Parking on campus: Your questions answered

Campus Security

Editor’s Note

Thank you for your parking questions. We are keeping a log of the concerns you’ve raised and will provide information in due course as the Campus Master Plan develops. Stay tuned for more updates in future editions of This Week.


We know parking is a big topic among staff and students, so we sat down with the experts to answer some of your questions.

Will there be less parks on campus?

No. University staff and student parking numbers at the University are mandated by the Department of Planning and are capped at 5,000. The parking changes and projects, both planned and underway, will maintain that cap. There will no more or no less parking for staff and students in the future.

Why are these changes occurring?

The carpark changes are being undertaken to maintain the parking balance on campus when the South 2 carparks (C2, C3, E1) are demolished in early 2018 to make way for the new 8-10 University Ave building. To compensate for their demolition, the West 5 (X8) Carpark is being extended and the West 6 (X13) will be upgraded and extended to accommodate the same number of spaces as South 2.

Are these changes permanent?

The works being undertaken to the campus carpark arrangements are permanent for the foreseeable future and until funding is available to create the parking solution that aligns to the 2014 Master Plan which envisages multi deck carparks at the perimeter of the campus. Investigations are also underway to implement a ‘smarter’ parking solution that improves bay availability using new technologies, and a more equitable, simpler and sustainable alternative. 

Why are carparks being relocated to peripheral areas?

As the University expands, land closest to the centre of campus will be needed for academic expansion, and, as identified in the 2014 Master Plan, the University is focused on improving pedestrian safety and traffic management on campus. One of the ways to achieve these aims is to ensure carparks are located on the perimeter.

Will there be less parks on the eastern side of campus? If so, how will people who work/study on the eastern side of campus be accommodated?

The total number of parking spaces in East 2 and East 3 will not change. What will change is that all campus tenant parking and reserved parking is being consolidated into East 3 with boom gate access. The entire East 2 car park will be exclusively for staff and student permit holders noting that there is a number of spaces (Red lines) allocated to Science Department vehicles. The total number of spaces allocated to each user category will not change, however consolidating them into the separate carparks makes for easier and less confusing user experience.

For those who will park on the western side of campus, shuttle services to/from West 5 and West 6 carparks will operate to transport people who need assistance to the central campus.

What about people who have accessibility requirements? 

Accessible parking numbers are being maintained and improved across campus in most locations. Accessible parking in West 3 in particular is being made compliant and relocated for easier access.

The frequency of the shuttle bus services around campus will be extended for longer periods during the day. 

An app is currently in development that will integrate Co-Hop with shuttle buses. This app will enable live access to data and timetables for shuttle buses, and match with public transport times, routes and ride share buddies to go off campus. Stay tuned for launch, estimated to be by the end of Semester 1.

What alternatives are there to driving?

If you live within a few kilometres of the campus, cycling and walking are the healthiest, most convenient and cheapest ways to travel.

If distance or convenience is why you drive, consider carpooling or mixing your travel modes for part of the journey. To plan your trip to campus, visit co-hop.com.au for timetables and to match with other Macquarie University travel buddies. 

Car pooling staff are also eligible for a Carpool Parking Permit, giving them access to marked preferential parking spots around campus.

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Comments will not be pre-moderated but any comments deemed to be offensive, obscene, intimidating, discriminatory or defamatory will be removed and further action may be taken where such conduct breaches University policy or standards. Please keep in mind that This Week is a public site and comments should not contain information that is confidential or commercial in confidence.

  1. Is anyone actually going to enforce the ‘no smoking’ rule at the MQU carparks? This is an issue most prominently seen at South 2 where hoards of students are seen smoking in groups at all times of the day. Parking inspectors are quick to hand out tickets for parking infringements, however this same sort of law enforcement doesn’t seem to apply to smoking infringements. The smoke is incredibly invasive and permeates throughout the whole carpark. Perhaps a prioritisation of resources should be considered so our health is taken seriously.

  2. Arrived transporting a disability student today for his first day of 2017 term 4 (4th Oct) only to find massive changes to the primary disability parking zone in the car park behind Building W6.

    What notifications were done to students to prepare them for this major change ?

    1. Thank you for your comment, Jim, and apologies for this inconvenience. We tried to communicate directly with anyone who may be impacted by these changes and emails were sent to all students registered with the disability service on campus. These parking spots were not removed but rather relocated a short distance away (we are happy to provide a map of the new location). If we can do anything else to help, please email us at campusdevelopment@mq.edu.au.

  3. Dear Mr/Mrs Sense of Perspective. It is not a luxury to have transport and parking access to your place of work. It is fundamental. I guarantee if people paying $400 for 10 weeks on Opal Card found out that they were not guaranteed even standing space on public transport, whilst the service frequency continued to gradually erode, they would be cranky too. A little bit of REAL perspective and empathy for our students and colleagues please. Drive a mile in their shoes. You wont find a park and wont be able to get to work.

  4. Why has the Dept of Planning capped our parking? Did it happen when the uni opened years ago, much has changed since then. The shopping centre just increased their carparks significantly as the demongraphics of the area has changed, maybe the uni can increase too.

    Who could get this changed and can we sign a petition or something to support this change?

  5. If anyone is around the parking areas today, they will notice that whatever arrangement this is, its not working! There are rather a lot of cars circling around with absolutely no parking spots in spite of the $450 spent, whilst there are many empty allocated business spots. For staff who have to get to work , there were no spots since quite early today, and for those who go out during the day,work part-time, work late there is no flexibility. Whilst many of us would prefer to not drive, for some it isn’t a feasible option. Perhaps someone should speak to the Department of Planning, as well as looking for a solution soon! I notice many of the valid comments below have also not been replied. Please don’t underestimate the stress this causing staff (And I am sure others) in particular.

  6. I absolutely agree that the consolidation of all the reserved spots into one carpark is a good idea and less confusing overall, but I’m not convinced that the number of AVAILABLE spaces for staff and students will be the same.

    Something that’s greatly contributing to the stress of people who use these carparks is the signage about the change being put up WAY BEFORE the change is actually implemented. The signage was displayed from January, but the change is not actually being implemented until 27 Feb. At the end of January after being sick and tired of driving around F5A looking for a park I called security to find out what was going on. They advised that F3A was fine to keep using until the boom gates are installed and closed. Why the signs causing all the stress remained there for another month is beyond comprehension. They should have never have been installed until the change was in place and had been communicated to staff and students. And this newsletter only goes to staff, so students (who are not also staff members) are still in the dark as far as I’m aware (and there are plenty of postgrad students on campus during semester breaks, so this is no excuse). It’s all poor planning and really bad change management.

    1. Hear, hear! Where is the common sense? I continued to park in F3A during this ‘interim’ period, and every day for a solid 3 weeks I returned to my car half expecting to see a fine on my windscreen for parking in a ‘reserved’ spot. Many of my colleagues were parking far from the office as they were afraid to park in F3A due to the confusing signage about it being ‘reserved only’, and F5A was now becoming full at 8.30am as people began parking there instead of F3A. During this time, there was absolutely NO communication from the university about what on earth was going on, until a tiny note was posted at the bottom of last week’s newsletter about the consolidation of reserved parking into F3A. Would it have been so difficult to circulate a heads-up email before the signs were (extremely prematurely) put up? The huge increase in the cost of permits this year just adds more insult to injury.

  7. Yes, everyone is correct. We should, all 45,000 plus of us, have our own dedicated parking space, perhaps with names and titles embossed on the spot in gold filigree, (and perhaps a man-servant to carry us to our place or work or study.)

    Editors – not particularly constructive I know, but really ……….?

    A parking sticker for a year is what, $400 odd, which will get you about 10 weeks on an opal card? It’s still cheap at double the price!

    1. Do you actually use the carpark?

      The biggest issues here are not actually about the price, it is value for money. The price goes up and the value for what you are buying goes down. 10 weeks of opal where you use the train every day does not equal a year of parking where there are not enough spots for the money you pay for it.

      Get back to this when you pay your opal ticket and then can’t actually fit on any trains!

  8. We’re going to build car parks… bigly ones… out the back and ruin the land. They’ll be nowhere near where staff work… but that’s okay, we’ll sell off the closer space to local business. And we’ll make the staff pay it ! We’ll charge them more to make sure they pay. It’ll be great. And we’ll pretend its for academic purposes and hope nobody notices it’s really for commercial gain. I’ve already signed the executive orders. I’ll get Sean to write the next update on this.

  9. I don’t seem to see the car spaces were maintained. As some guys mentioned below, the car park is almost full at 8:00 am. There are still lots of reserved spaces in East 3. Are these spaces been taken off from E3 to E2?

    The car park permit is more and more expensive every year with near 15% more than last year for a staff whilst only 3% pay increase each year. Also, the number of spaces actually gets less for staff as we have a lot more students.

  10. Can THIS WEEK please advise us as to who is responsible for the decision to raise parking rates? Perhaps they can use this forum to advise us to the reasons for the increase. The increase is WELL above RBA published inflation rates, and the new price rivals rates in other, much more congested, areas of greater Sydney. Is the answer is simply, because there is more demand therefore we can?

    In addition, for those of us who arrive early and find a place, but then have to leave to drive to an external, work-related appointment or meeting, we often return to find no parking places at all. The answer to this appears to be for our unit to pay EXTREMELY high rates for reserved spaces. Doesn’t this then equate to the left hand of the university paying the right hand of the university in what then is essentially an accounting exercise? How does this benefit anyone??

    If the Master Plan calls for more parking on the west side of campus are there plans to run a parking shuttle between west-side lots and all the east-side buildings, for staff, students, anyone?

  11. “The total number of parking spaces in East 2 and East 3 will not change. What will change is that all campus tenant parking and reserved parking is being consolidated into East 3 with boom gate access. The entire East 2 car park will be exclusively for staff and student permit holders noting that there is a number of spaces (Red lines) allocated to Science Department vehicles.”

    I am not sure if this is deliberate or accidental sophistry, or if there has been a miscount. It is true that the total number of parking spaces in East 2 and East 3 will not change. But what matters here is the number of AVAILABLE parking spaces for staff and students, each of whom pay city prices (over $400 per year) for the privilege of taking part in a lottery with limited spaces.

    A colleague and I did a quick count of East 2 and 3 parks last week. There are over 900 (925 by our count) parking spaces overall – including those that are reserved for tenants, university vehicles etc – with approximately 560 in East 2 and 360 in East 3. Of these, there are approximately 730 freely available to staff and students across East 2 and East 3.

    When the boomgates go down in East 3 (and I am not sure if this is from Monday 27 Feb or Wednesday 1 March), we will only have access to the 560 TOTAL spaces in East 2. Subtract from that the 46 spaces that are University Reserved, NEWLY Science reserved, for motorbikes, and recently commandeered by plants and generators. This leaves around 520 total “available” spaces for the staff and student lottery.

    By our count that is a shortfall of 200 car spaces. (or $80,000 our of staff and student pockets). And this is just in this section of the University – I recommend colleagues double check car spaces in their sections.

    And this is all before many of the carparks are destroyed to accommodate new buildings and the train station is closed. All, whilst the University population continues to expand, and these issues are further exacerbated.

    Houston, we have a problem. And the University does too.

  12. I don’t recall seeing a notification of the restructure of Car Park East (F5A & B). Staff & student access has been completely removed and this car park is now reserved (with boom gate access) for neighboring businesses. The adjacent car park F7 is full by 8:30am and the teaching semester hasn’t even started yet. Car park F7 services FoSE, FMHS & hospital staff. Parking spots are also taken up by random people visiting Macquarie Shopping Center, he Hospital, trades on campus, Biology green house and Toyota & Luxotica/OPSM staff.

    Public transport is not an option for all.

  13. Additional to the excellent points made by previous comments I would like to ask:

    Why is there a 5000 cap anyway? We have more staff and students every year, those are not capped, so why is the parking capped?

    How does it make sense to make the parking numbers static when the staff and student numbers are not?

    A significant portion of the staff in my area have children they have to drop off at school and they work at the university because of the flexible environment that allows for this.

    Where are the unions when we need some advocacy against this? This is clearly affecting lots of us, academic and general, but they are silent?

    Where is the money we pay going, and if the parking is static in numbers why are they selling more parking permits every year for more money instead of capping the parking permits and only selling a number that is reasonable for the parking available, with staff having priority of purchase??

    1. Simple. If you had read the article, you would have seen that the uni cannot, by law, have more than 5000 places.

  14. With parking at its worst, employees should be receiving a credit on their parking fees.
    Why can’t employees pay per use? Sure, it might be more expensive in the long run, but if you don’t find a spot, then you don’t pay – seems a whole lot fairer to me than the current system.
    I also think that the OPSM & Covance spots should be available to all carpark users after 10am if they are not taken.
    I think it’s completely unjust that PT employees pay the same price for parking as FT employees. A colleague of mine who works two days/wk needs to drive for her job; therefore public transport is not an option for her. She forks out a small fortune each year in the hope that she finds a spot when she arrives for work at 9am after she’s dropped her kids off at school and daycare.

  15. Fake news “…University is focused on improving pedestrian safety and traffic management on campus.”
    The carparks are already full at 9.30am where are staff with flexible hours supposed to park?
    The private businesses inheriting the central parking areas will not be happy when they realise it takes 20 mins to get off campus at 6pm with all the Macquarie Park business people using the Uni as a “Rat Run” to avoid parts of Herring and Epping Rd.

  16. What strategies will be put in place to address the need for additional car parking when the station closes next year? I understand that there will be alternative transport options put in place, but there will undoubtedly be a proportion of staff and students who may have previously caught the train but will instead need to drive during that time. It is already challenging to find available parking, so I’m curious to know what the plan is to handle the need for a significant number of additional car parking spaces during the closure?

    1. And when the train station closes surely some of the advice to people who can’t catch public transport and therefore drive and risk being caught in major traffic delays will be to stagger our working hours. Firstly that’s not feasible when teaching classes that don’t have flexible start times. And secondly, if we do stagger our working hours to start later and finish later then there ends up being no where to park. What incentive is there to stagger our starting times?

  17. Why you would rent out the Uni parking spots to outside companies in a building that is closes to Uni staff is beyond me. As per the previous comments – staff drive because they have a need to drive ie pick up drop off kids etc. There shouldn’t be a need for students to drive unless they have a special condition/situation and apply for special student permit. Sydney Uni only offer student parking permits to postgraduate students and evening students, for example and they only charge $460 for the whole year at their Camperdown Campus…that’s the city price! Please reconsider your priorities – stop renting out car park spaces to outside companies, stop student parking permits and stop increasing the permit prices.

  18. I have worked on campus for over 13 years and have worked in 6 different buildings. I have never had as much trouble finding a parking spot as I have now. I currently work on the East side of campus and with the closure of F3 and the lack of available spots on F5 i have found myself driving around and around – up to 45 minutes to try and find a parking spot then often having to walk a considerable distance to my office.
    Macquarie University has always been a family friendly workplace, promoting flexible work arrangements and work life balance. I can tell you that with this change in parking, my life is no longer flexible or balanced! I am having to arrive at work earlier to find a parking spot and sit in traffic longer at the end of the day to exit the car park and the university. I also agree that the cost of yearly parking increasing significantly each year has been very frustrating. With no improvements to existing parking structures, more lighting, better drainage, fixing holes in the roads etc where is the increase in revenue being spent?

  19. 1) Please provide more parking space.
    2) We need designated parking spaces for staff (might be up until certain time of the day and if not occupied then student can use it).
    3) What happened to car park F5 for restriction parking only?
    4) Is not too fair that there are empty spaces left over for OPSM & University departments throughout the day, but our poor staffs are working hard and paying more parking fees than student but have to compete with students for a parking space.

  20. Thanks for this, but in speaking to most of the staff I spoke to, the biggest shock was the **MASSIVE** increase to the price of parking this year. In the many years I have been here, I felt the amount of this increase was not justifiable. You didn’t provide a single line of explanation as to why this happened. Honestly, it looks like nothing more that greed and it’s a terrible punch to our permanent staff who don’t really earn the market rates that jobs in private industry make. Regards, Marcelle

    1. Hi Marcelle, thanks for your comment on increased staff permit prices. We will be addressing this in due course as the Campus Master Plan develops. Stay tuned for more updates in future editions of This Week. – Emily

  21. What about staff working night shifts, or students studying late? Having car parks on the peripheries of campus is all well and good during the day, but it is not safe for staff or students to be walking to these remote car parks at night. The courtesy bus is not an acceptable solution, as it only comes and goes at certain times, and does not solve the problem of walking through a dark car park, alone, far away from the rest of campus.

  22. Adding to existing comments that parking is becoming a bigger problem. I work part-time within school hours, arriving around 9.45am. I work on East side of campus and have to park on West side so 30 minutes of my time is now spent walking to and from my car, which significantly impacts my available hours.

  23. Two things that could be improved:
    – Stop increasing insanely the parking permit price every year: +5% in 2015, then +10% in 2016, and now +15% in 2017! (or please increase our pay accordingly).
    – Provide a better support for motorised two-wheels : more motorcycle parking (e.g., at the Sport & Recreation Centre, etc.).

    Oh, and also please don’t use the term “academic expansion” when it is about to give campus land to external private companies.

    1. Hi, thank you for your sharing your concerns on permit price increases, campus land use and the number of motorcycle parks. We will be addressing this in due course as the Campus Master Plan develops. Stay tuned for more updates in future editions of This Week. – Emily

    2. It is a very expensive parking ($60 increase) this year. Now, we have found out that we need to park far away and take a shuttle bus back to where we work. I wish I know this earlier so that I can think about alternative arrangement before I pay for the parking permit. The following are my questions in mind:
      – The pay rise does not match up with the parking rate increase.
      – How often shuttle bus come?
      – The new parking arrangement will not help with the increase of traffic in this area. The chance of getting late to work is much higher.
      – What is the reason for the big jump of parking permit cost for this year? Why.

  24. “The entire East 2 car park will be exclusively for staff and student permit holders noting that there is a number of spaces (Red lines) allocated to Science Department vehicles.”

    I was directly told this morning by campus security that the OPSM and Covance spots within East 2 cannot be used by university staff. This directly contravenes this article. Which is it?

    Poor/late communication once again.

  25. I agree with other comments here that designated Staff Parking would be a great improvement. This is the norm for most university campuses that I have visited. Ideally designated staff parking in each of the carparks.
    I have been in the situation several times of struggling to find a park in time for my 9am lecture – leaving a lecture theatre full of students waiting while I drive around in circles looking for a park. It is an annoyance, but not a major problem for a student to be late for a lecture. But for an academic with a theatre full of waiting students – it is a major issue.
    With primary school aged children to drop at school a 40 minute drive away, it is not possible to arrive any earlier (and this also makes public transport a non-option)

    Thanks for offering a forum to raise this.

    1. Thank you for your comment, we will be addressing this in due course as the Campus Master Plan develops. Stay tuned for more updates in future editions of This Week. Thanks, Emily

    1. Thanks for your comment. We will be addressing this in due course as the Campus Master Plan develops. Stay tuned for more updates in future editions of This Week. Thanks, Emily

  26. What about a staff member down to give a lecture at 10am who finds that there is not parking space anywhere near the lecture room or office? And in many cases it is almost impossible to find a space. Do you suggest that they come in at 7.15am in the morning. The lack of designated staff parking areas at Macquarie University apart for those for The Executive and sub-Executive is an absolute disaster.

  27. For staff, how about implementing staff only carparks. If staff are not on campus before 8.00am to 9.00am during class times the car spaces quickly disappear and you are left driving around searching for a space. It is not unusual to see students sleeping in cars in the mornings so they are assured of getting a space. This is a practice also at most Universities in parking stations and surrounding streets. I dont see why staff have to battle with students for a carspace.

    1. Thanks for your comment. We will be addressing this in due course as the Campus Master Plan develops. Stay tuned for more updates in future editions of This Week.

  28. It’s a good idea to consolidate tenant and reserved parking into East 3. However, why the works necessary to do this are being carried out at beginning of the university semester when the demand for parking is probably the greatest, is beyond me. Today there is a whole car park sitting empty while boom gates and other facilities are installed. I’m wondering why this wasn’t done in January, when there were few students on campus and a large proportion of staff on leave.

    1. Thanks for your comment. We will be addressing this in due course as the Campus Master Plan develops. Stay tuned for more updates in future editions of This Week.

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