Revealed: Sydney’s newest suburb in walking distance of the CBD

The bulk of operations at Sydney Harbour’s last working port will be scrapped to make way for up to 8500 homes built around a metro train station, in a dramatic reshaping of the city’s foreshore that will provide public access to the waterfront for the first time in a century.

In the Bays West precinct near Rozelle, Sydney’s newest suburb will be connected to the CBD by a metro line and ferry services, as well as the long-awaited revamp of the Glebe Island Bridge for a bike and pedestrian route, under a transformation of underutilised government-owned port land.

Deep-water port facilities will be retained for marine construction and as a base for tug boats and emergency services, and the White Bay cruise terminal will continue in its current location, but bulk port operations – including cement, gypsum and sugar handling – will end on Glebe Island by 2030.

The government says it will lead a master planning process, including an international design competition, to guide development across the precinct, ensuring homes, essential infrastructure, jobs, public spaces and transport links are delivered together.

It will be led by a new delivery agency to be established in the coming weeks, which will report to Lands and Property Minister Steve Kamper, who has oversight of major precinct renewal projects including at Blackwattle Bay and Barangaroo.

Once established, the publicly owned land in the precinct will be transferred to the new agency, which will mirror the now-defunct Barangaroo Delivery Authority. The land will remain in public hands, but developers will be able to tender for long leases to deliver housing.

Under the model, the government will mandate that a minimum of 10 per cent of the housing is set aside for affordable and essential worker homes as well as giving the public access to the waterfront for the first time in more than 100 years.

Nighttime entertainment and creative industries will have use of the historic White Bay Power Station as a cultural and community destination, connected to the harbour across a new expansive public forecourt.

Deep-water berths will be retained to preserve Sydney Harbour’s “strategic operational capability” while the existing 1970s industrial silos, currently used as a billboard and to store cement and sugar, will be removed to unlock new opportunities for public space and housing.

A new staging area will also be established in White Bay, securing the future of the New Year’s Eve fireworks, Vivid and other major events.

The Bays West precinct has been designated as an “accelerated precinct” under the Minns government’s transport-oriented development scheme to build more homes near transport hubs.

The metro station is due to open in 2032.

In 2024, the government commissioned former NSW Treasury boss Michael Schur to review whether the working ports at Glebe Island should be replaced by high-density housing. The options under review included moving the ports, retaining them with no nearby housing, or building a hybrid model.

The Sydney Working Port Coalition has for months been lobbying to retain the deep-water port facility. It put forward a proposal for a hybrid model.

The alliance said the port was critical to the city’s construction supply chain and that scrapping it would raise building and housing costs.

In an open letter to Premier Chris Minns in 2024, the group urged the state government to find a solution that balanced the need to boost housing with the preservation of Sydney’s industrial capability.

“Any plan to turn Glebe Island into only luxury, high-end apartments is not the answer,” the letter said.

“It will result in a millionaires’ harbourside enclave, while jeopardising billions of dollars in economic contributions and thousands of jobs in NSW.”

Port coalition spokesman Paul Nicolaou, who is also Business Sydney executive director, said in November the group was “keen to see this matter come to some kind of resolution”.

Minns said the Bays West precinct would deliver “thousands of homes where people actually need them – close to work, close to services and close to transport”.

“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.

“We understand 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 government says it will spend $270 million to improve road connections around Port Kembla and to investigate increased rail freight capacity to cope with extra movements once Glebe Island is no longer in operation.

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