NSW Government confirms investigations into the possibility of a new motorway cutting through Sydney’s southern suburbs

IT MAY surprise some locals but that quiet, unusually long green park behind their homes has another purpose. There are fears it could ruin the area.

Contractors drilling holes in the soil underneath the Captain Cook Bridge in Sydney’s south as part of investigations for a controversial extension to the M1 motorway to Wollongong.

IT LOOKS like any suburban park but this piece of green has a dark secret, as dark as asphalt.

When the sun shines it hardly seems possible. Kids clamber over brightly coloured playground equipment, dogs excitedly chase sticks while couples lounge in the shade under tall trees.

If driving from Rockdale, in Sydney’s south, to the shores of Botany Bay, the parkland comes and goes quickly enough; just a momentary gap between red brick bungalows.

But there’s something unusual about this urban patch of green. While it’s only a few metres wide a bird’s eye view reveals a ribbon of almost unbroken open land, around 16km long, sinuously sliding its way through suburban sprawl.

Don’t be fooled though — this is no permanent green lung shoehorned into a bustling Sydney.

A clue to the real reason for its existence can be found where it finally peters out — next to a busy highway. It may not appear on any maps, but this is the reserved route for a massive new motorway, once called the F6 and now known as the M1, linking Sydney to NSW’s third largest city of Wollongong.

For more than half a century it’s been left vacant, an unexpected oasis of silence, where thousands of noisy cars should be hurtling past every hour.

But in recent weeks, fluorescent jacketed workers have been drilling into the ground of the strip, extracting soil samples, and it has locals worried.

The Rockdale wetlands that are under threat.

The NSW Roads and Maritime Service, told news.com.au investigations were taking place, including geotechnical studies, “to inform a final business case for the proposed F6 extension.”

“A final route is yet to be determined and will depend on the outcome of these studies,” said a spokesman.

“It’s been put aside for a motorway for decades now. We’re all aware of it looming over us,” said Stephanie Phillips, the owner of the Cooked and Co coffee shop and restaurant, situated on a quiet suburban street in Sans Souci.

If the motorway — likely to be part an extension of the current M1 — is built it will be constructed just metres from the backdoor of her eatery.

“I understand the logic of putting a motorway in eventually but you’ve got to be afraid for your business. It would ruin the area,” she told news.com.au.

No one doubts something needs to be done to improve journey times between Sydney and Wollongong. On a good day it takes 90 minutes to travel between the two cities, half of which is taken up by navigating suburban streets as the current motorway abruptly comes to an end as soon as Sydney’s houses begin.

The unusually long park / motorway reservation — in the centre of the picture — can be seen in this Google Maps image. Picture: Google Maps.

Motoring organisation the NRMA says travel times are only increasing as local roads reach bursting point.

Since the 1950s, a motorway sized patch of land has been left free of housing in the Sutherland Shire and the St George regions of Sydney.

There has never been the cash — or political will — to actually build the road.

But with the construction of the $17bn WestConnex motorway project in Sydney underway, the possibility of resurrecting the F6 extension becomes more concrete yet again.

It’s even been nicknamed the ‘SouthConnex’.

The underground testing currently being carried out along the corridor, reported the Daily Telegraph, is to extract rock core samples used for scientific testing and analysis.

Local historian Garry Darby lives just a short distance from the reservation, which goes under several names including Bona Park, the Rockdale Wetlands and Scarborough Park.

“When I was younger, I played sport on Scarborough Park which is part of the freeway proposal. Lots of people walk their dogs there now.”

Ever since he’s lived in the area, people have known the park was under threat from a big new road.

Aerial Shots of the current M1 Princes Motorway travelling past the Royal National Park.

But the road never seemed to arrive. Now it’s back on the agenda.

“These days we have better technology, so I’d like to see it underground,” he said.

It’s a view echoed by Labor MP for Rockdale, Steve Kamper whose electorate fears any future road would slice in two.

“The problem is that most of our sporting activity in St George is conducted there and there’s nowhere else where you could replace that so the last thing we want to see is it ripped up,” he told news.com.au.

Mr Kamper admitted the motorway corridor was no secret, but said plans to build a surface road were a “50-year-old concept” that didn’t take into account homes had now crept around the open strip.

“The Rockdale community wants a guarantee that the Baird Liberal Government isn’t going to destroy our sporting fields and parkland when this road is built.

“We deserve a fully-funded, first-class road, not a second-class cut-and-fill disaster.

“If this is done right, it will be great for our area, but if (Roads Minister) Duncan Gay and the Liberals take the cheap option, it will cut our city in two,” he said.

The cheap option, in Mr Kamper’s view, is building the road in the open.

However, burying the whole motorway out of sight would be costly, with a tunnelled road costing roughly double one constructed on the surface.

NRMA President Kyle Loads said a motorway would take trucks off suburban streets, get people home quicker and — with the building of WestConnex — now was the perfect time to do it, he told the Telegraph.

Map illustrating the proposed route for of the M1/F6 corridor through southern Sydney.

“This project has been in the pipeline for decades and I can’t think of a better reason to make it a reality.”

But Ms Phillips said even a tunnel had its downsides.

“What about the exhaust fumes and the actual building work? It would all be a worry.”

A spokeswoman for Minister Gay said there were no current plans to build a new motorway through suburban Sydney, but the future viability of doing so was currently being investigated.

“I have made a point of putting it under a microscope to see if the benefits stack up, just like I did with all of the projects we have underway in NSW,” he said.

“I look forward to receiving the business case once this work is completed to see where the F6 upgrade ranks as a priority along with all of the other road needs across the state.”

In the meantime, it’s a nervous wait for the people of St George and the Sutherland Shire to see if the unusually long and thin park behind their homes survives. Or if it is demolished to make way for a motorway.