TO many people struggling for attention in regional and far flung parts of the state, the initials NSW have not stood for New South Wales, but for Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong.
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The bulk of the state’s population already live in this 250-kilometre strip, and the steady growth of our east coast population has seen the three centres steadily sprawl towards each other, although with a fair bit of bush in the interceding buffer zones.
Visions of the Wollongong to Newcastle strip as a single city – a “conurbation”, to give it one early term – have been around since at least the 1960s – and now a new report from a think tank calling itself The Committee for Sydney has added a chapter to the single-city story with a concise 32-page report called The Sandstone Mega-Region, Uniting Newcastle, the Central Coast, Sydney, Wollongong. The committee sees itself as champion for “the whole of Sydney”, providing “thought leadership beyond the electoral cycle”. It describes its membership as major companies, universities, not-for-profits, “strategically significant” state and local government bodies and key cultural, sporting and marketing organisations.
Despite its unashamedly Sydney-centric approach, it is worth noting that the committee has a notable Newcastle influence in the form of Kyle Loades, the former NRMA chair and Novocastrian business identity who chaired the committee that produced the report. Barney Glover, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Sydney, is another with knowledge of this region, having spent three years at the University of Newcastle from 2006.
The report’s main finding is that improvements in “connectivity” would benefit the “six cities” that it breaks the region into: Illawarra and Wollongong, the Western City, the Central City (Parramatta), the Eastern City, the Central Coast and Newcastle (including Lake Macquarie).
These improvements, it says, would come from fast rail, and a 70-minute journey between Newcastle and Sydney. Cost is always the stumbling block with major infrastructure projects – especially those based on public transport – and many will view a very fast train out of Newcastle as a pipe dream. But the reality is that a co-ordinated approach to managing the growth out of Sydney would be a good thing, provided that the views of the satellite cities, and not just the historic capital, are taken into account.
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Ian Kirkwood
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
Reporting journalist at the Newcastle Herald since 1987. Editorial writer, general reporter, industrial relations, industry and coal.
