Phillip O'Neill: What Newcastle can learn from the great Parramatta pivot into a western powerhouse

The city is pivotal to government plans to reshape Western Sydney, to create a metropolitan centre with a pile of jobs, rich entertainment, top-shelf civic amenity, and high-density residential development. It is an expensive project and one that deserves scrutiny from a stance on the crumbling civic forecourt of another city, Newcastle, 150 kilometres to the north. Has the Parramatta project clawed resources away from Newcastle, the state's 'second city'? Are there development lessons for Newcastle on offer?

First, we should observe the level of transport investment for Parramatta, a spectacle of spending and construction that is ongoing, determined and expensive. The opening scene was 20 years ago when Parramatta railway station, right in the heart of the city, was converted into a transport interchange, a bustling crossover between the T1 rail line and a thick network of local and cross-town buses and new T-way bus routes to Liverpool and Rouse Hill.

Upgrades to tracks and timetables reduced peak-hour travel time from Parramatta to the Sydney CBD to just 25 minutes, with services every few minutes. On top, a 12km local light rail will open early next year. A second stage, a 10km service to Sydney Olympic Park, has been approved. A 24km metro line linking Parramatta to the CBD is projected to open in 2030.

Then we should observe Parramatta's basket of civic betterments. The taxpayer-funded Parramatta justice precinct was opened in 2008. A taxpayer-funded, 30,000 seat footy stadium is up and running. Construction of the taxpayer-funded $1billion Powerhouse Museum on the banks of Parramatta River is underway.

And we should observe that Parramatta has become the preferred city for the relocation of public service jobs from the CBD. NSW Police headquarters opened in Parramatta in 2003, the head office for education opened in Parramatta in 2018, and for planning and environment in 2020. Add in investments at Westmead hospital, Sydney Water, and Silverwater prison, and it is little surprise to find Parramatta nudging past Canberra in the 2021 census to become the public servant capital of Australia.

Given all this nurturing, however, the NSW government must be disappointed at the employment figures from the 2021 census. Public sector employment in the Parramatta local government area grew by an impressive 13,000 jobs between 2016 and 2021. Yet total jobs in the LGA grew by only 7500, meaning private sector employment in Parramatta went backwards between the two census counts. Most of this decline is explained by the relocation of Commonwealth Bank offices to inner Sydney from sites in Parramatta and Olympic Park.

Sure, it is early days for the Parramatta project - urban development projects take decades to mature - but planners are nervous. A key aspiration for the Parramatta project is for the 'river city' to become a jobs generator to alleviate the grinding CBD-commute of the Western Sydney professional worker. An ironic outcome for all those Parramatta transport projects might be the provision of extra seats, eastbound, for Western Sydney workers as they by-pass a jobs-poor Parramatta to access the half a million jobs available in the Sydney CBD.

There are lessons for Newcastle. The first is in respect to landing state government investment and jobs. The Parramatta project has never been driven solely, or indeed primarily, by government initiative. It stems from concerted lobbying by vested interests. A coalition of well-funded property developers and powerful business chambers has been crucial. Megaphoning by politicians in Parramatta's marginal electorates has helped, as has alignment with large health and education providers. Recognition of the Parramatta project in official planning documents, such as the Greater Cities Commission's five cities plans and the government's Future Transport Strategy, has followed this lobbying.

Newcastle, for some reason, has been reluctant to enter the game of inter-city competition. Our public voice seems forever focused on things unconnected with the 21st century urban economy: the coal supply chain, the port, energy, hydrogen, defence, and so on. Newcastle's urban economy still goes forward, but only like a sleepwalker. We need to wake it up.

No one wants a Parramatta-style project for Newcastle. But no one wants a downtown retirement centre with views either.

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