Help Newcastle Tell the NSW State Government to "Back Off!"

Looking out the window of my local coffee shop in Cooks Hill recently, I thought back to the earthquake in 1989 and the injuries Newcastle sustained. Over half of the CBD's buildings were impacted. In town we watched heartbroken as building after building, including many homes, were bulldozed to the ground. 

10 years after the earthquake I became a Labor councillor in Newcastle and served stints as deputy Lord Mayor. Previously I had worked as a resident fighting to reverse bad planning laws that had turned my own suburb, Cooks Hill, into a virtual slum. 

When I gained office I could see the importance of good planning laws and well researched development because at this stage Newcastle’s recovery from the earthquake was more fragile than ever.

I remember the tireless efforts of council and the citizens of Newcastle, working on Development Control Plans (DCP'S) to stop the destruction of historic landmarks, while nurturing recovery and new growth. 

Our local Department of Planning (with offices in Newcastle rather than Sydney), always considered Town (the CBD) a historic precinct and the West End (with its large car yards prime for development) suitable for high rise and higher density development.  

Fears for the city were intense; in town there were so many empty buildings and boarded up shop fronts that many people had stopped venturing in. BHP’s closure and rumours of David Jones pulling out of the mall signalled for many the end.

Honeysuckle had promised a glittering revival but instead limped along slowly and struggled to attract investors, other than ones that jumped the rail line (NIB, Hunter Water etc.) creating even more vacant buildings in Town. 

The council’s grand plans for inner city markets failed, the later GPT development fell through and David Jones announced finally that they would leave the mall. 

Just as things appeared at their worst; the local DCP's for City East and City West, that Newcastle council and residents had laboured over for 20 years, were finalised and the downward spiral at last came to an end. 

Less than a year later, in Newcastle's CBD a chic urban village quite suddenly sprung up. A long list of successful businesses emerged; Sprocket, Scotties, 2300, One Penny Black, Bocados, The French Bar, The Emporium, Ground Floor, The Reserve Bar and Rustica just to name a few. 

Early in the revival The Great Northern Hotel gained new licensees and the old Hotel was cleaned until it sparkled. The poker machines went and the Hotel gained a new restaurant and family licence and began hosting rock trivia nights and live music on the weekends. 

Now well into the third year of its recovery, town is bustling and it is almost impossible to find a vacant retail premises in Newcastle’s CBD. 

Enter the State Government

The State Government’s response to Newcastle’s recovery has been alarming. Just at a time when our city is getting back on its feet they want to sell our port, cut our inner city train service and give themselves permission (through the equivalent of spot rezoning) to plonk three multi storey towers in Newcastle’s historic precinct; right in the heart of where our CBD has only just recently healed and begun to thrive again. 

So many questions need to be answered and for that the residents of Newcastle need time. 

For example: 

“How can a State government justify spending so much money massively downgrading Australia’s sixth largest city’s inner city rail service?”

“How will Newcastle’s CBD, with only two roads into town, deal with the increase in traffic that will result from cutting the rail service at the same time as constructing three high rise towers and putting a tram along one of those two roads?”  

“How can they justify cutting our rail service before work building the new tram line has even begun?” 

“How will commuters from Maitland and the suburbs, who now catch the train to the beach, get their surfboards on a tram? And what about WHEELCHAIRS and bikes?”

“Why was $25million spent on moving our museum next to a train station that is now to be closed?”  

“Will the tram run the same hours as the trains do now? How will late night visitors to Newcastle leave the city?”

“How will the casual workers in the proposed high rise towers get to work and where will they park if they can’t get the train?”

“Just how many more retail shops does the State government think Newcastle CBD’s small economy (built on a tiny peninsula) maintain, without the rail line to deliver customers from wider afield?”   

“Why has Landcom (renowned for budget-driven suburban developments) changed its name to Urban Growth, just prior to proposing this apparently up-market urban development right in the heart of town?”

“Is it a conflict of interest that the state government office putting forward this development is in the same department as the panel who will vote to approve it?” 

“If approved, where will this ‘insider development’ leave long time local developers such as Stronach’s (a family company) involved in development here for many decades? Local firms have already invested so much into Newcastle over the years, while abiding by existing Development Control Plans. Surely this will mean more high rise will later be approved?” 

Newcastle deserves answers to these questions before any major development moves ahead in our city.