Orange Australia’s Next Mega Metropolis?

Orange City Council and Landcom will create a new precinct and 300 homes in regional NSW but there are calls for it to go even further. 

Regional NSW should become home to entirely new metropolises according to developer BC Land.

The developer was working on a 35ha employment hub at Badgerys Creek near Western Sydney International Airport and has delivered $2 billion in projects in 12 years.

BC Land chief executive Nils Miller said Australia needed to develop more cities to reduce the pressures on existing metropolises and their residents.

“Rather than pushing for affordable housing in our existing cities, we should also be looking at developing whole new cities,” Miller said.

“It is this value-adding that can see new cities beyond what has been traditionally developed in regional and rural Australia.

“Along with people wanting lower property prices and to live 30 minutes or less from their place of employment.”

The BC Land chief executive forecast major business developments including those at Western Sydney International Airport were proof of the possibility.

Miller said these business developments would soon be followed by residential projects, as people increasingly sought to be closer to work. 

“The City of Bradfield, in the Badgerys Creek precinct, is an example of what can be done in other states when organisations and people come together,” Miller said.

“Developments surrounding the airport are now gathering pace, with other businesses assessing what is available and where they should locate.”

Miller said new cities could be developed around the country that focused on producing and value-added processing of rural produce, such as processing grain and meat into value-added products.

In the meantime for Orange, its council and Landcom signed a project delivery agreement on the town’s eastern outskirts alongside Redmond Place.

NSW minister for planning and public spaces Paul Scully agreed more homes were needed in regional areas.

“The housing crisis isn’t a Sydney crisis, it is statewide, and the plans we are announcing will mean more people in Orange will have a safe and affordable place to call home,” Scully said.

Landcom chief executive Alexander Wendler said they had an ambitious agenda to get shovels in the ground and more people into homes.

“This project will build hundreds of homes in Orange, while we will continue to work with councils, and other partners to find more sites to do even more across the state,” Wendler said.

Orange mayor Jason Hamling said the development would contain at least 20 per cent affordable housing and was a big step in the regional city’s future.

“The council has heard loud and clear that housing affordability is the number one issue facing the Orange community,” Hamling said.

“The first step towards delivering affordability is recognising that not everyone needs a 750sq m block with a four-bedroom house. This project is about diversity.”

For rich-listers, creating entire towns was already a reality with Greenfields Development Company filing plans for the town centre of the state’s “fastest growing town”.

The company led by Tony Perich, who with brother Ron ranked 38th on the AFR rich list last year, were creating the town on their family’s land in Oran Park, 50 kilometres south-west of Sydney CBD.