: (TOD) alternative approaches for Canterbury, Belmore, and Lakemba and a top honour at the 2025 NSW Food Regulation Conference for food safety at major events.
Looking forward, your feedback is helping us create concept designs for significant projects, including improvements to Max Parker Leisure & Aquatic Centre and the new Campsie Hub. Construction on Canterbury Leisure & Aquatic Centre continues, and is expected to open late 2026.
Fast facts
- $19.47M received in transport grants
- $480,000 given in community grants
Everyone loves a ‘before’ and ‘after’ photo! We are pleased to share some of the projects and initiatives that aim to improve the cleanliness and appearance of our town and village centres. These include:
- New plantings, mulch and new or repaired street furniture in various locations
- More pavement washing across all our centres
- Deep cleans of multi-level car parks
- New bins in Padstow and upgraded bins in other town centres
- New display boards in Campsie
- New Glutton litter vacuum
It's celebration season!
Our City will be alive with colour, music and laughter thanks to our parties, events and cultural celebrations this summer.
📅 Monday 26 January, 4-10pm
📍 Playford Park, Padstow
We’re hosting favourite celebrations, like Carols in the Park and the lighting of the Bankstown Christmas tree, plus Bankstown Lunar New Year and the Campsie Lantern Festival.
And Australia Day will be bigger than ever, with our popular daytime pool parties to be followed by a new event.
Our Aussie Party in the Park will take place on the evening of 26 January, at Playford Park, Padstow.
It’s a family event, with rides and activities for the kids, food and drink stalls, plus entertainment.
Music will include classic Aussie rock with an INXS tribute band and a DJ.
And, of course, we’ll round the whole night off with a burst of fireworks.
Fast facts
- 9 rides
- 10 minute fireworks display
📅 Saturday 6 December, 4-9pm
📍 Wiley Park Amphitheatre, Wiley Park
Local singers, Yasi T and Antonella, are starring with Chris Sebastian at Carols in the Park in Wiley Park on Saturday 6 December.
Yasi, who lives in Georges Hall, is excited to sing a full set, mixing Christmas songs with her own. “I love to perform locally,” she says. “I find that the community has a lot of connection to the arts, including music, and the audiences are great.”
Seven suburbs will be lit up with trees and decorations, with the Bankstown Christmas tree officially lit up by Mayor Bilal El-Hayek for the season.
Canterbury-Bankstown will come alive with colour, culture and community spirit during our Lunar New Year celebrations.
Thousands will gather in Bankstown for the Lunar New Year Festival on Saturday 7 February to welcome the Year of the Horse with dazzling lion dances, firecrackers and live performances from local groups.
If you’re lucky, the God and Goddess of Good Fortune might hand you a red envelope, and food stalls will serve up all your Asian favourites.
Round off Lunar New Year by celebrating at the Campsie Lantern Festival on Saturday 28 February in Anzac Mall and Anzac Park, with colour, music and multicultural entertainment.
This magical night includes delicious food, rich culture and live performances.
For Lebanese-Australian food creative Karima Hazim, who grew up in Condell Park, food means more than simply eating.
“Food was how our families settled. It was the one thing they weren’t willing to compromise,” she says. “We had to give up the village, the city, the community — but we’re not giving up the food.”
After Karima's grandparents migrated from Lebanon to Lakemba in 1975, food became a way to preserve identity.
“We didn’t grow up eating steak and chips. My mum and grandmother cooked traditional Lebanese meals every night. That was our connection to home,” she says.
“We are feeders, we are lovers, we are nurturers, and we've managed to break down every single boundary through food.”
Lakemba Nights during Ramadan
This annual celebration has a vibrant spirit that has made it one of Sydney’s most iconic cultural events.
The event transforms Haldon Street into a bustling celebration of food, faith and multiculturalism with more than 60+ stalls and food trucks serving dishes from across the world.
Fast facts
- 51,000 visitors a day
- 60 stalls
Coming soon
Seniors Festival fun continues with activities and support services, like Meals on Wheels.
Youth Week’s just the start — join activities all year at our libraries, Bankstown Arts Centre, Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre and more.
The program at Bryan Brown Theatre will capture everyone’s attention.
Powerful voices will ring through the aisles with shows like The Piano Man and the Powerhouse Diva and Divas Through the
Decades. We’ll celebrate Italian songs and singers with To Rome, With Love. And younger theatregoers will love Frozen JR!
In January, Bankstown Arts Centre will be part of Sydney Festival.
Grammy-nominated Tibetan artist Tenzin Choegyal will be performing for two nights. This is followed by Alfira O'Sullivan and Murtala who will present Sisa-Sisa, a moving double-bill of contemporary Indonesian dance.
If your red or yellow bin is overflowing this Christmas, we can help.
You can take extra waste and recyclables to one of five drop-off areas – free of charge.
• Saturday 27/Sunday 28 December 2025
• Saturday 3/Sunday 4 January 2026
• Saturday 10/Sunday 11 January 2026
We will also provide waste and recycling drop-off areas during Ramadan.
From new play spaces to improved pathways, Tasker Park in Canterbury is set to become a vibrant recreation destination.
We recently unveiled high-level designs to upgrade the space, including a large play area complete with nature play, climbing structures and water elements. A full-size basketball court and outdoor fitness equipment will offer new ways to stay active, while shaded seating, more trees and landscaping will create an inviting space to enjoy.
A new bridge across the Cooks River, along with a new footpath and separate cycleway, will connect the park to Canterbury Town Centre and nearby areas.
The upgrades will sit alongside the new Canterbury Leisure & Aquatic Centre and reconstructed Canterbury Ice Rink to form a first-class recreation precinct for our community.
We’re now considering feedback from our recent community consultation to help shape further design work as we continue to upgrade the precinct over the coming years.
Halfway to the finish line
Construction of the new $65 million Canterbury Leisure & Aquatic Centre passed the halfway mark in July 2025.
The new centre is set to open in late 2026 with a 50-metre outdoor pool, 25-metre indoor pool, heated therapy pool, children’s water play area, gym and more.
“I’m excited to see this vision become reality,” Mayor Bilal El-Hayek says. “The pool is taking shape and the facilities we are building will cater for all in our community. Before you know it, we’ll all be doing laps.”
Fast facts
- 12,500 cubic metres of concrete poured
- 1,020 concrete piles installed
New play equipment, soft-fall mulch and a shade sail offer a cool, comfortable play space perfect for sunny days and active fun.
A new play tower, swings and soft surfacing create a fun, safe and welcoming space where families come to play, explore and stay active.
Memorial Oval is now ready for major sporting events following Council’s $2.33 million upgrade to Class 2 stadium lighting.
Newly restored sports fields provide good playing conditions, creating a welcoming space for our community to stay active and connected.
Drivers and pedestrians now benefit from safer, smoother traffic flow following the completion of a new roundabout at Yangoora Road and Benaroon Road.
We invested nearly $21.5 million to upgrade roads, footpaths, cycleways, traffic management devices and bridges across our City, completing 43 footpath projects in the process.
New play equipment, soft-fall mulch and a shade sail offer a cool, comfortable play space perfect for sunny days and active fun.
A new play tower, swings and soft surfacing create a fun, safe and welcoming space where families come to play, explore and stay active.
Memorial Oval is now ready for major sporting events following Council’s $2.33 million upgrade to Class 2 stadium lighting.
Newly restored sports fields provide good playing conditions, creating a welcoming space for our community to stay active and connected.
Drivers and pedestrians now benefit from safer, smoother traffic flow following the completion of a new roundabout at Yangoora Road and Benaroon Road.
We invested nearly $21.5 million to upgrade roads, footpaths, cycleways, traffic management devices and bridges across our City, completing 43 footpath projects in the process.
Carrying heavy books home from the library is now a thing of the past with our libraries’ new Self-Select and delivery service.
The service is open to seniors who find it difficult to get their books back home. Just choose and check out the items you want during your visit to the library and we’ll deliver them to your home on an agreed date for free. We’ll also collect any items you’re ready to return.
For library customer Gwen Del Riccio, this service has been a game-changer. “I used to have to pick one book at a time because I can’t carry much,” she says. “Now I can choose whatever books I want. I can explore and read a greater range of books. It’s been marvellous!”
Gwen especially recommends murder mysteries, adventure novels, and books like Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty and Dear Hearts and Gentle People by Ruth Park, a favourite passed down from her mother.
“If I’m with books, I’m happy,” Gwen says.
A meal and a chat
Bankstown Meals on Wheels brings you nutritious meals and a bit of company.
You can choose from hot, chilled or frozen meals. We cater for special diets, including low fat, vegetarian, halal and more.
If you find it hard to cook for yourself, scan the QR code to watch a video about our service.
Huge turnout for talk
More than 250 people enjoyed the chance to meet and hear from Australia’s favourite scientist, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, at one of our libraries’ biggest-ever author talks.
Dr Karl’s Polish heritage made the event extra special for Polish members of our community, including Revesby residents Agnieskzka Oćwieja and Dardan Ocwieja-Ramadani.
The mother and son attended the talk at Bryan Brown Theatre with friends from the Polish School of Sydney. Agnieskzka teaches at the school, and Dardan, 8, was thrilled to ask Dr Karl a question.
Aged 93, Riverwood resident Wanyi Hong has taken on a brand new challenge. She has learnt to swim for the first time as part of our Seniors Splash program at Roselands Leisure & Aquatics Centre.
“I taught my daughter how to swim, but I never properly learnt how to swim,” Wanyi says. “I have done it to exercise, not just physically, but mentally – and to get bigger muscles! At the start I was just paddling about, now I recognise the basic moves required to be a proficient swimmer.”
When she’s not building her swim skills, Wanyi is a regular visitor to Riverwood Library and Knowledge Centre where she has been a member of the Chinese Book Club for 10 years.
“The Riverwood Library staff told me about the Seniors Splash program. I want to say thank you so much to everyone at Council, especially for taking good care of the more senior people in our community,” Wanyi says.
The Seniors Splash program ran earlier this year, offering free swimming lessons to 48 seniors from multicultural communities at higher risk of drowning. It was funded by the NSW Government and delivered by Council in partnership with Royal Life Saving NSW.
Picnic Point resident Col Gibson has spent decades caring for our local environment. Cleaning up suburban bushland is routine for him, but what’s not routine is discovering a species believed to be extinct.
Col came across a vine that turned out to be the extremely rare Cryptic Forest Twiner (Tylophora woollsii).
“I wasn't really looking for anything,” he says. “I was picking up bits of broken glass and suddenly there it was in front of me. Initially I didn’t know what it was, but it’s one of those things we’d hoped we one day might find.”
After studying the species, Col connected with Council’s environmental planners, who devised a plan to save the single plant. With help from threatened-species contractors, the planners grew 54 new plants from local seeds and transplanted them in suitable locations.
These precious plants could stop this species from vanishing forever and help us learn more about it. They will be monitored as part of a 12-month conservation project.
“What Council is doing at the moment is really groundbreaking,” Col says.
Fast facts:
In the last three months, our bushcare volunteers have:
- removed 2,970kg of weeds
- Established 944 native plants
An innovative approach to keeping our streets clean is transforming how graffiti is detected and removed.
Since April last year, AI-powered cameras fitted to Council street sweepers have identified and helped remove over 1,800 instances of graffiti — more than three times what was removed the previous year without AI.
Each of our six sweepers is equipped with an AI camera that scans streets during daily routes. When graffiti is detected, a photo is sent directly to the removal team, enabling them to respond faster and more efficiently. This proactive system saves time and ensures graffiti doesn’t linger in our public spaces.
For the crew on the ground, the change is clear. “It’s made it easier in the long run,” says team member Tony. “Before AI, we had to track it down. But now we've got a photo, we can go straight to it without any troubles.”
Brad, who has worked with Council’s waste and cleansing team for 15 years, says, “People notice the difference in the cleaner streets.”
After the success of the graffiti program we’re now looking further ahead, with plans to expand AI further to support our long-term Clean City Strategy.
Aw, rats!
Two life-sized rats were surprise visitors to Anzac Park in Campsie recently. The rats came to remind residents not to feed birds. Feeding can make birds sick, increase the rat population and create mess.
Don't be a pain in the ash
It only takes seconds to do the right thing. If you are a smoker, please use the bins provided across the City to dispose of your butts. This small action helps protect our environment and community.
If you are caught littering, you could be fined up to $500. Let’s all do our part to keep Canterbury-Bankstown clean.
Welcoming the elephant to the room
Our children’s centres at Earlwood, Punchbowl, Lakemba and Hurlstone Park deliver high quality, safe and affordable education and care for our youngest residents.
Each centre is guided by the goals and needs of families – and the interests of the children themselves.
Recently, children at Hurlstone Park Children’s Centre developed an interest in elephants. After learning more about them, the children decided to build their own life-size elephant. Cheeky the elephant, built from cardboard, is now a beloved member of the class and the children ‘feed’ and take care of her every day.
Cheeky became so famous that she received a visit from the Mayor and even featured on Channel Seven News’ Bright Side.
Meanwhile, at Punchbowl, a new outdoor garden and play area are major highlights. The garden includes herbs and edible plants and gives children the chance to get their hands dirty, planting, weeding, harvesting and even learning how their produce is used in the Centre’s cooking.
Mayor Bilal El-Hayek is blown away by initiatives like these. “It’s remarkable what our children are doing,” he says. “That elephant is bigger than me! And I’m hoping for an invitation to taste the food cooked from the children’s own fresh ingredients at Punchbowl.”
Fast facts
- We provide childcare for kids aged six weeks to six years
- Open from 7am to 6pm for 49 weeks of the year
- Our daily fees are lower than average childcare centres
- Our educator-to child ratios are higher than other centres
Mobility maps
If you have a disability, knowing where you can find things like kerb ramps, accessible parking and toilets can give you the freedom to move around in our City.
That’s why we’ve created two new mobility maps to help you get around Campsie and Bankstown.
The maps show accessible features like toilets and parking, plus other useful information such as seating, taxi ranks, pedestrian crossings and more.
If you’d like a copy of the mobility maps, contact us on 9789 9594 or email commdev@cbcity.nsw.gov.au.
Hot tips for a safe summer – free workshops
As Australia’s hot summer approaches, it’s important to be ready for extreme heat.
We’re partnering with the Australian Red Cross to run a free Extreme Heat Preparedness Workshop at Riverwood Library and Knowledge Centre on Wednesday 10 December, from 11am-noon.
Learn how to protect yourself and your loved ones during heatwaves by making a heat plan, understanding health risks and preparing an emergency heat kit.
We’ve got heaps planned so your kids can enjoy the summer school holidays.
Our holiday swimming program will give them confidence in the water. They can get artistic at Bankstown Arts Centre. Morris Iemma Indoor Sports Centre will keep them moving with sports and games. And our libraries are offering crafts, art, movies and more.
Older kids can hang out at Belmore Youth Resource Centre, hop on our Bus to Beach or take a day trip to other fun activities.
All activities are free or low cost.