IT was the late 1990s, and mining had been in a downturn. BHP was about to shut its Newcastle steelworks. Pasminco followed suit soon after with its Boolaroo lead and zinc smelter.
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With an eye to job creation, Cessnock City Council was backing the plans of developer Duncan Hardie, who wanted to turn an old Coal and Allied site into the region’s biggest industrial park – the Hunter Economic Zone at Mount Tomalpin. Twenty years later, mining has been through another downturn, and another big industrial employer, the Kurri Kurri aluminium smelter, has also shut its doors.
But in all this time, HEZ has attracted just one factory. HEZ’s new owner, a Sydney businessman, has plans to kick-start the stalled project, but its central problems are as vexing as ever.
Supporters, including Cessnock Mayor Bob Pynsent, still believe that HEZ can be the driver of a new era of industrial output. But one of its main opponents, former Greens Cessnock councillor James Ryan, maintains that the project has too many environmental and geographical shortcomings to ever go ahead.
Ironically, the money poured into servicing the commercial sections of HEZ mean it has power, water, sewage and streetlights, and better roads than the adjacent village of Pelaw Main, which like many Cessnock hamlets is still largely without kerb and guttering. But without development, the road into HEZ is indeed a “road to nowhere”.
With two environmentally critical birds, the Regent Honeyeater and the Swift Parrot, both shown to rely on Tomalpin forest, anyone wanting to clear inside HEZ will be required to provide considerable offset lands as compensation.
Assuming such obstacles can be overcome, two other factors will be key influences. The first is the completion of the Hunter Expressway, which means HEZ is not as geographically isolated as it was early on. The second is the closure of Kurri smelter, and the likely release of large swathes of flat – and already cleared, industrial land – which will give further choice to any businesses looking to establish in the region.
With the prices of Sydney land shooting ever higher, HEZ’s new owner will be hoping he can convince some of his capital city counterparts to shift their operations to a site which, thanks to the Hunter Expressway and other road improvements, is now less than 90 minutes drive from Hornsby.
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