Aura-struck? Here’s the breakdown on the Coast's newest city

THE Coast’s newest city, Aura, was officially unveiled on Thursday and is set to take shape over the next three decades.

AERIAL VIEW: The proposed Aura city centre. Picture: Contributed

THE Coast's newest city, Aura, was officially unveiled on Thursday.

Set to take shape over the next three decades, the $5 billion project to be delivered by developers Stockland is will house 50,000 people upon completion.

A city the size of Gladstone, aptly dubbed the city of colour, will deliver massive parks, public space, cycleways and an environmental conservation network to the new suburb.

The Aura People’s Place.

With 700ha of rehabilitation and conservation designated, as well as innovation hubs, a public Southbank-style beach and sport and recreational facilities, the project is set to change the face of the Coast and, if successful, the way urban design is carried out in sensitive areas.

The ambitious new city certainly had our readers talking online too.

RELATED: Concern remains over Aura's impact on Pumicestone Passage

From the origin of the name to vital questions like infrastructure, public transport and even provision for car parking in the 6-star Green Star community, you had plenty of queries about the announcement.

So we took those direct to the developers and asked Stockland to give us the answers to your questions posed on the Daily's Facebook page.

Q: Where are the jobs going to be?

Stockland this week awarded civil contracts valued at $25 million for the commencement of construction of Aura. The start of the project will create hundreds of new jobs on the Sunshine Coast, and the project will quickly ramp up, generating about 1700 direct and indirect jobs, mainly within the building industry as the need grows for builders and tradespeople on site.

The Aura master plan features major business and industry precincts totalling 150ha. A major new city centre CBD is also planned. Aura's city centre will cover 200ha and will include 100,000sq m of retail and 50,000sq m of commercial floor space.

Aura will include a major regional-scale industrial and business hub positioned to attract and deliver a range of employment uses and will accommodate more than 410,000sq m of industry and commercial floor space and 40,000sq m of high-exposure retail showroom floor space.

The Aura master plan also makes provision for more than 20 schools and education centres to be developed as the community grows, which will create new jobs for teachers and childcare professionals.

As the community matures and grows, Aura will generate 20,000 new jobs on the Sunshine Coast.

Q: Can we have a bridge from Bribie Island to Aura?

The Aura master plan requires the rehabilitation of a 700ha conservation park. This will establish a signifi

cant ecological buffer between the development and the Pumicestone Passage with urban development located some 5km west of Bribie Island.

Q: How will the major infrastructure requirements of such a large, new city be adequately met?

Over the past three years, comprehensive planning for the delivery of infrastructure has been undertaken by Stockland, the State Government and council. Infrastructure agreements have been prepared to ensure the delivery of major roads, community facilities, open space, public transport and conservation areas are delivered to meet the needs of this community.

Q: Do you think the roads will cope with all the traffic?

An integrated transport strategy has been agreed between Stockland, council and the State Government. This document will be used to guide the planning for roads to service Aura and accommodate its traffic needs.

Q: What about the health needs of all these people, will the hospitals (Caloundra and Kawana) be adequate?

The Sunshine Coast University Hospital has been planned to accommodate the needs for the Sunshine Coast over the next 20 years. In addition to this and the hospital at Caloundra a new health precinct is also proposed within the Aura CBD.

Q: How will car parking requirements/issues be taken care of in Aura?

Car parking requirements will be planned for in accordance with the State Government and council's planning standards.

Q: In regards to water monitoring and the protection of the Pumicestone Passage, what monitoring processes will be undertaken through the life of the project? How will we know whether the Passage's health remains intact/improving? What happens when new technologies are introduced in water treatment, does Aura's systems become outdated/inefficient or can they be upgraded?

Water quality monitoring stations are located in the main creeks with samples to be taken every month and after every major rain event. We also monitor construction water quality runoff from each of our treatment devices. All monitoring devises use the latest technology, which will be upgraded over time.

Monitoring will occur for the life of the project and is reported each year to track waterway health.

Healthy Waterways produce an annual report card which advises the health of the Pumicestone Passage. The next report card is due for public release is on October 22.

Q: And the name Aura?

We wanted our new name for the city to reflect the many natural elements, experiences, unexpected details, textures, cultures, and people of all ages that will bring this new city to life. With all of these elements in mind, we decided to call the new community 'Aura'.

About Aura:

• More than 2 million trees will be planted across the 24sq km site
• City Square plaza space of more than 4000sq m
• Central Park to be more than 120ha in size
• More than 200km of cycleways
• 20 new home sites from $189,500 now available, while house and land packages at Bells Reach currently available for about $379,000

For more head to cityofcolour.com

Originally published as Aura-struck? Here’s the breakdown on the Coast's newest city