For over twenty-five years, Balmain has been a testing ground for a new inner-city politics characterised by the prominence of environmental and planning issues, the rise of Independents as a political force, and a commitment to open government and public participation unprecedented in Australia (Power 1969; Jakubowicz 1972; Balmain Residents Case 1975; Johnston 1979). The most notorious battles have been within the Australian Labor Party where in the 1970s branch-stacking reached new heights for this old Labor art form. In seven years the local branch grew from 70 to 700 (Wheelwright 1983). But the local council has also been the scene of major conflicts, initially over the introduction of new industries into Balmain, then their containment and now their replacement. Central to all these changes have been Balmain's new middle class who began ‘gentrifying’ the peninsula in the early 1960s, before this term was coined in England let alone used in Australia.

The most recent conflict has involved five sites, covering 23 hectares or 7 per cent of the peninsula, which once made Balmain a centre of Australian manufacturing. The only one still operating is the Caltex plant at Ballast Point – the company's largest oil and grease plant in Australia.