Badgerys Creek airport: ‘Aerotropolis’ will be known as Greater West City

EXCLUSIVE: The new airport at Badgerys Creek will form the heart of a new “aerotropolis” to be called the Greater West City, featuring universities, hotels and even sporting stadiums.

The new airport at Badgerys Creek will form the heart of a new “aerotropolis” to be called the Greater West City, featuring universities, hi-tech industries, convention centres, produce markets, hotels and even sporting stadiums.

Leaked internal Greater Sydney Commission (GSC) documents for the first time set out the potentially massive scale of the new airport. The documents show that when the Western Sydney Airport reaches full capacity, it will be larger than London’s Heathrow, carrying 82 million passengers a year.

The Daily Telegraph has also received confidential briefings from senior government sources, unveiling two booming new mini-cities to be built to service the new airport.

A north city and south city will be built by 2050, anchoring a population explosion of 250,000 people in the immediate airport zone. They will be adjacent to the new airport, but outside of its noise zone.

This is what the new ‘aero city’ is set to look like.

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Meanwhile, the new Elizabeth Park Industrial Zone, immediately northeast of the airport on Elizabeth Drive will become the beating business heart of the new aerotropolis.

It will eventually create 60,000 new jobs entirely dependent on the new airport. This zone will be reserved for high-value innovation and food businesses requiring proximity to the airport for fast export.

The GSC documents show the new Greater West City will also significantly benefit the growth centres of Penrith, Blacktown, Liverpool and Campbelltown, dubbed the new airport’s “string of pearls”.

The initial airport opening in the mid-2020s with one runway will accommodate just five million passengers.

But that figure will increase more than sixfold to 37 million passengers a year by 2050 with fast speed rail links to Parramatta and the CBD, the GSC documents show.

That year, a second runway will be added, ultimately boosting the airport past the capacity of Kingsford-Smith to an ultimate full capacity of 82 million passengers a year, larger than Heathrow’s current 75 million.

The GSC also predicts the new airport will supercharge jobs growth in the aerotropolis. It is predicted that by 2036, there will 63,000 jobs created at the airport itself, and 90,000 in an employment area immediately surrounding the airport.

This figure will dramatically escalate, once the “string of pearls” which supports the airport is also taken into account.

The document was authored by the Commission’s chief planner on the airport, Geoff Roberts, who had no comment on the predictions.

However, he said: “The new airport is a once in 50 year game-changer. The aerotropolis could be 2-3 times the size of Macquarie Park by 2050, with industries like aerospace and defence industries, advanced logistics and manufacturing, tradeable clusters providing fresh food to Asia, and health and education campuses.”

Workers, from left grader operator Adam Snushall, excavator driver Chris Donnelly and construction engineer Nischal Kaushik at the road works on The Northern Road at Harrington Park. Picture: Jonathan Ng

There could also be students. It is understood there have been discussions about holding a tender process open to international universities to apply to operate a new institution in the airport vicinity.

There are further advanced plans for an outer-Sydney orbital dubbed the M9 — including a dedicated rail line and a further road, the M12, which directly links to the M7. There is early planning for a high-speed rail link express to Parramatta, and a more conventional heavy rail that would link the airport with both the southwest rail link and the western line at St Marys.

NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes said it was an extraordinary opportunity to design a new city around a new airport.

“The 18th Century was all about cities with ports, the 19th Century about rail, and the 20th Century about the car. But 21st Century cities will be all about their airports.”

Authorities have already held talks with a number of businesses, including the Flemington-based Sydney Markets, about setting up new locations close to Badgerys Creek.

When contacted last night, Sydney Markets CEO Bradley Latham said that the company was “presently undertaking a detailed study into the future of the markets”, which included an investigation of future development scenarios.

Badgerys Creek was under consideration, he said: “Conceptually if you look at Badgerys, it’s going to have really good infrastructure, good roadways and railway lines,” he said.

Meanwhile, NSW Trade Minister Stuart Ayres has also had talks with global companies “like Northrup Grumman, Safran and Lockheed Martin”. They had shown “great interest” in setting up near Badgerys Creek, Mr Ayres said.

There have also been high-level discussions of an international tender process to select a university to set up in the aerotropolis, potentially involving some of the world’s biggest name tertiary institutions competing to set up a new campus near the university.

A hi-tech hub will transform our city

By Ian Paterson

SYDNEY should be the political, cultural and technological capital of Australia.

It is the economic powerhouse of the nation and is home to some of the counties cultural and natural icons. Leading university student Jerry Li predicts the time is ripe for Sydney to be our nations capital.

“There is no doubt that Sydney should be a world economic centre as well as Australia’s political centre,” Mr Li said.

“The international renowned Loughborough University’s Globalisation and World Cities 2012 project ranks Sydney as one of only eight Alpha+ cities in the world,” he said.

Sydney sits below London and New York and providing advanced service needs for the Asia Pacific region.”

Bradfield Scholarship finalist Jerry Linhao Li believes it’s the perfect time for Sydney to be our nations capital. Picture: John Fotiadis

The Loughborough University project compared 526 cities around the world ranking them in order of their impact on the rest of the world.

To boost Sydney’s international standing our fourth Bradfield Scholarship finalists, Mr Li said innovation must be drive by establishing free city-wide Wi-Fi networks, smart buildings that can talk to each other leading to creation of our own Silicon Valley.

“Sydney will never be a city like New York or London because people value and respect nature so we need to work with nature to create a forest city, developing without destroying, ” he said.

“If Sydney becomes a technology city, then incomes could rise due to exporting hi-tech products to the rest of the world.”

The 19-year-old is a Lend Lease Bradfield Urbanisation Scholarship 2016 finalist and firmly believes if Sydney can establish itself as a city with advanced education, hight tech and high wage jobs with a complete social welfare system the city would attract from both home and abroad.

“Sydney is a liveable city but it lacks centres for advanced technology to drive future job growth,” he said.

“If Sydney could build its own Silicon Valley supported by transport infrastructure and international renowned universities Sydney can make itself the capital of Australia.”

The winner of the Bradfield Scholarship will be announced at the Bradfield Oration dinner on October 19.

A stone’s toss from work is a total joy

THE new Western Sydney Airport may still appear to be nothing more than a sign among the paddocks out at Badgerys Creek, but it is already creating local jobs for the West.

Take the case of Adam Snushall, 35, from Harrington Park. His workplace is near the intersection of the Northern Road with Narellan Road, where road upgrades are taking place to take account of the huge new traffic the new airport is going to bring to the area.

Adam Snushall, pictured left, lives nearby at Harrington Park, two minutes away from the Badgerys Creek airport site where he works. Picture: Jonathan Ng

How long does Snushall’s daily commute to work take? Two whole minutes.

The low travel time has a huge convenience factor: “(There is) time to do lots of stuff at home,” he said, adding that the small commute allows him to pick up his son from daycare.

Snushall’s case is one of many, according to the Federal Assistant Cities Minister, Angus Taylor: “More than 430 people are currently employed on road upgrades around the airport site,” Mr Taylor said, adding this will dramatically escalate when the airport gets underway.

Mr Taylor said more people will be employed around the Badgerys Creek airport with already more than 430 people with jobs. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Mr Taylor said Snushall’s is an early case of the Western Sydney Airport creating jobs for locals in a “30-minute city”.

“Living within 30 minutes of your job and the services you need can be a reality around the new airport,” he said..

In his previous job, Chris Donnelly, 59, of East Campbelltown, used to have to travel one-and-a-quarter hours to work on the WestConnex project. Today, his commute to the Northern Road project takes 15 minutes.

This gives him more spare time and, importantly, more sleep. “I have to keep slapping himself to remind myself how lucky I am working so close to home,” he says.