Chris Minns Confirms Woollahra Station Revival

The Minns Labor Government has announced the approval of Sydney’s new heavy railway station located next to the CBD in Woollahra, creating opportunity for new housing in spite of Sydney’s recent decline in population due to the cost of living.

Tackling the housing crisis, the intuitive will allow for 10,000 new homes, through the rezoning of land around Woollahra and Edgecliff.

Just 8 minutes away from Sydney’s CBD, the new station will be located on the Eastern Suburbs trainline, where the station’s build began in 1970 but was never completed.

An analysis by the NSW Productivity Commission identified that Sydney is losing twice as many people as they are gaining, with Woollahra’s population declining by 50 per cent across the past 50 years.

Transport Minister, John Graham said, “The eastern suburbs line was only running at 43 per cent capacity, compared to 112 per cent capacity on the western line. There is room here on this train for more people.”

“There are less people living here than there were 50 years ago, that’s why this plan really makes sense.”

Within the development, the NSW Government will include a rezoning of the Woollahra and Edgecliff train stations to allow for additional homes to be built.

Determined as a part of the rezoning, affordable housing will compromise a large portion of the development, allowing for the rebalance of growth across Sydney during the housing crisis.

An 800 meter radius around the stations would be rezoned, with 10% of the construction to be classified as ‘affordable housing’.

Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns said, “We are delivering on our promise to rebalance the delivery of new housing from the West of Sydney that has accepted the overwhelming number of new homes without infrastructure, towards the East and North of Sydney where there is existing infrastructure.”

“For too long, young people and families in NSW have been forced to choose between moving away from the Sydney CBD or not being able to afford a home at all.”

Providing the support that the Sydney population has cried out for

Expected within the next 3 years, the rezoning will continue to support the Government’s housing targets that aim to rebalance the delivery of homes around the suburbs existing infrastructure.

The new ‘housing zone’ will be within walking distance of major green and recreational species including Cooper, Rushcutters Bay, Trumper and Centennial Parks.

Minister for Transport, John Graham said, “For decades, this site has been an opportunity squandered to provide an eight-minute, direct train trip to the Sydney CBD and allow more people to get out of their cars in the eastern suburbs.”

“We look forward to working with the local community to provide an accessible station that
complements active transport and other transport connections.”

Why now? After all these years?

The new intuitive is a result of a previous announcement where over 15,000 homes surrounding Burwood North Metro station in Burwood and Canada Bay LGA’s were announced. After this, several LGAs across the Sydney region began to undergo substantial rezoning.

CEO of the Urban Taskforce Australia, Tom Forrest, says “10,000 new homes surrounding both Edgecliff station and the new Woollahra station, was a clear sign we have turned a corner when it comes to planning and housing in infill Sydney.”

With Sydney hitting the mark at the second most unaffordable city in the world to purchase a home, the vision for this project is to reduce the impact of the cost of living through utilising spaces to boost economic stability across the CBD.

The Labour Government’s project aims to aid affordability, reduce building and infrastructure costs and to construct a better NSW where people are able to have accessibility to housing.