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If all goes to plan, western Sydney will soon experience perhaps the most transformational month in its history.
While the government has not yet announced a date for the Bankstown Metro extension, Transport for NSW documents have suggested it may open around October 18. A week later, on October 25, the first passenger flight – JQ632 to the Gold Coast – will leave from Western Sydney Airport. Two weeks after that, on November 7, Powerhouse Parramatta will open its doors to the public.
Each one of these projects will have a profound effect on the way we move around, think about and live in our city. Their combined impact will further tip Sydney’s centre of gravity towards the west. As the Herald’s Parramatta bureau chief, Anthony Segaert, puts it: “I would say that those three things, combined, are the most significant infrastructure projects that the region has ever seen, but it’s quite hard to express how transformative they’re going to be, because nothing like this has happened before.”
The opening date of the first, the metro extension, is the least certain. The folks living along the former T3 line, from Sydenham to Bankstown, are used to delays in the project. They’re hoping for October 18, and they’re bracing for disappointment.
Once the metros are running, however, the inner south-west of the city will have a fast, direct connection to the CBD, the north shore and the north-west. It was once a slog to get to Lakemba or Campsie from Crows Nest; now the people of the north will have ready access to the rich food and cultural experiences on offer in those suburbs, and vice versa. “It’s transformative in the sense that you’re suddenly open to more possibilities,” says Segaert. “We saw that with Barangaroo, and North Sydney. It made those areas more prominent in the life of the city.”
The Powerhouse’s opening date was announced last weekend. The museum has been controversial – the cost, the politics, the location – but regardless, its massive size and milk crate-style architecture will make it one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks. Like the Opera House to the Sydney CBD, the Powerhouse will give Parramatta a visual reference point.
“It has physically changed the skyline of Parramatta,” says Segaert. “It has changed how people think of Parramatta. The Powerhouse is a Sydney institution, and the fact a Sydney institution is now in the geographic heart of Sydney is significant to how the city thinks about itself. It has a cultural gravity.
“I think the other interesting thing is for the first time, it’s giving more space to the public along the riverside; for the first time in decades, the public has proper access to the river, and the river is so important to the cultural life of Parramatta. That in many ways potentially contributes more to livelihood and lifestyle than the museum itself.”
The third opening, Western Sydney Airport, will be the most significant in the long term. The airport will eventually have a whole new city, Bradfield, next door, which in 20 years is expected to be one of the city’s three CBDs (alongside Sydney city and Parramatta), as identified in the recently released Sydney Plan.
When the first international flight touches down from Singapore on October 26, the airport will also connect Western Sydney airport with the world. It’s hard to get our heads around when it’s still such an abstract idea, but “if the predictions are true”, says Segaert, “in 20 to 30 years, Western Sydney will be the city’s main airport. It’s hard to explain how transformative that is to a region of Sydney that’s so underdeveloped. It’s going to change every part of south-west Sydney, bringing a new CBD with it, a new city within a city. That hasn’t happened in 100 years.”
In the decade or so since the airport and the Powerhouse were announced, the population of western Sydney has grown by about 25 per cent. The new infrastructure opening later this year catches up with this growth, but Segaert and our Parramatta team are also looking at what the region needs next. Without more infrastructure – and the western metro is coming, too – we might find the region falls behind yet again. The pressing question is whether the government will proceed with an extension of the metro from Tallawong to St Marys, to meet the airport line, which would open up the city even further. “The impact of connecting all of Sydney would be revolutionary,” says Segaert.
Of course, the Herald will be covering these milestones with the depth, expertise and visual creativity you’ve come to expect. It will be an exciting chapter in the story of our city.
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