Aussie dream dies as ‘growth suburbs’ prove amenity-empty wasteland

Furious residents of Western Sydney ‘growth suburbs’ say they were sold the Australian dream, but instead moved into suburbs without parks, adequate shops and with outdated public facilities.

Furious residents of Western Sydney “growth suburbs” say they were sold the Australian dream, but instead moved into an infrastructure and amenity ­wasteland.

University lecturer Bilal Mustafa and his wife Wajiha moved into a newly-built home in Riverstone in 2019, with the dream of having a detached house and playgrounds for their children, Aaima, 5, and 16-month old Awhile.

Instead, his kids have just the street and empty lots to play in, and the family is driving distance away from any community centres.

“We wanted more open space, open road and better public transport … but this area is just not working the way we expected,” Mr Mustafa said.

“There are no parks at all. We have thousands of people here and not a single park, it’s very frustrating, When my daughter gets home from school, she has nowhere to go. It’s really affecting the mental health of the area.”

Bilal Mustafa with his wife Wajiha and kids Aaima and Awhile at their Riverstone home. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Devoid of a community space, adequate shops and with outdated public facilities, Mr Mustafa said local residents have taken to opening up their own homes for the community to have barbecues and meetings.

“We were sold this idea of a beautiful community but it was a lie, the planning is very poor,” he said.

Local families in Riverstone – including (from left) Anil Goyal, Neeraj Duggal, Ahalya Rentala, Ali Ayaz and Muhammad Abbas – are appalled at the lack of infrastructure in their new community after buying homes in the area. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

IT worker Ahalya Rentala, said she felt her million dollar home was a “rip off” after years of no public transport and no places to socialise.

“We have to make sure this doesn’t happen to other developments again … we are very isolated here,” she said.

Blacktown Council Mayor Tony Bleasdal says a decade-old state government decision to cap the levies the council receives from rezoning and developing land has tied the council’s hands.

Blacktown has launched a campaign to restore the ability of councils to use these levies to build swimming pools, community centres and libraries.

“Existing facilities are over capacity and the state government took away council’s ability to build any new ones,” Mr Bleasdale said.

“As a result, Blacktown alone has a backlog of facilities like pools, libraries and leisure centres that is now over $525 million.

“Blacktown will soon be bigger than Tasmania and the ACT in population. All these people will be in neighbourhoods with absolutely no facilities like libraries, community centres or swimming pools.”