Month: December 2023

Families with young children in Sydney’s North West are set to benefit from significant upgrades that will see more than 100 demountables replaced with permanent facilities at Castle Hill Public School, Matthew Pearce Public School, Carlingford West Public School and Cumberland High School.

Schools in the area have been well over capacity for more than a decade as the population in the area soared under the former Liberal National Government, which failed to provide the necessary school infrastructure to the North West growth area during its 12 years in power. 

Construction has now begun on the long-awaited upgrades, which will see the removal of 19 demountables from Castle Hill Public School and another 22 at Matthew Pearce Public School.

There are currently 64 demountables at Carlingford West Public School and 26 demountables at Cumberland High School.

Of the demountables at Castle Hill Public School, 12 have been on site for more than five years and half are 20 years old. The demountables at Matthew Pearce Public School have been on site for at least five years, with some more than 25 years old.

The upgrade at Castle Hill will see the addition of a new three-storey building with 36 modern classrooms, as well as a new hall, canteen, covered outdoor learning area (COLA) and student amenities. It will also provide facilities for specialist support classes, and refurbished administration and staff areas.

The upgrades at Matthew Pearce Public School will deliver three new buildings and 24 new modern classrooms to replace existing demountable buildings. It will also provide facilities for specialist support classes, as well as a new hall, student amenities, and new outside of school hours care (OOSHC) facilities.

The upgrade at Cumberland High School will deliver 77 new and upgraded classrooms including spaces for wood workshops, visual arts, sport and performance, a new hall, library, play courts, canteen, and refurbished staff and administration facilities.

Carlingford West Public School’s upgrade will deliver 56 new classrooms, a new hall, library, play court, canteen, and refurbished staff and administration areas.

The upgrades at the four schools will provide core facilities catering to nearly 6,000 students combined, which will help support the growing population in Sydney’s North West. All four upgrades are expected to be completed by early 2026.

As part of its plan to address the backlog of essential services in the North West growth area, the Minns Labor Government is also fast-tracking new public schools at Tallawong and Nirimba Fields, and a high school for Melonba, all of which will open temporary facilities for students in Term 1 next year. The government will also build a new high school for Schofields/Tallawong to open in 2027.

Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said:

“The Minns Labor Government is committed to ensuring families in Sydney’s growth areas have the essential services they need, like quality local public schools.

“I am thrilled to see construction begin on these important upgrades at Carlingford West Public School, Cumberland High School, Castle Hill Public School and Matthew Pearce Public School, providing high quality permanent facilities to meet growing enrolment demand in Sydney’s north-west suburbs.

“We are delivering on our promise to provide communities with high quality public school facilities to enable students to thrive.”

The NSW Government has announced stronger employment protections are now in place for waste management workers employed by NSW councils and council contractors.

Changes to the Local Government (General) Regulation 2021 have been gazetted to ensure greater protection for the employment of waste workers when council waste management contracts go to tender. 

Currently, potential tenderers are not required to offer employment to employees of the current contractor or to preserve the existing terms and conditions of their employment.

This is also the case if waste management services are provided by council staff.

There are numerous examples in recent history of waste management contracts changing between service providers, and workers are offered an identical role with the new contractor but with lower pay and loss of entitlements.

The regulation changes now in effect mean tenderers for domestic or other waste management services must now offer employment to existing staff on at least the same terms as their current employer and with no loss to their entitlements.

Tenderers must also agree to award annual pay increases based on the applicable industrial instrument or the Local Government (State) Award, if one does not exist.

The Office of Local Government will support councils who have upcoming waste management tenders to comply with the new regulations.

Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig said:

“Most council waste workers have lived and worked in their local government area for years or even decades.

“They deserve to be treated fairly and know that they will not be left worse off if a council makes the decision to enter a new waste contract.

“These changes will prevent waste contractors from undercutting during tenders and winning contracts on the basis of paying workers less if their employer changes.

“This is an important change and will help ensure council waste services can continue to run smoothly and provide certainty to the essential workers who provide this critical service to NSW communities.

“Rubbish collection is an essential council service that keeps our streets clean and safe. It’s one of the three ‘Rs’ of local government.”

Two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) have broken through solid rock to arrive at the Five Dock Metro Station site, putting Sydney Metro West on the map as the first project in the southern hemisphere to achieve a double TBM breakthrough. 

This breakthrough marks an important milestone in the Minns Government’s plan to build an enhanced Sydney Metro West project that also helps drive housing supply.

These are the first two TBM breakthroughs for the project as work powers ahead to build twin 24km metro tunnels that will transform how people live in and move across Sydney’s west. 

TBM Daphne broke through first, followed closely by TBM Beatrice, after building the 4.3km section of metro tunnel from The Bays to Five Dock for around 7 months. 

To date, the huge machines have excavated a total of 437,463 tonnes of material each. Combined, this is enough to fill 135 Olympic swimming pools. 

This once-in-a-century infrastructure investment will also double rail capacity between Greater Parramatta and the Sydney CBD, making it easier and faster to travel around western Sydney; link new communities to rail services and support employment growth and housing supply.   

The NSW Government is also reaffirming its commitment to building more housing in the right places, where people want to live – to improve affordability, reduce building and infrastructure costs and create thriving communities. 

This includes a proposal, which was brought to the NSW Government by the ATC, centering around the potential to build more than 25,000 new homes on the Rosehill Racecourse site. This would allow the government to explore the feasibility of a new Metro West Station at Rosehill. 

NSW Premier Chris Minns said: 

“This breakthrough at Five Dock is an important milestone as we progress towards the completion of this project and the creation of thousands of new homes.” 

“We’re building this major public transport project at the same time as we’re turbocharging the creation of new housing in our state. We know more supply is the key to making housing more affordable.” 

“This project won’t just change the way people move around our city; it will now also provide the well-located homes for future generations to live in.” 

Transport Minister Jo Haylen said: 

“Now this is truly ground-breaking – never before has a project in the southern hemisphere achieved what we are seeing right here with this double breakthrough.” 

“Record-breaking milestones like this offer a snapshot at the sheer scale and ambitious nature of Sydney Metro West, that will completely transform this great city.”  

“Sydney Metro West will transform travel in Sydney’s west including right here in Five Dock, a location that will welcome its very first railway connection to put both the Sydney CBD and Western Sydney at its doorstep.”

TBM Beatrice and Daphne fast facts:  

• TBMs are double-shield, hard rock TBMs specifically designed to excavate through the sandstone and shale ground conditions.   
• A team of 15 workers per shift operate the TBM as it excavates an average of 200m per week.  
• The TBMs are 165m long (more than the length of 2x A380’s which are approximately 73m).  
• TBMs are built using refurbished cutterheads, front shields and gripper shields from TBMs used on the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project.  
• Each TBM is approximately 7m in diameter.  
• 34x disc cutters per cutterhead (disc cutters are approx. 48cm in diameter).  
• Heaviest pieces of the TBM are the front shield and gripper shield both approx. 280 tonnes each, the cutterhead is approximately 102 tonnes.
• The two 1,300-tonne machines will spend the next few weeks traversing to the western end of the station box cavern.
• During this time, the machines will undergo maintenance before being relaunched to continue their journey to Sydney Olympic Park.
• The Five Dock station box cavern was excavated with about 286,047 tonnes of material removed to create the box-like structure that is 22m wide and 15m deep. 
• Next stop for the TBMs is the Burwood North Metro Station site about two km away, where they are due to arrive in early 2024. 
• TBMs Beatrice and Daphne are 2 of 6 TBMs building the tunnels for the new Sydney Metro West line connecting Greater Parramatta to the Sydney CBD.  
• A total of 30,732 precast concrete segments have been installed by both TBMs to line the new 7m wide tunnels. 
• Two TBMs are currently tunnelling between Sydney Olympic Park and Westmead, while the final fifth and sixth TBMs will launch in 2024, starting at The Bays, moving under harbour to Pyrmont and onto Hunter Street.