Sydney will get its first new inner city suburb – known as Bays West – in decades, giving public waterfront access to Glebe Island for the first time in more than 100 years alongside 8,500 new homes.
The New South Wales government on Tuesday announced that a long-awaited overhaul of the government-owned land, directly above the under-construction Bays Metro station and near the western end of the Anzac Bridge, will go ahead.
It means Sydneysiders will farewell Glebe Island’s distinctive 1970s industrial silos as part of the “city-shaping” transformation, which will open up the long-underused site, stretching from Rozelle Bay to White Bay, 2km from the CBD.
Ten per cent, or at least 700, of its new homes will be affordable and earmarked for essential workers, while 25% of the land will be given to open space. It will remain in public hands. Affordable housing is generally defined as housing that costs less than 30% of a household’s gross income.
An artist’s impression of the planned precinct around the closed White Bay Power Station. Photograph: New South Wales government
The premier, Chris Minns, said the government hoped the site would offer a place that is close to work, services and transport for new residents.
“Importantly, this precinct will include affordable and essential worker housing from day one, so nurses, teachers, paramedics and police can live closer to the communities they serve,” Minns said.
To make way for the homes, Glebe Island’s cement, gypsum and sugar handling will close by 2030, with the state government putting $270m into transport infrastructure at Port Kembla port, south of Sydney.
Deep water port facilities, with the potential to accommodate naval ships, will be kept at White Bay, to which some Glebe Island port operations will be relocated, including the handling of salt. The White Bay cruise terminal – used for ships that can pass under the Harbour Bridge – will remain.
Under the plans, White Bay Power Station will be made into a cultural and community destination and a new staging area will be built in White Bay for New Year’s Eve fireworks, Vivid festival and other major events.
A delivery agency will be set up in the coming weeks to oversee the rezoning, port and development processes.
The announcement comes decades after the Bays Precinct Taskforce was first convened in 2007 to assess future uses of the area. The site has long been mooted as a potential location for new homes that are hoped to ease the state’s housing crisis.
The Glebe Island site. Chris Minns says ‘we have to use well-located land better’. Photograph: New South Wales govenrment
Under the Minns government, the precinct was in 2023 designated an accelerated transport-oriented development (Tod), allowing six-storey developments within 1,200 metres of the new metro stations. Tods have been criticised for their top-down, broad-brush approach to development.
Minns added that “not everyone will welcome change, but cities don’t stand still”.
“If Sydney is going to remain a place young people and families can afford to live in, we have to use well-located land better and plan for the future.”
The plan keeps the land in public ownership, said the NSW treasurer, Daniel Mookhey.
“Bays West is about putting publicly owned land to work for the people of NSW – delivering thousands of new homes while keeping this strategic harbour site in public hands for generations to come,” he said.
Paul Scully, the NSW minister for planning and public spaces, described the plan as a “city-shaping renewal”.
Rose Jackson, the minister for housing and homelessness, said Bays West was about “giving the next generation a fair chance to live close to opportunity”.