Hamish Macdonald
Right now, though the Nancy-Bird Walton Airport, Sydney's second international airport is due to open by the end of next year.
The days of endless debate about what used to be referred to as just Badgerys Creek long behind us with the test flights already done and the new airport's final flight path set in November last year there's also a brand-new city being built right next door to the new airport.
That suburb, or city, is called Bradfield, named after the man who designed the Harbour Bridge, of course.
This morning the Prime Minister announced a billion dollars for buying up land to create a corridor for the extension of the Sydney Metro. No precise timeline on that though it must be said but we're going to meet the man who's in charge of developing the 114-hectare area to be known as Bradfield, Ken Morrison is the CEO of the Bradfield Development Authority. A very good morning to you…
Ken Morrison
Good morning Hamish, good morning to your listeners.
Hamish Macdonald
I want to learn a bit more about Bradfield as a concept but just your reaction to this morning's news about the billion dollars, buying up land what will this mean in practice?
Ken Morrison
Yeah, it's great news, I mean what we have already seen is both the Federal and State Governments committing some $25 billion worth of infrastructure to support the airport and the Aerotropolis region and now that's an extra billion dollars on top of that.
So, you know one of the things which the region benefits from is a new Metro which will connect Bradfield and the airport to the main Western line. That was always intended to be the starting point for a southern extension and a northern extension to that line.
This announcement this morning means that we know that funding to secure the land corridors for those southern extensions will be there and that means when the business cases and the funding's there to build the Metro line extensions to the south, we know that those land corridors will have already been acquired.
So, really fundamental to connecting the airport, the Aerotropolis into this growing part of Sydney.
Hamish Macdonald
I suppose some people reacting this morning to the Prime Minister's comment regarding the timing, I think he said, ‘well before the 2040s’, people saying it's just so far away we're talking about multiple election cycles does this really mean much? Does it?
Ken Morrison
Yeah, it does, I think it does. And you know what he said is that he would commit that money in a next term of Government if they were to win the election and I think, where we are with those extensions to the south is that the Commonwealth government and the New South Wales government are doing the business cases for those extensions.
Governments can't actually commit to funding those until the business cases are done that's a piece of work which will probably finish in the early part of next year and then they're investor ready. Then they're ready for governments to stick money into them so then they can begin to get constructed and what we know from today is that the money will be there for land preservation.
Hamish Macdonald
Can you give me a sense of what Bradfield will be by the time the airport actually opens? Will it be a functioning city?
Ken Morrison
Well, we're getting moving already. So well, last week we opened our First Building of a new city. The function of that First Building is to host our Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility (AMRF).
This is a facility designed to work with the manufacturing sector and help them accelerate innovation.
So, picture a manufacturing hall, a high-tech manufacturing hall full of high-tech equipment working with the manufacturing sector across Western Sydney and beyond, to help them de-risk innovation.
So, that's already there in place. We will then more than double that facility with a new building, a new facility which will be commencing this year and then we have the subsequent rollouts which we'll be doing in partnership with the private sector.
So, when the airport is open we'll have that first phase, that Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility open. We'll have the base infrastructure for Bradfield complete and we'll be well advanced in working with our private sector partners to produce the business buildings, the apartment buildings, the parks, the amenity.
All that will come into place and we'll see that phase of it open you know, in 2029-30, late in the decade.
So, you know, lots of momentum, obviously anchored by that amazing investment in the new infrastructure at the airport.
Hamish Macdonald
I'm talking to Ken Morrison the CEO of the Bradfield Development Authority. How many people will actually live there eventually? What are you imagining?
I think there's so much going on in the Greater Sydney plan that I think sometimes it's hard to imagine what this look like once it's fully up and running.
Ken Morrison
Yeah, I think you're right Hamish and for a lot of people this is sort of because it's not in the middle of Sydney. It's not an area which people are necessarily overly familiar if they're part of Sydney elsewhere.
But, you know this is really substantial. So, we have 114 hectares which we own on behalf of the New South Wales Government.
That's about 3/4 of the size of the Sydney CBD so it's a really substantial piece of land. Obviously, that'll take, you know many decades to fully develop. And you know cities keep evolving as we know. Across that 114-hectare region there will be 10,000 dwellings, 20,000 jobs as part of the Master Plan.
And really substantial public investment in parks and amenity as well, serviced by a Metro line as I said earlier, and that Metro line will mean we're 4 minutes away from a new 2/47 airport.
So, amazing connectivity to that new facility.
Hamish Macdonald
Ken, I've noticed on the text line this morning as we've been talking about you know the Prime Minister's announcement this morning of buying up the land corridor that there's a fair degree of scepticism from people actually living in Western Sydney currently about the implications of all of this. Whether it's the airport noise, whether it's the disruption of constructing new transport corridors whether or not even the transport options being offered are appropriate or whether they'll dovetail neatly with the airport when it actually opens.
And the criticism in part seems to be, ‘look it's developers getting very excited but what about us?’ - is there much thought going into the amenity, the life of people living in Western Sydney right now?
Ken Morrison
Yeah, absolutely there is, and you know obviously, when you have that level of construction, you know there is some disruption associated with that and that's something I think everybody understands.
I guess the two things I would point to Hamish is there's a really important piece of work which the Infrastructure New South Wales has done, which is around how all that massive amount of government infrastructure investment into the Aerotropolis region is best staged, best coordinated, best allocated to make sure that you're getting the right investment into the development and development's largely jobs, it's largely about jobs so that's you know, that's why people should get excited and then the second thing I would say is that Bradfield, you know we're not creating a business park, we're creating an urban centre and an urban city, we know, is dependent on that high quality public domain and we're funded to deliver that.
Hamish Macdonald
Yeah okay, you mentioned advanced manufacturing products, what's an example of that?
Ken Morrison
So, we have our first project working before we actually opened our facility was with a company called Marley Flow which do fans, high-tech fans for industrial purposes and our team was able to work with that company to come up with a more productive way for them to manufacture and produce their product and they boosted their productivity on their production line by some 15% and in phase two of that will boost that productivity value to 30% so that is about businesses being able to be more successful, employ more people, better participate in global supply chains which will be supercharged by the new airport so that's the sort of impact we're hoping to have across Western Sydney.
Hamish Macdonald
If I can get a couple of quick answers from you, Ken, the budget estimates the Transport Minister yesterday conceded the airport rail link was being delayed significantly are you confident that even if the new city is ready the surrounding support infrastructure will be as well?
Ken Morrison
Yes, we are, we know that the metro line will likely be in '27 rather than '26.
But we know also that the M12 motorway a lot of the other road infrastructure will also be in place and there'll be more to come so we don't fix it all on day one but there will be more to come.
Hamish Macdonald
And Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun has reiterated his advocacy for extending the southwest heavy rail link from Leppington to the new airport and he says the current transport plan is lopsided, too much focus on the northwest side of Sydney rather than on the southwest, is that your view?
Ken Morrison
Well, certainly connectivity to the southwest is really important. It's really important for those communities that want to access the airport and want to access the jobs that we're creating at Bradfield but it's also important for those businesses that want to be in Bradfield or the Aerotropolis because they want to know that they've got the best access to talent in the region as well.
Hamish Macdonald
Damo’s asked a question which I think is interesting. Where's the link between the two airports? You’ve got three changes to get between them. Does that make sense?
Ken Morrison
Yeah well, I mean I think the thing is, the connection into Sydney and we know that we need the connections across Western Sydney we've had substantial investment to do, that more investment will be needed but also the invest the links back into the older parts of Sydney so you know there is the M12 motorway will provide that.
The Metro line will provide that via the main Western line we know the bus network will commence this year and continue to grow. All those things are important they're all very welcome but we will need more.
Hamish Macdonald
Ken Morrison. thanks very much.
Ken Morrison
Thanks Hamish.
