Gold Coast housing crisis: Calls for Norwell Valley farmland to be investigated for development

Gold Coast council’s planning boss says cane farming land in the city’s far north should be looked at for possible redevelopment to create tens of thousands of new homes. FIND OUT WHY

Gold Coast council’s planning boss says cane farming land in the city’s far north should be looked at for possible redevelopment to create tens of thousands of new homes.

Incoming deputy mayor Mark Hammel, who himself lives in the area, said an investigation was needed to determine the future of the area, which has long been considered a development no-go zone.

But with pressure growing on the city’s housing crisis and development not keeping pace with the dramatic population growth, Mr Hammel said the time had come to have a serious look at the farming community’s future and what could be done with the land.

Aerial of Norwell Valley, Gold Coast.

“Every idea under the sun has been proposed for the cane fields in the past 20 years, all that it has ever been is pretty pictures, there has never been a shred of technical investigations into if any of it is actually possible,” he said.

“We know it has flooding constraints, we know it has environmental constraints, it has issue which need to be dealt with but no technical studies been done privately or by government to say what, if anything could happen.

“I am in favour of making sure a lot of families do not go under.”

More than 15,000 people are moving to the Gold Coast annually, with data released in late 2023 revealing that the population of the city’s northern suburbs will increase by 75 per cent by 2043.

Councillor Mark Hammel Picture: Glenn Campbell

It comes four years after a 60,000-home city was pitched in a secret proposal put forward by 71 Norwell landowners.

The Norwell Valley Consortium asked for developer expressions of interest to build Pacific City on 4975ha of green heartland.

This would have covered the vast bulk of the farm land.

According to the pitch document, Pacific City represented “an unprecedented opportunity to develop a potential new city in a bayside location fronting the pristine water of Moreton Bay”.

Artist impression of the proposed Pacific City development in the Norwell Valley on the Gold Coast. Picture: Supplied.

Under the plans, Pacific City was to feature:

● A “significant city centre” and employment precincts as well as “sustainable ecological and tourism-based outcomes”.

● The potential for up to 60,000 dwellings, based on the preliminary masterplan.

● The masterplan proposed six precincts – employment, north, central, south, transit-oriented and flood/vegetation.

● The planned Coomera Connector motorway would run through the western fringes of the city, providing a major transport link, while the Ormeau Railway station and M1 would be just 1km and 4km respectively away from the centre of the development.

The biggest challenge facing any development would be a green light by all three levels of government.

The area as it exists today. Picture: Supplied.

The first major hurdle would be the rezoning of cane fields.

The area is classed in the Shaping SEQ regional plan as an “investigation area”.

Political leaders, including Coomera MP Michael Crandon, have long backed a masterplan for the area.

Mr Hammel said the existing farming industry was increasingly unviable.

“I live in the cane fields, my family was one of the original families and have been there for 170 years but we have approximately 80 land owners in the cane fields,” he said.

“While they are quite often referred to as farmers, they are business owners, that’s 80 small family businesses which are struggling year-on-year because of the unreliability of the mill and sugar markets.

“Put it simply, agriculture on the Gold Coast at its current scale is not viable, that’s very real and that means businesses cannot survive in the current circumstances.”