Manly Cove West – (former Sea Life)

Reviewed

Transport for NSW successfully removed the former Sea Life building.

In December 2024, we opened a new temporary mixed-use space, with both public open space and an area to purchase food and beverages.

Over the coming weeks new seating, planter boxes, lighting and sandstone blocks will be installed in the public area to create a welcoming space for people to gather and enjoy the harbour while final planning for the sites revitalisation is completed.

Work on site will start from mid-June to late July 2025 and is expected to take about four weeks to complete.

We would like to thank the community for their patience during our work.

Transport will trial this mixed-use space and seek community and stakeholder feedback on the final plans for the site’s revitalisation in 2025 and 2026.

For more information see view our June community notice (PDF, 146.53 KB).

Demolition work completed

Demolition of the former Sea Life building started in July 2024 and was complete in October 2024.

All work was carried out in accordance with our environmental management measures (PDF, 13.97 MB).

For more information view our December 2024 community notification (PDF, 13.44 MB). 

Next steps

The next stage of work is planning for the site’s final revitalisation. This will include a community consultation period, confirming the sites end use, design development, preparing relevant planning approvals and consideration of all community and stakeholder feedback received. 

A survey will be sent out in the last quarter of this year 2025. The survey will seek feedback on the mixed-use temporary space and help us understand the community’s preference for the site’s end use.

Project information

Community notifications

Background

Transport for NSW is the owner of the former aquarium Manly Sea Life and the Manly Pavilion.

In January 2022, Transport consulted with the community on the proposal to demolish the former Sea Life building and build a new boardwalk. 

We heard general support from the community for the demolition of the building. We thank you for your feedback and support for the proposal.

In response to ongoing safety risks and the visual impact on neighbouring businesses, Transport prioritised the removal the building as soon as possible.

What is the history of Manly Sea Life?

The aquarium was purpose built in the 1960s, and housed marine life until it was closed in 2018.

Manly Sea Life Sanctuary was a public aquarium, which featured sharks, giant stingrays, sea turtles, little penguins and other marine life. It also allowed guests to take part in Shark Dive Xtreme, where they could swim with grey nurse sharks over three metres long.

Since the aquarium was closed in 2018, it has remained vacant and is not fit for reuse. The building is dilapidated, housing custom-built tanks and enclosures which are not easily adapted to a new use. The building also blocks sight lines to the heritage buildings behind.

 Project documents

Some documents on this page may not comply with accessibility requirements (WCAG).

If you are having trouble accessing information in these documents, please contact us.

 

Reports

We’re going paperless

To reduce our environmental impact, we would like to provide construction updates to the community via email, instead of printed notifications. 

To assist with this initiative please subscribe to project updates by filling out the subscribe form below or by emailing us at manlycove@transport.nsw.gov.au

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Contact us

For further information about this project, please contact:

Phone: 1800 684 490 (during business hours)
             1800 775 465 24-hour Construction Response Line
Email: manlycove@transport.nsw.gov.au 

 

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