THE PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT REVIEW
The project when fully complete will provide 17-20gW of energy with some of that energy going to Darwin and the rest to Singapore. In Western Sydney, the new Nancy Bird-Walton Airport will cost $11 billion and be completed by 2026. Further north in Queensland, about $429 million has been spent on redeveloping the Cairns Marine Precinct to service an increased demand for tourism, fishing, shipping and defence capabilities. In the West, the WA and the federal governments have chipped in a total of $544 million for constructing Lumsden Point at Port Hedland. In 2022, Port Hedland marked the biggest port project globally with BHP working on developing and improving it to allow for easier resource transportation. Across the country, new precincts and communities are being created as demand grows for housing and services. Sometimes, as in the case of Aerotropolis in NSW, the demand is big enough for a state government to consider creating a whole new capital city. Aerotropolis, along with Parramatta and Sydney, will function as part of a trio of major cities with work under way to build the Western Sydney Airport, set up transport networks and corridors and develop whole new areas into suburbs with new and infill housing around it. The Aerotropolis Precinct Plan and the Bradfield City Masterplan have been created to help drive development in the area and are currently being finalised or exhibited for consultation. However, the largest health precinct in Australia is located in Melbourne in the Parkville Biomedical Precinct. The Victorian government is spending $6 billion over 12 years to redevelop and expand the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Women’s Hospital with 1800 new beds provided and a new biomedical precinct in Arden. Arden and Parkville will be connected to each other by the Metro Tunnel project. Construction is slated to start in 2025 once the Metro Tunnel is completed and is expected to last six years until 2031. Another $1.7 billion is also being spent to create the country’s largest arts precinct in Melbourne with the transformation of the Melbourne Arts Precinct. The precinct extends from Federation Square to Southbank and takes in the banks of the Yarra River. It includes work started on the Arts Centre in 2023 and the Greenline Project to transform the northern bank of the Yarra River. There will be 18,000sq m of new green open space and a new gallery, The Fox: NGV Contemporary space. In Queensland, the City of Greater Springfield, has come out on top as the country’s largest master planned city at 2860ha. Springfield City Group, Lendlease and Mirvac developed the city at a cost of $32 billion.
Contractors to pause works on Melbourne’s West Gate Tunnel project and sue the Victorian Government with the initial costs estimated at $6.7 billion. Other projects include Victoria’s North East Link ($3.3 billion), Sunshine Coast Rail ($1.15 billion) and Perth’s METRONET system upgrades ($1.4 billion) with the entire METRONET project costing $10.5 billion across 72km of rail and 18 stations. Population growth has led to demand for housing in areas in desperate need of adequate trunk infrastructure prior to residential development proceeding. Peri-urban and regional councils often cannot cope with the cost of providing such trunk infrastructure, and neither can developers. The situation becomes more acute as new areas are opened up for residential development and new communities form. Meanwhile, demand for services also increases in already established settlements and changing values and a climate crisis have now meant a shift in how Australia’s population finds its water and energy. When he assumed power in 2022, South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas promised that the South Australian Northern Water Pipeline would go ahead. The project aims to take pressure off existing water infrastructure and to supply water for regional communities as well as large energy and mining projects. It will run for 600km up to Olympic Dam and other townships overseen by BHP, and incorporate a 260ML desalination plant at Cape Hardy. BHP and other private companies will be funding partners with the SA government, with an initial $200 million to $300 million put forward for early investigations and a completion date for the project of 2028. Developers Genex has joined Japan’s J-Power to develop one of Australia’s largest photovoltaic sites, at the Bulli Creek Solar Project in Queensland, which will provide 2gW. PCL Construction has completed the first stage with Arup announced as engineers and a completion date for the entire project of 2026. Also in Queensland, Fortescue Energy’s Gladstone Electrolyser Facility and PEM50 project will establish Gladstone as a renewable energy hub. PEM50 will provide 50mW year when completed with the facility providing electrolysers, a technology for producing low-emission hydrogen from electricity. The entire project is said to have cost $1 billion with completion slated for PEM50’s first stage in 2025 and then in 2028. Further west is the infamous Sun Cable project at Powell Creek in the Northern Territory. After Sun Cable went into voluntary administration, Michael Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures purchased the company and plans to continue the Australian ASEAN Power Link project to set up a solar project and then transmission cables to Darwin 600km away and Singapore 4300km away.
June / July 2024 – 17
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