For the past week a large police van has been parked at the top of Martin Place, opposite the Reserve Bank building and just up the hill from the "millionaires' factory", Macquarie Bank.

There are no actual police to be seen outside it, but the message is clear to the homeless people and activists who camped out there in recent weeks: don't dare come back.

Within hours of the NSW Parliament passing a bill empowering the Lands Minister Paul Toole to send in the police to move them on, the residents of what became known as "tent city" began packing up after months of occupying the space.

The so-called "mayor of Martin Place", Lanz Priestley, had hinted at legal action but unsurprisingly given the meagre resources at hand, it failed to eventuate.