Over the last two weeks, representatives of the Bombo Quarry precinct have held community information sessions to seek feedback from the community on their plans for the long term vision for Bombo Quarry.

The owners of the site are Boral, the NSW Government Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE) and Cleary Brothers.

On Wednesday evening, Boral, TAHE and their consultant team held an online webinar to run through the draft vision for the site. The public were told that the current plan is a draft, and Urbis (the strategic planning and community engagement consultant) will seek to collate feedback to inform a final draft masterplan.

Urbis said that the current draft is ‘one possibility’ and ‘indicative’ and that there could be a vastly different plan that is progressed and finalised. 

The public were told that the draft masterplan will inform a rezoning application which will be assessed concurrently with a State Significant Development Application for the extensive remediation that is required, before parts of the site can take place. 

The council will assess the rezoning application and the Planning Minister and Member for Wollongong, Paul Scully MP will determine the application for remediation and fill. 

The current plan projects approximately 2,000 homes varying from large lots to apartments.

There is no employment or industrial land planned at this stage, despite previous ideas and suggestions from the public that this is the best location in the area for this type of use. Instead, the draft plan has a town centre to provide retail and commercial space like the existing Kiama town centre. 

There are currently four road access points planned, three in the eastern side from Princes Highway at Quarryman Road, Riversdale Drive/Panama Street and Hutchison Street. There would be a single access point in the western portion of the site at Riversdale Road. 

Sources within the NSW Government but not authorised to speak publicly have said that the quarry may remain operational for several years as the materials that are being extracted are vital for infrastructure projects across the State. 

Irrespective of when quarrying ends, TAHE and Boral both said that the project is a ‘long term opportunity’ that is ‘highly complex’, on a site that has ‘significant constraints’. The presenters noted that achieving the required approvals in 2025 was ‘very ambitious’ and following that, the remediation period would take in the order of 5 to 7 years at a minimum. 

Whilst TAHE could not make any commitment on an exact date for the delivery of housing, it seemed highly unlikely that homes would be delivered this decade. 

A summary of the questions and the responses from the Bombo Quarry team are below:

Question: 

How do you define affordable housing and how much will there be? The State Government has committed to 30% affordable housing on its development sites – does that include Bombo Quarry?

Answer: 

TAHE could not confirm or commit to an affordable housing quantum and said they do not have a definition of affordable housing that they are currently applying. They said the Government has a target of 30% affordable housing across all of the development sites and the exact quantum is determined on a site-by-site basis. 

They are still considering how much affordable housing is appropriate and financially possible. 

Question:

Will there be social housing?

Answer:

Yes. Social housing is ‘absolutely an opportunity’ for Minister Jackson and Homes NSW. 

Question:  

How much fill will be required for the remediation? Where will it come from? How long will this take? Will there need to be a period of settling to ensure that buildings do not sink?

Answer: 

There will need to be approximately 1.5 to 2 million cubic metres of fill to make the site ready for the development. The site will not be brought up to the natural ground level, it will sit lower than the original natural ground level. 

The source of the fill is yet to be identified and fill can only commence once approvals have been issued by the Planning Minister. 

Yes, there will need to be a period of settling, particularly where fill is at significant depths. This period of time has not been identified as it will depend on the contents of the masterplan which is still under consideration. 

Question:

When will quarrying stop on the site?

Answer:

TAHE could not confirm or commit to an end date to the quarry.

The quarry is operated by Sydney Trains and its materials are being used across several infrastructure projects. An ‘independent assessment’ will determine the future of quarrying activity, which should be complete later this year.

TAHE said it would need to work with Sydney Trains to understand if and when the quarry could cease operations to allow the development to proceed.

Question:

There are already significant sewer infrastructure constraints in the area, how are you addressing this?

Answer:

TAHE and Boral are working with Sydney Water around the upgrades and future augmentation that will be required before development can come online. There is no definitive answer as to what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by. 

Question:

Will TAHE and Boral develop and sell the houses?

Answer:

TAHE and Boral will not build and sell houses as it is not their core business. There will be various agreements and partnerships that will need to be confirmed after the approvals are in place.

TAHE said it is likely that they will partner with Housing Minister Rose Jackson and Homes NSW for the delivery of affordable and social housing. 

On some parts of the site they will sell to developers outright, and on other parts they might partner with developers to share the proceeds of the sale of homes. 

Question:

Given how highly complex the planning, remediation and development process is, is there no possibility of homes being delivered this decade?

Answer:

TAHE could not confirm or commit to a date for the delivery of the first home as the approvals process, fill and construction is highly complex.

They said they could not guarantee that a home would be delivered this decade.

Question:

The Kiama Council draft Growth and Housing Strategy identifies a wider Bombo precinct beyond the TAHE and Boral land all the way to Riversdale Road. Does this proposal include that land or how does it relate?

Answer:

The land that is subject of this consultation and the forthcoming rezoning and remediation applications does not include the land near Riversdale Road. 

Urbis said they are dealing with a highly complex site that might ‘take into consideration’ what is being done by landowners at Riversdale Road but it is a matter for Council and those landowners to determine what happens there and when – they are treating the Bombo Quarry site in isolation.