The 850-home Macarthur Heights estate which has an astronomy centre as its star attraction

SYDNEY’S latest housing estate comes with its own astronomy centre — construction is underway at the University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown campus, with 850 new homes to be built on the site.

NSW is about to get its first “town and gown” masterplanned community. Major construction is underway at the University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown campus, with 850 new homes to be built on the site.

UrbanGrowth NSW is behind the Macarthur Heights project, which is being compared to the American-style college “town and gown” campuses.

Rob Sullivan, UrbanGrowth’s head of retail transition, says Macarthur Heights is “the missing piece of the puzzle” in the Macarthur area. Masterplanned communities Park Central, Glen Alpine and Macarthur Gardens surround this new development on the university grounds.

Macarthur Square shops

“There has been so much development in that area, but this particular one links up nicely to the railway station,” says Rob.

“You have a parcel of land that will have 850 homes in the future, or have about 3,000 people living in this new precinct.”

The sales centre will be opening for the first time today, and the stage one release is expected to sell out when it goes on sale next Saturday.

“There will be a mixture of density offered across the estate from freestanding project homes to duplex types on the corner to terrace-style homes. The bigger freestanding homes will furthest away from the centre of the project.”

The Lake Precinct

URBAN Growth, which acts as the development manager on the site, had been in discussion with university for almost 10 years.

“The majority of the regional area has been developed already, and this is the last piece of development and it is probably the most valuable,” says Rob.

“In typical developer fashion you usually leave the best until last and that’s exactly what’s happened here.

“You’ve got this tremendous landscape with great views, and Macarthur Heights has that bit of exclusivity associating itself as a town and gown environment with the university.”

Rob says this development is being pitched to buyers who want to upgrade their home.

The area is well serviced with transport links

“It will be seen as a bit of an executive enclave in the Campbelltown area, in terms of taking a large educational precinct of a formerly remnant bushland corridor and turning it into a major residential development. It’s been a long time coming.”

UrbanGrowth is also paying homage to the university by doing maintenance on the working observatories on the campus, which will be open to the public.

“These will exist as part of the public art on the campus,” says Rob.

The total site area is 122ha, with 40 per cent of land retained for parks and other features such as The Lake Precinct and sports fields.

Towards UWS Faculty of Medicine

GETTING the local community on side for this development wasn’t hard, as the developed land will raise funds for teaching and research for the university.

It will also assist in meeting the NSW State Government housing target of 10,000 new residential lots in the south west region.

Rob says there is a lot of interest from local residents looking to move into the blue ribbon pocket.

“This is an upgrade area, and there will be people from Glen Alpine estate and other developments in Campbelltown looking to buy into Macarthur Heights. We know that most people wanting to buy will already be living in a 10km radius from the estate.”

Display homes being built.

He says the community was consulted on the impact of traffic when the 3,000 odd residents do move into the neighbourhood.

“There is already great infrastructure here, so it was a no-brainer. There is a terrific railway line that already exists in the Campbelltown precinct and there is a Macarthur Station on the doorstop of this development.

“The Federal government has also announced an upgrade to Narellan Rd, which runs adjacent to the university precinct, plus a major upgrade on the other side with the Camden Valley Way which is being widened to cope with the demands of a growing population in Campbelltown.”

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