Growing suburbs running on empty


Paul Bibby Urban Affairs Reporter
April 24, 2009

THE Sydney suburbs experiencing the state’s largest population growth are among the worst for public transport and employment infrastructure, planning experts say, and the result is likely to be rising unemployment and increased social problems.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday show that the populations of the Blacktown, Baulkham Hills, Parramatta and Liverpool local government areas grew by nearly 16,000 people in the 12 months to June last year, accounting for about 20 per cent of the population growth in NSW.

The areas were characterised by high rates of childbirth and a steady flow of migrants, but according to the NSW president of the Planning Institute of Australia, Julie Bindon, they will struggle to cope with the extra growth because of a dearth of transport infrastructure.

“Those areas are among the worst affected by the State Government’s decision to shelve the north-west and south-west rail links, and the Parramatta to Epping line,” Ms Bindon said.

The Rees Government’s own submission for funding under the Infrastructure Australia Fund predicts that large sections of major traffic arteries such as the M2 and M5 will be over capacity by 2016, while some roads, such as the M2, are already at breaking point.

A spokesman for the Transport Minister, David Campbell, said yesterday that the Government was committed to delivering transport solutions to western Sydney, including 143 new buses.

The Planning Minister, Kristina Keneally, said the region would also be well catered to in terms of employment infrastructure, thanks to employment hubs in the north-west suburb of Riverstone and Oran Park town centre in the south-west.

But the director of the University of Western Sydney’s Urban Research Centre, Phillip O’Neill, described these hubs as “ad hoc and badly lacking in supporting infrastructure”, predicting that unemployment in the region would rise significantly during the recession.

“Firms will only locate in western Sydney when there is a high level of amenity and different kinds of employment spaces [such as] business and high-tech IT parks, and that has simply not been planned for,” Professor O’Neill said.

“It’s a simple equation - there are areas of Sydney such as the south-west corridor that have high population growth, no infrastructure and amenity and no transport infrastructure. If these issues aren’t addressed then there will be a rise and intensity of social problems such as higher crime rates, health problems [and] household distress and increased rates of family break-up.”