Nominated Assembly Areas will be established during a CBD-wide emergency in Sydney or North Sydney
This information must be in your organisation’s emergency plans to ensure the safety of your staff and help you direct their movement in an emergency.
What are CBD Nominated Assembly Areas?
During an event, nominated assembly areas will provide temporary retention of evacuated and displaced persons until the situation allows them to return to work or move on. They are located in and around the Sydney and North Sydney CBD zones and are managed by the NSW Police Force. These new Assembly Areas replace “Safety Sites” in the former NSW Subplan and Guidelines for Business.
For a full list of Assembly Areas see the table below.
When are they used?
The areas are selected at the time of an event with a view to minimising the risk to people in the CBD zones. Criteria for selection may include type of hazard; proximity to the hazard and weather conditions especially with regard to wind direction and an area’s holding capacity.
Is evacuation to an Assembly Area mandatory?
It is expected that a certain number of people will attempt to proceed directly to transport nodes or other places, bypassing assembly areas entirely, or they may attempt to do so after attending an assembly area for only a short time. However, it should be noted that choosing not to take the direction given by Emergency Services could mean people may inadvertently move towards danger or that movement may have downstream effects at transport nodes.
What if all CBD transport is affected?
In a worst-case scenario, involving significant interruption to transport systems, on-movement may actually require displaced persons to walk from an assembly area to well outside the CBD where alternate transport pick-up points can be arranged. Some people may actually be in a position to, or may elect to walk directly to their homes regardless of distance.
