Airds, Claymore, Bonnyrigg Heights reborn in Landcom development
They are the forgotten suburbs of Sydney – where crime rates were just as high as the area’s unemployment figures. Now, three suburbs in the city’s south west are about to undergo a major transformation. But not everyone is happy.
NSW
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It’s the Sydney suburb known as much for its high rate of crime as it is for rates of unemployment and poverty.
But the south west Sydney suburb of Airds is about to undergo a major “social re-engineering project” as the state government looks to transform the suburb once made up of 100 per cent social housing.
It is one of three suburbs being targeted for transformation by developer Landcom who are converting Aird, Claymore and Bonnyrigg Heights into a mix of 70 per cent private homes and 30 per cent public housing.
While critics warn the project has displaced thousands of long-term social housing tenants, others say it is restoring pride and hope to much-maligned suburbs.
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“When nobody has seen anyone else in the suburb go to work that is both heartbreaking and so hard to break out of,” Landcom CEO John Brogden told The Sunday Telegraph.
“Many of these people are good people and do not deserve that.
“I would love to see a day where they do not see Reiby Juvenile Justice Centre as a logical future, where they don’t go from primary school to high school to juvenile justice centre.”
In Airds and Claymore 25 per cent residents are unemployed, according to Census data, compared to 6 per cent in NSW.
Single parent families make up 56 per cent of all families, compared to 16 per cent in NSW.
Claymore’s public stigma is so bad residents recently had a poll through the local paper to come up with a new name. Some of the options included South Mosman, Nomore, Cl’vaucluse and Rainbow Valley.
Under the new building projects — variously named Newleaf, Newbrook and Hillcroft — public housing will be indistinguishable and scattered among private neighbourhoods “like salt and pepper”.
Planners have ditched the Radburn design, where the front of homes face an open grassed area while the rear of the properties face the road. Combined with winding alleyways, the design created incubators for crime.
Kerry Lane has been in Airds since 1981 and said new residents are a positive move.
“There are a lot of Indian people here buying properties and they are very hardworking people, not like some of the Australians around here,” the 65-year-old said.
“It is freshening the place up and giving us a group of people who work and who are getting ahead in life instead of just everyone here being on the dole.”
Mrs Lane said there has been a negative perception of Airds.
“People think that if you are housing commission you are second-class,” she said.
“I think that is unfair. We are all different. You go in to private areas and you get people that don’t look after their gardening and have rubbish out the front of their properties.”
Amreeta Goundar, 32, grew up in Airds public housing opposite Mrs Lane but has broken the cycle to be the first in her family to own her own home. With husband Elijah she will spend $700,000 on house and land, making it some of the cheapest land in Sydney.
“We both came from families that did not have the best in life but we wanted to both make our parents proud,” Mrs Goundar said.
“We really want to change the perception in the community that there is more to life than wanting to live in a housing commission place.”
The pair are looking to send their three children to Briar Road Public School and then Airds High School.
Airds High School principal Steve McGuire has been at the school since 2008 and said the redevelopment “is overwhelmingly positive”.
“We have not seen an lift in academic results but I expect that to happen in the coming years, “ he said. “This year we’ve got the biggest Year 7 group we have had for a long time.”
Mr McGuire also said the community has no issue being next door to Reiby Juvenile Justice Centre as it’s always been “an outsider’s perspective that that is a bad thing”.
Sydney University head of urban planning Professor Peter Phibbs said there is no evidence that the 70/30 split would work better socially than, say, a 50/50 split, and will lead to longer waiting lists for housing.
“The 70/30 split is a commercial decision more than anything else,” Prof Phibbs said.
Housing Minister Melinda Pavey said the project is designed so it “blends-in with local communities”.
“By deconcentrating disadvantage, we can breathe new life into local economies and deliver more jobs, provide better connections to education outcomes and improved amenities for all residents,” Ms Pavey told The Sunday Telegraph.
“Our focus has been to re-energise social housing to create vibrant communities, not just buildings.
“By doing so we create sustainable supportive communities that integrate social housing into the wider project, ensuring access to transport, services, cultural spaces and educational opportunities – this is emblematic of the work the government is doing.”