Foreword

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To shape a city is the work of many hands and many generations. Greater Sydney’s evolution in both the preand post-colonial era is testament to this and of course, the work of co-creation goes on now and into the future. The best cities are never the creation of one group or force and reflect in their changing character over time at least one fixed truth: cities collaborate to compete. That is, they work best for local communities and in the international competition for talent and investment, when city-making is understood to be a shared enterprise between the public, private and not for profit sectors but also fundamentally, the community itself. This was true before COVID-19 and of even greater importance in the recovery of our cities after it.

I was driven to these reflections through engagement with Georges River Council as they produced this excellent report and the even more important dialogue between the various public, private and community city-shapers which the council has actively catalysed on the role a potential Southern Aerotropolis could play for Sydney and the State and the relationship to Wollongong, Central Coast and Newcastle. I believe they are to be commended for both the report and the dialogue. Both have been timely and have influenced decision makers priorites with the announcement of a new focus on six cities rather than only three. That is a big shift in policy towards the policy direction set out in this report by Council. A specific reflection does indeed involve the activity of the council itself. Councils are one of the often underappreciated city-shapers in Australian cities. The City of Sydney and Parramatta Councils have played key roles both in terms of advocating for new transport infrastructure such as the light rail projects now transforming the Sydney CBD on the one hand and about to do the same for our city’s ‘second CBD’. Furthermore, we know the formative role played by councils in Western Sydney in creating the country’s biggest and most important City Deal and indeed attracting a new international airport and rail link connected to it. Beyond this, we know the daily and irreplaceable role played by councils in representing their communities in ensuring that other tiers of government and their key agencies enable the right quality of development through timely and appropriate infrastructure that delivers both liveability and economic opportunity.

In catalysing this report and the associated advocacy and civic dialogue, I think Georges River Council is exemplifying the best of local government leadership of this type in our city at this moment. It knows its role, whilst delivering local services to ensure that through the right strategy and relationship building, it also shapes the future of the economy and environment in its area – and not just for local communities but in the wider interest of Sydney. Especially in this era when new thinking and new leadership will be required to galvanise our city and maximise its assets and opportunities after COVID-19. It’s this council-led ‘city-shaping’ which has resulted in the research and thinking in this report and the dialogue with other councils and State Government now under way to progress its fertile ideas. Among those ideas are important ones about reconceptualising the existing Sydney Airport and its surrounding areas as an existing ‘Southern Aerotropolis’, well served by extant infrastructure but in need of the kind of coordinated action seen in the Western Sydney Aerotropolis to really maximise its potential for Sydney. Again, the Council has for some time sought to persuade others of the benefits of speeding up the delivery of planned rail links from Kogarah through Bankstown to Parramatta and perhaps points north to exploit an underdeveloped ‘Central City’ corridor that also would, by delivering more jobs locally, take some pressure off the radial routes back into the Sydney CBD. It is a project that supports sustainable growth and better connections between strategic centres, collaboration and innovation areas across Sydney. Whilst promoted by Georges River Council it will benefit the whole of Greater

Sydney, particularly centres and communities on the route and the rail lines it interchanges with.

Most recently, the Council has, working with councils such as Wollongong and those in the Hunter and particularly Newcastle, sought to remind key decision-makers of the benefits of exploiting the great potential of the NewcastleSydney-Georges River-Wollongong ‘Sandstone Megaregion’ or as it has also been called, the ‘Metropolis of 5 Cities’ not just 3. At the time of writing, the Council’s vision and advocacy seem to be paying off somewhat radically with the adoption by the NSW Government of a shared ‘city region’ vision which includes Wollongong, Central Coast and Newcastle in its planning under the changed remit of the Greater Sydney Commission to become the Greater Cities Commission.

While this is extremely welcome and a real tribute to the groundwork by councils such as Georges River, the campaign will need to continue to ensure that new government rhetoric is consistent with Council’s strategic and spatial objectives for the north-south corridor of which they are a part of. In addition, for acknowledgment of the Southern Aerotropolis which exists on the doorstep of our CBD and for that better and faster rail connections, both to Parramatta but also from Newcastle on to the Illawarra, actually delivers real change on the ground in due course. I am sure that Georges River Council will be as vigilant in that function as they have been catalytic in resetting the NSW Government’s thinking about the strategic importance of what their area, with the right strategy, investment and coordination, can offer Sydney.

This is the right initiative, in the right place at the right time. It builds greater resilience into our places, economy and communities. It responds to the current context where we need to focus on getting better value from existing investment and spreading the benefits. Let’s get behind Council and partners with the right strategy to deliver.

Dr Tim Williams

Director of Publicani Strategic Advisor on Cities to governments

Image: Kogarah