Infrastructure fail: Why Box Hill is the Sydney suburb the state forgot

Box Hill lacks schools, playgrounds, sports fields, decent roads and a town centre. But its aspirational residents are not giving up.

Parents in Sydney’s booming northwest are being forced to do 90-minute round trips to pick up their children from the catchment primary school after the state failed to deliver any of its promises for education in the area.

Four public schools were to be built in the fast-growing suburb of Box Hill, according to NSW government plans published in 2018. But six years later there is none and no site has even been purchased.

Roads, playgrounds and sports fields are also lacking, completing an abject failure — by both sides of politics, and at multiples levels of government — to underpin an aspirational community that authorities chose for accelerated growth.

There are fears that without urgent action Box Hill residents may have to wait up to 15 years to get critical community infrastructure, as has happened before in other parts of the city’s west.

But instead of working together to fix the problems, public and private interests appear to be in a staring contest, waiting to see who will blink first.

A 2018 map prepared by the NSW government showing plans for four schools, in purple. Picture: NSW DP&E

For many families, schools are the most pressing need.

Anjana Premaratne said it takes him 90 minutes to pick up his children from Rouse Hill Primary School.

Mr Premaratne said he starts work early so he can make the trip. His wife, Manori Batagalla, starts late so she can do drop-off.

“It means we don’t get that family time,” Mr Premaratne said.

Anjana Premaratne, wife Manori Batagalla and their kids Liyana Premaratne, 5, and Methmi Premaratne, 7, at a proposed school site. Picture: Damian Shaw

He said he feels let down, because the plans for Box Hill showed that their kids would be educated locally.

“We got into the area because of the school,” Mr Premaratne said.

Ms Batagalla said: “The schools are one of the main marketing points.”

In 2013, Box Hill was approved to eventually grow to 28,000 residents. Hills Shire mayor Peter Gangemi, who has lived in Box Hill for nearly all of his life, said the council now expects 50,000 people will call the suburb their home.

At Box Hill, houses have arrived before infrastructure needed to make the suburb into a community. Picture: Jonathan Ng.

“You will need at least five or six schools for that population and the state is yet to deliver one.”

The council is urging Education Minister Prue Car to see the situation for herself.

When questioned about Box Hill by The Daily Telegraph, Ms Car blamed the previous Perrottet Coalition government and revealed details of a new school — in another suburb.

“This is another example of the former government making a flashy announcement then failing to deliver,” Ms Car said, via a spokeswoman.

“We are getting on with the job of addressing the school infrastructure backlog.”

The spokeswoman revealed a site for a new primary school in another suburb, Gables, had been acquired and that an environmental assessment requirements application had been lodged.

This is not one of the four Box Hill sites zoned for education in the 2018 NSW government plan.

The office of former Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet, who once represented the Hills district, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The developer, Japan’s largest house builder Daiwa House, told The Telegraph that “Daiwa has never made representations of the timing of the delivery of the infrastructure for its development at Box Hill.

“We are constantly in discussion with the landowner who continues to work with the Hills Shire Council and the Department of Education in delivering the infrastructure but the timing of any compulsory acquisition of land to deliver the required infrastructure is a matter for the respective authorities,” the Daiwa spokeswoman added.

“Also, purchasers are able to make their own inquiries prior to acquiring any parcels of land.”

She referred further inquiries to the landowner, McDonald Industries, which is controlled by eastern suburbs property mogul Richard Scheinberg.

A McDonald Industries spokesman said: “We continue to be open to working with the Hills Shire Council and the Department of Education but the timing of acquiring the land is a matter for the public authority.”

Methmi Premaratne and Mia Philips at a proposed Box Hill school site. Picture: Damian Shaw

State Liberal MP Robyn Preston said it had taken 15 years for North Kellyville to get promised infrastructure.

“I don’t want these people to go through that. They just want to make sure their kids are well educated in an environment where they don’t have to travel for an hour and a half.”

Asked why the former Coalition state government that she was part of did not deliver a school in Box Hill, Ms Preston said: “Really good question. I don’t have an all in one answer.”

She noted that a neighbouring suburb, Gables, developed even more quickly and had therefore been prioritised.

“But I support the locals in wanting something” in Box Hill, Ms Preston said. “I’ll be pushing for it.”

‘We must raise our voices’

Aravind Vijay and his family are the driving force behind the campaign for a better Box Hill.

With his wife Rekha, Mr Vijay is determined to see the substantial promise of the area become a reality.

Box Hill residents Rekha Vijay, Aravind Vijay and Advait Vijay, 2. Damian Shaw

Four years ago, the Vijays decided to buy a block in Box Hill. They chose a site based on plans which showed a local school would be down the road.

Today, there is no school and no plan for one — there or at any of the other three spots zoned for educational facilities in a 2018 development control plan.

In November last year, Mr Vijay started a change.org petition for a Box Hill public school. So far it has nearly 700 signatures.

“What will people do if they don’t get any local schooling? They will move out of the area,” Mr Vijay said.

The community needed help now, but instead the interested parties were blaming each other.

“People are playing a game of ping pong but no-one is doing anything for us,” he said.

In an opinion piece for The Daily Telegraph, he urged other members of the community to join the fight.

“We must raise our voices,” Mr Vijay said.

“We are not mere spectators; we are stakeholders in Box Hill’s destiny. Let us demand accountability, insist on transparent communication, and rally for timely action.

“Our children deserve schools within reach, our roads should flow freely, and our shopping centres must flourish. The broken promises must transform into tangible progress.”

‘Almost unprecedented move’

Box Hill locals want childcare centres to open from 6am so they can drop their kids in the dark and begin the slow trip on overburdened semirural roads to gleaming metro train stations at Tallawong or Rouse Hill.

To help speed up work on a key route in the area, the Hills Shire council claims it has had to take the extraordinary step of lending an eight-figure sum to the state government.

Hills Mayor Peter Gangemi told The Daily Telegraph it had provided the state Labor government with $12 million for the initial work on the widening of Annangrove Road.

Mr Gangemi described this as an “almost unprecedented move”.

“We are seeing a council give the state money so we can do their projects for them. That’s the opposite of what we need,” said Mr Gangemi, who is a Liberal.

Hills Shire mayor Peter Gangemi at Annangrove Road. Picture: Facebook

The Minns government disputed the Hills Shire’s claim.

“Council is not loaning the government any funds,” a NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure spokesman said.

However, a Hills Shire spokesman doubled-down, saying it had decided to “forward fund $12m for early works on the upgrade of Annangrove Road to ensure residents don’t have to wait any longer for its widening.

“Council will be reimbursed for the project from funds collected by the State Infrastructure Contribution over the next two years in three instalments.”

Box Hill parents told The Daily Telegraph that a local childcare centre was losing families because it did not open at 6am.

Parents were looking for care from that time in the morning so had a chance of getting a park at a metro train station before all the spots filled up.

The area’s roads have been under increasing pressure as more and more residents move into suburbs including Box Hill.

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Originally published as Infrastructure fail: Why Box Hill is the Sydney suburb the state forgot