Opening up Bombo Quarry won’t be a silver bullet for Kiama’s housing crisis, with the NSW Government confirming the site won’t be available for residential development in the short to medium-term.

According to Kiama Council minutes – which are available online – Council wrote to the NSW Planning Minister in June last year, requesting an update on the Bombo Quarry site and its possible use as part of the Illawarra Shoalhaven Regional Plan 2041. 

Responding in September last year, the Department of Planning confirmed that “any future housing or employment is unlikely to occur in the short to medium term”. 

The Department also reiterated a commitment to work with Council on a roadmap for the future of Bombo Quarry to “help manage stakeholder expectations for the site”. 

Earlier this year, construction giant Boral revealed it is collaborating with Transport for New South Wales on plans for the site’s future, with CEO Vik Bansal telling the Illawarra Mercury the company had already done “significant work” looking at opportunities at the site. 

With any residential development at the site years away – and Business Illawarra’s recent Affordable Housing Solutions report showing 20,000 key workers across the region are experiencing housing stress right now– calls for short-term fixes to Kiama’s housing crisis are likely to grow louder. 

The Affordable Housing Solutions report recommended identifying more vacant government-owned land and fast-tracking housing developments. 

It also found more than four in ten businesses in the region think a lack of affordable housing is making it harder to find staff. 

In its public response to the report, Council – which is still finalising its own Local Housing Strategy – acknowledged designated affordable housing in the local area is in “very short supply”. 

Director of Planning, Environment and Communities Jessica Rippon said Council is “actively discussing all options for new and innovative public-private partnerships to help improve yield”. 

“We agree there needs to be multiple solutions to what is a complex problem, including legislative reform, system review, strategy development and establishing opportunities with private business”, she said. 

Speaking to The Bugle’s Brendan Foye earlier this month, Gilmore MP Fiona Phillips said the lack of affordable housing in the electorate is the topic she’s asked about most, alongside the cost-of-living crisis. 

“The last ten years, we just haven’t seen that growth in affordable and social housing, and when you have ten years like that, you get to the stage we’re at now which is a crisis point,” she said. 

Ms Phillips also spruiked the Albanese Government’s Housing Australia Future Fund as part of the solution. 

“How the [Housing Australia Future Fund] works is it’s basically a fund where the dividends are reinvested back into affordable and social housing. So what happens is you’ve got other investors, like a superannuation fund, and they partner with community housing providers or local councils to actually get those projects going. But they have to be affordable and rental housing. So it’s designed specifically to boost that.” 

Kiama MP Gareth Ward was similarly clear-eyed about the extent of the housing crisis in a speech on the floor of NSW Parliament earlier this month, in which he called on Shoalhaven Council to “work harder” to deliver affordable housing. 



“…There is no doubt that housing pressures are biting. The average cost of a property in the Kiama area is around $1.3 million. For a lot of young people wanting to get into the market, that is a real challenge…we need to think about the fact that encouraging people into home ownership – actually owning their own home – will also free up rental properties…” he said. 

What do you think should happen to the Bombo Quarry site? Have your say, and let us know.