The chairperson for the Greater Sydney Commission, Lucy Turnbull, last night outlined a vision for a brand new city around the Western Sydney Airport to be named after the great engineer John Bradfield.
Delivering the annual Bradfield Oration, Turnbull said the establishment of three great cities in the Greater Sydney Region was emerging as the central and core organising principle of the Commission’s work.
It was all about realistically achieve the goal of everyone being able to live within 30 minutes of where they work, study and play.
“These three cities within Greater Sydney are the Eastern City, the Central City and the Western City,’’ Mrs Turnbull said.
The Eastern City comprises the areas from Macquarie Park to North Sydney, the Sydney CBD down to Kingsford Smith Airport. Greater Parramatta was Central City in the three cities model.
“In the past, there have been calls for the second airport to be called Bradfield, but perhaps in fact it should be the Western Sydney city that we call Bradfield, centred around the airport or aerotropolis,’’ she said.
“If the Eastern City is the Harbour City and the Central City is the Great River City, perhaps the Western City can be the South Creek City.
“It will use as a key lifestyle asset South Creek which runs 80 kilometres northwards right through the heart of Western Sydney.
“Focused on the new Western Sydney Airport, we think a greater ambition for the west of Sydney is greatly needed.
“This will not be a city as we know it in Sydney, and it will not rise from a desert like Dubai in the UAE.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“But it will build on the cities and towns we call the “string of pearls” (Camden, Campbelltown, Liverpool and Penrith) to provide homes as well as jobs, and the related airport services, to the west of Sydney.[/social_quote]
“The airport will be the anchor for new jobs across many sectors and underpin and drive the growth and success of the string of pearls.
“The Western City is about opportunity for the west.
“By elevating the area to ‘city-status’ we are reinforcing that ad hoc planning and ‘hoping for the best’ will not suffice.
“Rather a co-ordinated approach to delivering city-scale economic, social and environmental outcomes is required with a level of aspiration and ambition to match that of Bradfield 80 years ago.’’
There was also the potential to create great pools of liveability at the same time as building the hard infrastructure, the roads, the railways and the other big ticket items that should wherever possible, be codesigned with liveability and quality of life in mind, Mrs Turnbull told the audience.
“The Western City, or Bradfield as it may be known, also directly targets the objective of achieving a more equitable distribution of infrastructure, hard and soft.
“The Western City and the Central City are not just about a fair go for the West – as important as this is.
“Getting these two Cities right is about the success of the whole Greater City Region.’’
