Consortium seeks to transform Sydney’s Rosehill-Camellia into $25b ‘mini city’

A consortium comprising three major property groups and the Australian Turf Club have put forward a visionary proposal to deliver a $25 billion mini city on a 90ha amalgamated riverfront site that will absorb the iconic Rosehill Gardens Racecourse and the Camellia Town Centre in Western Sydney.

The Rosehill-Camellia Landowners Alliance (RCLA) – a partnership between Wentworth Properties, Billbergia Group, Abacus Group (ASX: ABG) and the Australian Turf Club who are landowners in the precinct – describes the project as a ‘once-in-a-century’ opportunity to provide an estimated 45,000 new homes and create a three-minute economic super-hub in the region.

The plan, to be delivered by 2050, is aimed at creating greater public access to Parramatta River through the provision of a new ferry wharf, light rail and Metro stations.

The precinct will be supported by a new town centre comprised of retail, education and commercial space in addition to residential apartments, including affordable housing, alongside community facilities, public open spaces and new infrastructure.

Among the proposed public spaces is a 350-metre-long beach adjoining a 1.5km waterfront precinct along the Parramatta River.

RCLA has approached the NSW State Government with a view to ‘collaboratively deliver’ the proposal which the consortium says will transform a largely declining industrial area and provide much-needed housing for the Sydney region.

“This is a once-in-a-century opportunity to plan strategically for an entire ‘city-within-a-city’, while also unlocking access to the riverfront – activating, remediating, and beautifying what is now a former industrial wasteland,” says Rick Graf, the development director of Billbergia.

“It will enable Parramatta to fulfil its destiny as a global city alongside Sydney.

“For scale, the combined site is four times larger than Barangaroo and will accommodate 100,000 people, generating over 15,000 jobs.

“It will be the largest development in the history of the Central River City and is a total game-changer for Western Sydney.”

The proposal is envisaged by the consortium to make Rosehill-Camellia ‘a three-minute economic super-hub in Western Sydney – with residents able to commute within minutes between Westmead, Parramatta and Camellia using the new Metro’.

“The new public-transit and walkable community would be in easy walkable access to the new Metro station, Parramatta Light Rail stops and a new ferry wharf,” says RCLA.

For more than half a century, Camellia has been an industrial heartland in Western Sydney, but RCLA notes that its importance as an employment hub ‘has been in decline since the 1970’s.

RCLA estimates that the precinct has experienced a 91 per cent decrease in jobs since its 1976 peak.

The alliance is urging the state government to collaborate with the landowners and local council to ‘optimise’ the amalgamated site and bring its plan to fruition.

“We want to ensure international best practice is utilised to leverage the potential for value creation to both the government and to the economy,” says Graf.

“The new masterplan needs to be a highest-level collaboration between government and the private sector investors and must have the best international expertise to crystallise the broader vision.”

RCLA says transport infrastructure such as Parramatta light rail and the Metro West will be critical to developing a plan that considers the site’s strategic role over the next 50 years.

“This includes the long-term social infrastructure needed to support major housing supply and contribute to the status of the Central River City,” it says.

The Central River City includes the local government areas of Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Parramatta, Georges River, The Hills and Blacktown.