Developers Celestino are behind the groundbreaking $5 billion masterplan for the Sydney Science Park at Luddenham and partnered with the University of Technology Sydney and Transport NSW — as well as several global experts in autonomous technology — to develop the masterplan for the new precinct.

Sydney Science Park by Celestino will neighbour the new Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek and showcase a new city for 12,000 knowledge based jobs, provide educational opportunities for more than 10,000 students and be home to over 10,000 residents.

Celestino business development manager, Duncan Challen, said autonomous technology companies were vying to join the committee to masterplan the infrastructure, technology and businesses needed to make the vision for the ‘Sydney Science City’ a reality.

“This is an unbelievable experience to build a new, autonomous city from the ground up at a greenfield site,” Mr Challen told NewsLocal.

“We want to cluster education, research, development and commercialisation all in one place and push the boundaries of how we build cities — nothing has ever been done like this before.”

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Mr Challen said the autonomous city at Sydney Science Park would be planned over the next 10 years.

“Autonomous technology is changing all aspects of our lives and transform careers and lifestyle,” he said. “Sydney Science Park will be at the forefront of implementing this technology at a city-wide scale.”

But the development manager said the Sydney Science Park won’t be a complete ‘Jetson experience’.

“We understand the city will be surrounded by established communities, so we will see a range of traditional and autonomous technology that accommodates everyone.”

Companies involved in the masterplanning event included Navya, which has already commence driverless trials in Sydney Olympic Park and Perth, alongside smart city and road rail and air technology experts Sage Automation and manufacturers Hyundai and Bosch.

Westfield — the leading provider of autonomous vehicles in the UK, Local Motors — which created a 3D printed electric driverless shuttle and the CSIRO’s Data science team also attended the blueprinting event.

Mr Challen said although the park will start off planning for 10,000 resident, he is determined it will continue to expand to cater for the creation of enough homes to house 100,000 people in the next 100 years.

“The Sydney Science City will play a major role in providing highly-skilled jobs in Western Sydney, and around the globe,” he said. “But it will also be a place were thousands of people will call home, or study.

“Universities, vocational training and STEM schools are critical for the future of Sydney Science Park.”

UTS Industry Associate Professor, Don Bone, said the think tank team for Sydney Science Park aim to establish a community “20 years ahead of its time”.

“The Science Park is an opportunity to test new autonomous technologies, with commercial partners, in a city of the future,” he said. “We can put whatever infrastructure we would like or need and will be able to do things we just can’t do in an ordinary city.”

Prof Bone said autonomous vehicles “were a pipe dream ten years ago but a reality today”.

“However, developers are still unsure how long it will take to see driverless vehicles be on every road,” he said.

“So having a site to deploy these vehicles in is incredible and a unique opportunity.”

He said he anticipated the autonomous Sydney Science City to be a reality within the next five to 10 years.

“The think tank found that we needed to establish relationships with commercial partners from across the globe to make this thing real,” he said. “The complexity of putting something like this together is huge, we need to establish a network to make this vision a reality.”

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Jake McCallum is an Urban Affairs Reporter covering development and local government regions across Sydney’s northwest and western suburbs.