The Macquarie Ice Rink is an ice sports and public skate centre, opened in 1981 and located within the Macquarie Shopping Centre in the northern Sydney suburb of Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. It is the current home of the Sydney Bears and Sydney Ice Dogs AIHL ice hockey teams. History The Macquarie Ice Rink was opened in 1981 as a recreational and sporting ice venue in northern Sydney. In 1982, The Macquarie Bears ice hockey club was founded and played hockey matches from elite to development grade at Macquarie Ice Rink until 2002 when the club moved to Blacktown Ice Rink and the AIHL team moved to the Sydney Ice Arena. Macquarie Ice Rink completed a one year construction of a multi-million dollar upgrade to the venue on 23 March 2017. A new 15 square metre LCD screen was added, a new ice surface formed on top of new flooring, two new Zamboni’s purchased, a new enclosed café built, a purpose built gym and other general amenity upgrades. In April 2017, the upgrades to the rink brought Macquarie back up to standards for the AIHL, the national level hockey in Australia. The Sydney Bears, originally from Macquarie, announced they would return ‘home’ and play home matches at Macquarie Ice Rink from 2017 onwards. In additional the venue gained another major ongoing tenant with Liverpool’s Sydney Ice Dogs also announcing they would move to Macquarie to share the new facilities with their derby rivals. Macquarie Ice Rink ownership released a media statement on 16 January 2019 revealing that AMP Capital, the owners of the Macquarie shopping Centre, plans to demolish the Macquarie Ice Rink, located on the first floor of the shopping centre. The demolition of the rink would create greater access to the train station and bus interchange to and from the shopping centre. It was revealed AMP lodged the stage 2 $195 million dollar development plans on 18 December 2018, prior to Christmas. AMP’s response to the media release stated the desire of the development was to improve accessibility and foster a more vibrant night life in the community. AMP revealed its design could accommodate a recreational sized rink. The community responded by creating petitions to save the Olympic sized rink The petition to save the rink attracted 20,000 plus signatures; On 18 January 2019, AMP Capital announced a halt to demolition plans to pursue additional community