HG Nelson remembers: How James Valentine and I saved Sydney from itself

April 25, 2026 — 3:00am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Save this article for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.

A very sad week for fans of radio talkback, the saxophone, jazz and cuisine when the news broke that Sydney icon and ball of style James Valentine had pulled the pin on a decades-long career, leaving a gaping hole between our ears and in our hearts.

What was lost in the avalanche of tributes to one of the great minds of radio and life in this city was any acknowledgment of the contribution Valentine made to an understanding of planning for Sydney. Let’s take a moment to remember EGSPEC – the Even Greater Sydney Planning Committee – a weekly half-hour must-listen on Valentine’s program for 702 ABC Sydney. As his co-contributor on that segment for eight years, I kept the minutes for what became an essential cat flap into understanding the wild growth of Sydney and the state of NSW.

Valentine, for instance, understood the light rail construction was in trouble when no one in the crew bothered to dial before they dug up George Street. This led to excruciating discovery that tracks had been laid along this strip decades before. And that was just........

© WA Today