Residents of a rural town are seething after local council announced a new suburb will be built on the outskirts of their community, fearing it will become ‘slum of the future’.
Shoalhaven City Council are expecting 3,500 new homes to be built in the new suburb of Badagarang, in Nowra’s north, hoping it will ‘help to reduce the pressure on the current housing market’.
The 425 hectare suburb’s boundaries were gazetted on February 24 and stretch across both sides of Moss Vale road in between the two existing suburbs of Bomaderry and Cambewarra Village.
Locals are concerned the proposed development will place further stress on a community that’s already ‘bursting at the seams’ due to a lack of infrastructure.
Nowra only has two hospitals – one public and one private – and two major grocery stores for the city’s estimated 22,584 residents.
A new 425 hectare suburb in northern Nowra, Badagarang, on the NSW south coast, has been announced to the confusion of locals who are already fed up with lacking infrastructure
The city also has a single bridge – a part of the Princes Highway – to connect its southern and northern cities.
Frustrated locals have been demanding that more infrastructure is needed to support the thousands of newcomers that will soon flow into the area.
‘How on earth is the Hospital going to cope with this? one Facebook user wrote underneath the council’s announcement.
‘Is there plans for a new hospital, new schools, new shopping centres in this area?’
Another said: ‘Between the Bomaderry High school’s traffic and new oval. All I see is much more cluster. How is the planning worked out?’
A third fed-up resident complained there is no way that Nowra could cope with an extra 10,000 people.
‘The region is absolutely jam packed already, with lengthy wait times for medical appointments and overloaded schools,’ the person commented.
‘With blocks as small as 270sqs it’s going to be a social pressure cooker in no time at all.’
The city’s stretched infrastructure is expected to handle 3,500 homes-worth of newcomers, including the Princes Highway Bridge (pictured) which is already prone to congestion
The Shoalhaven City Council addressed the comments underneath the announcement, saying: ‘We’re hearing that you need more information about timing of this housing development and what infrastructure has been planned’.
‘There’s been a lot of work happening for many years to ensure critical infrastructure is available when it’s needed. More info to come.’
A replacement for the busy Princes Highway bridge is under construction, however is not a part of the Nowra bypass that locals have been waiting for.
‘During peak periods significant congestion is experienced by road users within the Nowra urban town centre and along the Princes Highway,’ the Transport NSW website reads.
The Nowra bypass is the NSW government’s solution to the congestion faced by the rural city’s residents and travellers passing through.
‘The Australian Government has committed $97 million and the NSW Government $8 million for the planning stages of the project.’
How cheap new homes are luring families to outer suburbs where they are shocked to find no childcare or shops and train station promises broken – but not everyone’s unhappy
By Kevin Airs for Daily Mail Australia
Sprawling new-build suburbs on the outskirts of Sydney are sold on the promise of tomorrow – but the reality of today often falls far short for homebuyers moving in.
Thousands of families are snapping up high-density $1million dream homes in massive developments in areas like Marsden Park, Schofields and Oran Park.
But the homes are often being built faster than the infrastructure to support them, leaving locals without key services like trains, schools, shops, restaurants and child care.
The motto of Oran Park, 70km south-west of Sydney’s CBD, is ‘Growing today for your tomorrow’ – but when ‘tomorrow’ exactly is seems vague.
‘They said we were going to get a train station in 2025 when we bought our home three years ago,’ Oran Park mother Harmeet Kaur told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We absolutely need a train service, but I don’t know where we are going to get it because we don’t see any progress.’
Skin therapist Evelyn Agostino, 23 (pictured with her mother Cherie) is desperate for more shops to open up in Oran Park after moving into the area three years ago
Thousands of families are snapping up high-density $1million homes in massive developments in areas like Marsden Park, Schofields and Oran Park (pictured)
The nearest train station linking Oran Park to Sydney is currently 14km away in Leppington.
CUT-PRICE DREAMS FOR SALE – AT A COST
New-build housing developments offer a dream home for a reasonable price
The new-build housing developments offer families a dream home for a reasonable price – but the cost comes with limited infrastructure… and usually a long way from city centres.
Just $1million will buy you an Oran Park house worth $4-5million in other parts of Sydney, boasting four bedrooms, an in-ground pool, lounge rooms and dens, a cutting edge open-plan kitchen and even a theatre media room.
But the downside is being 70km from Sydney’s CBD and limited public transport options, few Uber Eats options, restaurants and shops.
$1million will buy you an Oran Park home worth $4-5million in other parts of Sydney
Developer Stockland tells prospective buyers at their new Lakeside development bordering Oran Park: ‘Don’t get locked out of tomorrow. Lock in your future today.’
Over a tranquil photograph of rural countryside, it promises ‘a pocket of calm in the centre of it all’ but insists it’s just ‘just a stone’s throw away from transport links, schools and retail for that balanced lifestyle’.
But it refers to current infrastructure like Gledswood Hills public school – with no plans for extra school facilities to cope with the new residents.
NSW state government has earmarked a spot for Oran Park’s metro rail station, but there’s still no timeline for it ever being built or when services will start.
The development is built on the site of the former Oran Park racetrack with streets named after stars of Australian motorsport like Peter Brock and Craig Lowndes.
And cars are absolutely vital for locals, with no trains and just a few buses each hour, which only go to nearby Campbelltown, Minto and Leppington.
‘The bus services don’t go anywhere,’ said mother-of-five Ash Kettley, 30.
‘You’ve got to catch two or three buses to get to one location and by that time you have been on a bus for two hours.
‘You might have an appointment that goes for half an hour but you have to travel two hours to get there and back.’
Local road systems are also unable to cope with the sudden influx in new residents, with bottlenecks and choked roads at rush hour.
Oran Park has a wide dual carriageway running through it, but still suffers gridlock at school times when the main road in and out to Sydney grinds to a halt.
The single-carriageway Hermitage Way – which links the area with the M31 motorway – is brought to a standstill at a roundabout outside Gledswood Hills Public School, with traffic backed up in all directions.
It’s even worse at Marsden Park, 50km, north-west of Sydney’s CBD, where a series of developments all feed into Richmond Road, causing peak hour chaos.
‘It’s always congested,’ local grandmother Linda Thow told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Monday to Sunday, it’s always busy.
‘Everybody is using it – they’ve tried asking people in the nearby suburbs to try using alternative routes but everybody comes this way to take kids to school or go to work.
‘It takes ages to get anywhere.’
Marsden Park came under fire in 2015 when families first moved into the area to discover there were no schools for their children, green spaces, shops or trains stations.
In the years that followed, the infrastructure finally starting catching up with trains, schools and shopping centres reaching the area in 2021.
In Marsden Park and Schofields, homes were built with black roofs to meet insulation requirements in winter – but caused an internal heat surge in summer.
Developers squeeze the maximum number of homes into the space available, but infrastructure struggles to keep up
The single-carriageway Hermitage Way – which links the area with the M31 motorway – is brought to a standstill at a roundabout outside Gledswood Hills Public School, with traffic backed up in all directions
Most homes have air conditioning built in – but the buildings are so close together, the heat pumps of neighbouring homes blow into each other.
‘They definitely needed to build with more space between the homes,’ said Schofields IT worker Sethil Nathan, 37.
Schofields IT worker Sethil Nathan, 37, says homes are built too close together
‘Even adding solar to your roof reduces your electricity bill, but adds to the heat in the house so you have to use your air-conditioning even more.
‘It might be pocket-friendly, but it’s not environmentally friendly.’
Neighbour Monica Patel, 37, who owns a shop in ritzy Mosman on Sydney’s north shore, says her family simply throws opens the doors and windows to keep cool in summer.
‘You don’t need the air-conditioning when there’s a breeze,’ she said.
Even Oran Park – which has avoided many of the mistakes made in other suburbs – is buckling under the weight of the sudden influx of young couples and new families.
Schools are already close to full – with one already having nine kindergarten classes – and child care services can’t cope with the numbers.
‘It’s very family-friendly, but we need more before and after-school care,’ said Ms Kettley.
Mother of five Ash Kettley has seen Oran Park swallow up nearby farmland and says no-one expected it to grow as fast as it has, pushing the already limited infrastructure to the limit
‘Both the local schools’ before and after-school care is full – and they’re the only two in Oran Park. As a mother you can’t do anything without that care facility.
‘You would think it was a licence to print money but apparently not. It’s just so hard – for a family-friendly environment, the lack of child care is just a joke.’
Shops are also currently limited with the Podium shopping centre offering a Woolworths and a handful of smaller shops and cafes while a second stage is under construction.
But locals have to drive out the area for a wider range of clothes shops, fresh fruit and veg or specialist food shops, homewares, eateries – and even take away restaurants.
But unlike some other new developments, Oran Park has been built with trees and small parkland areas dotted throughout.
‘I have green spaces in front of me,’ said skin therapist Evelyn Agostino, 23.
‘It’s greenery everywhere.
‘I love it. I moved here because I fell in love with the area and the new-build homes – but we can definitely do with more shops.’
But for all the drawbacks, those spoken to by Daily Mail Australia were pleased with their decision to move to the new-build suburbs.
‘When we first moved in, there was a crime wave of cars being stolen and homes being broken into – but one person was arrested and it stopped immediately, said Samantha Prodromou, 28.
‘We watched a video about the area before moving here and contacted the local pastor. It seemed like a really nice, community-focused place.
Samantha Prodromou, 28, (left) was drawn to the area by its community focus and has no regrets. Harmeet Kaur (pictured right with her daughter) was promised a train station by 2025 when she moved in – but there is still no timeline for work to start on the project
Locals have already seen the green fields and farmland that surrounded the development disappear as the construction works spreads, linking the area to Sydney
‘What really drew us was the up-and-coming nature of it, but it’s going to get better and better.’
For some though, it’s up-and-coming too quickly though.
Ms Kettley says in the six years she’s lived in the area, fields of cows, horses and even pigs have been replaced by new homes already.
‘The kids used to love seeing the farm animals and we loved the farmland,’ she said.
‘It really created a break from the rest of Sydney.
‘It’s growing so fast. No-one anticipated for it to be growing as fast as it has in Oran Park – that’s the reality of it.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk