Western Sydney Airport and Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis are economic catalysts for Western Parkland City

In the long term, well over 1.5 million people will live and work in the new Western Parkland City. Mass transit connections to existing strategic centres, the Western Sydney Airport and Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis will act as economic catalysts, stimulating activity across the city with South Creek providing a green spine to improve amenity and environmental outcomes.

The Western Sydney City Deal, a collaboration across three tiers of government, will drive the delivery of the Western Sydney Airport and Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis.

The vision for the Western Parkland City is a first in the history of planning for Greater Sydney. It is a vision which focuses west, where the development of the airport and aerotropolis are catalysts for re-imagining the Western Parkland City. The vision is for a city with its own identity, creating its own destiny where:

• the central organising principle to guide development is north-south corridors - South Creek and a rail corridor
• the Western Sydney Airport and Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis are catalysts for attracting globally significant job types and, over a 20-40 year period significantly improving job containment
• innovative transport solutions reflect the development of an emerging 21st century city
• the centres of Liverpool, Greater Penrith and Campbelltown-Macarthur provide the foundation for growing health and education precincts, complemented by the Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis, in the long term creating a ring of university towns
• in the longer term the economic importance of the Western Parkland City facilitates a mass transit system which connects all three cities
• the setting creates a unique identity, a parkland city, a place where the city meets the country and where national parks frame the city
• sustainability, liveability and place making are core considerations in driving productivity and in delivering Greater Sydney's first 21^st century city.

The emerging new city will be driven by economic opportunities created by the Western Sydney Airport and Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis and significant population growth, which will bring city-scale infrastructure and new advanced manufacturing, logistics and research industries providing hundreds of thousands of jobs over the long term.

Aerospace and defence

Aerospace and defence industries are technologically advanced, dealing with state-of-the-art systems and operations. The air transport sector is anticipated to gain most benefit from the Western Sydney Airport, growing to $6.4 billion²⁹. The existing strengths of the Western and Central cities in relation to aerospace and defence components include:

• manufacture of electronic aviation and software systems
• engineering of tooling systems for the manufacture of aircraft bodies and components
• manufacture of aircraft engines and internal and external body components
• design and manufacture of defence systems for guided missiles, sonar and unmanned vehicles.

Western Sydney is home base for significant Australian Defence Force capabilities, including the RAAF Heavy Air Lift Group and Australian Army Special Forces. This concentrated presence means the region is home to a large number of defencecapable companies and organisations, including numerous prime contractors.

Western Sydney Airport will trigger regional-scale growth in these industries, given the availability of land, skilled labour, research and development opportunities and key transport linkages. There is capacity to grow more high-value, tradeable jobs and further develop globally competitive capabilities in skills and technology.

The NSW Department of Industry is leading the development of a world-class aerospace and defence industries precinct adjacent to the Western Sydney Airport. It will entail the physical and virtual cluster of the aerospace, defence and related industry businesses, research and development facilities and training institutions. It will be an advanced technologies hub, with horizontal capabilities (information and communications technologies, data analytics, cyber security, advanced electronics, advanced manufacturing and systems integration) across both the aerospace and defence sectors with the potential to expand to other sectors.

A feasibility study has projected that the precinct could create approximately 5,000 jobs and over $15 billion of gross value added over the next 30 years.

In May 2017, a leading global security company committed to a $50 million investment in a new advanced defence electronics maintenance centre in the precinct. This is the first of a range of businesses expected to establish a presence in the precinct.

The commitment of $5.3 billion of funding by the Australian Government in the 2017-18 Budget to build the Western Sydney Airport by 2026 has positive implications for precinct. The development of the precinct will align with this schedule to leverage the once-in-a-generation opportunity of the new airport. It represents a critical economic growth opportunity for the Greater Sydney Region.

The RAAF Base Richmond Precinct will complement the airport and aerotropolis activities. Precinct activities include aerospace activities (defence and civilian); a Western Sydney University campus, TAFE NSW Richmond and a range of equine activities.

Advanced manufacturing, logistics and trade

As low value-added manufacturers move offshore, the Australian manufacturing sector has been transforming with growth in the advanced highvalue sector. The expanding sector is characterised by significant investment in innovation, research and development as well as the use of technology and the production of goods that have a relatively high value. The research and development component includes opportunities to work closely with universities. The Western Parkland and Central River cities are manufacturing leaders in NSW, with well-developed specialisations in advanced manufacturing.

The Western Sydney Employment Area immediately to the north of the Western Sydney Airport was created to act as a long-term metropolitan land supply for industrial and employment activities. Its significance has been enhanced with the commitment to the Western Sydney Airport. The potential Western Sydney Freight Line will enhance the connections between this area and the existing metropolitan significant Wetherill Park to Villawood industrial corridor.

The existing freight and logistics activities of the Western Parkland City will be boosted by a number of transport initiatives which will significantly improve the accessibility of the Western City with other parts of Greater Sydney and regional NSW. These initiatives include the Western Sydney Freight Line, the Outer Sydney Orbital and a potential new intermodal terminal. Agribusiness opportunities will be supported by the allocation of land within the airport precinct for agricultural export logistics - improving links to new markets. The State's premier quarantine and biosecurity facility, Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute at Menangle, will play an important role and increase opportunities for agriculture research and education jobs.

Liverpool, Greater Penrith and Campbelltown-Macarthur

The new Western Parkland City will be founded on the existing centres of Liverpool, Greater Penrith and Campbelltown-Macarthur and their commercial, health and education assets will support the growing communities (refer to Figure 34, Figure 35 and Figure  36). These centres form part of the metropolitan cluster serving the Western Parkland City (refer to Objective 22). Their importance in providing a focus for commercial activities and population services as the Western Parkland City develops over the next 20 years cannot be overstated. There is an opportunity to substantially enhance the city's economic growth through their development as a ring of university towns, building on the existing tertiary facilities in each. Over time, the Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis could become a fourth university town. The strategy to deliver the university towns will seek to:

• enable each university campus to focus on a full faculty or university presence with a minimum of 10,000 students in each, co-located with TAFE facilities where there is adjoining land
• anchor the university presence for Liverpool, Greater Penrith and Campbelltown-Macarthur around the NSW Government's investment in hospitals and facilitate the emergence of the health and education precincts in each location
• enable a university at Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis to be anchored around the development of airport-related industries such as defence and aerospace, avionics, cyber security, food manufacturing and advanced manufacturing.

There are already a number of investments underway to support the delivery of the university cities and their complementary health activities including:

• Nepean Hospital - $550 million upgrade
• Campbelltown Hospital - $632 million upgrade
• New University of Wollongong, Liverpool campus.

Significant land release development is still to occur along the South Creek corridor. People will live in and around new centres along the length of South Creek and its tributaries, providing a high level of liveability in a quality urban environment adopting best practice from cities around the world. High quality living will attract and retain businesses, skilled workers, international and domestic clients, students and service providers.

The spatial pattern of this new city will be based on the integration of land use, transport and other infrastructure over the life of this Plan:

• The first stage of a North South Rail Link will support the delivery of a Western Economic Corridor (refer to Objective 15). It will connect the Western Sydney Airport and Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis as well as the Sydney Science Park to St Marys, and potentially to Marsden Park and Rouse Hill in the north and to Oran Park, Narellan and Campbelltown-Macarthur in the south and create opportunities for new centres.
• Liverpool, Greater Penrith and CampbelltownMacarthur centres will be better connected to the rail network and will leverage the associated benefits to drive their education and commercial strengths.
• New east-west mass transit corridors will better connect neighbourhoods in the Western Parkland City to the existing rail lines.
• New strategic and local centres will be designed to meet the needs of new communities developed in line with the Principles for Greater Sydney's centres (refer to Objective 22.)
• South Creek and its tributaries will underpin the sustainability features of the Western Parkland City, from tree canopy cover to cool and green the city, to water sensitive urban design.
• South Creek will form the central organising design element when planning new neighbourhoods.