At the Ordinary Meeting Tuesday 30 March 2024, Council proposed to name the new playground under construction at Paul Keating Park Play Space to the Ian Stromborg Playspace.

Councillor Ian Stromborg OAM was first elected to Bankstown City Council in 1987. He has the distinction of serving as Mayor for five terms.

Early in his public life, Mr Stromborg was elected Mayor for the period 1988/89, just a year after becoming a Councillor. He again served as Mayor during 1989/91 and yet again, for a further two terms from 1998 to 2000. This was particularly significant as 2000 was the Olympic Year and the United States Olympic Committee established their administrative headquarters in Bankstown.

A strong advocate on community issues, Ian has also been the driving force behind several Council projects including:

• Construction of the 12 storey Civic Office Tower;

• Construction of an updated Works Depot at Bransgrove Road, Panania;

• Updating the Bankstown Old Town Plaza;

• Completion of the Olympic Velodrome and athletics track at the Crest;

• Upgrading the Memorial Oval cricket ground and completion of the Stephen and Mark Waugh Pavilion;

• Implementation of the award-winning domestic waste collection system in 1999; and

• Completion of an attractive CBD facility, Paul Keating Park

• Construction of Stage 1 of the Salt Pan Creek Open Space Corridor and Boardwalk.

Mr Stromborg was also a Director of Revesby Workers Club from 2006 until he retired in 2022. He has also been a club member for 56 years.

Mr Stromborg made the 2015 Australia Day honours list, receiving an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to local government and the Bankstown community.

The lifelong Bankstown resident also served as:

• City delegate for Bankstown City Aged Care for over 25 years;

• City delegate to the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils ; and

• as delegate and Deputy Chairman of Western Sydney Waste Board.

Mr Stromborg is married to Lesley and they have two daughters who both attended local public schools and graduated from Western Sydney University.

The park is considered quite appropriate given that Ian Stromborg OAM was heavily involved in the rebuilding of Paul Keating Park after a massive fire which destroyed Council’s Administration Building on 1 July 1997.

Cr Ian Stromborg has a strong connection to Paul Keating Park and was there alongside Paul Keating to officially open it on 13 June 2000. Indeed, Ian had made supportive comments in the exhibition for the development of the new playground.

In discussing the proposal with his family, they believed that this proposal was consistent with the way he could be recognised for his contribution to the community.

A regular visitor to our local parks, with his children and grandchildren, naming the new space in his honour is a fitting and just tribute