At a glance
- Drive new jobs, health, education and innovation.
- Promote diverse housing types, such as student accommodation, key worker, and social and affordable housing.
- A new Metro station and Parramatta Light Rail, with connections to Parramatta Park.
- Put people at the centre of future development, by focussing on pedestrian-friendly streets and community amenities.
- Protect heritage buildings and find ways they can be repurposed for the community.
Overview
Westmead will be Australia’s premier health and innovation district – an ecosystem for excellence, ambition and collaboration. Innovation is centred around the Westmead and Children’s hospitals and extends to Parramatta North where a new university and enterprise precinct is proposed. Our vision drives this change to accelerate delivery of jobs for the future.
Areas south of the railway also offer the opportunity for a walkable neighbourhood providing more housing choice and diversity, with an urban village at its heart and excellent public transport connections.
The transformation of Westmead and Parramatta North plays an important role in delivering the vision of Greater Parramatta as Sydney’s Central River City.
Westmead Place Strategy
The Westmead Place Strategy has been finalised and will guide the continued evolution of Westmead to 2036 as it becomes a world-class health and innovation district with exceptional place outcomes for workers and residents.
The place strategy applies to land in Westmead and parts of Northmead and Parramatta North. It does not involve rezoning but will guide councils, state agencies and the private sector on land use planning and outlines steps to ensure investment and infrastructure is aligned to anticipated growth.
The place strategy aims to:
- Drive new jobs in health, education and innovation.
- Put people at the centre of future development, with a focus on pedestrian-friendly streets and provision of community amenities.
- Protect heritage buildings and find ways they can be repurposed for new community uses, where appropriate.
- Improve pedestrian and cycling paths between Westmead North and South, Parramatta Park and Parramatta CBD.
- Promote housing density and diversity, such as student accommodation, key worker, social and affordable housing where appropriate.
- Ensure population growth is accompanied by more open space and social infrastructure.
What is happening now
The Minister for Planning and Homes adopted the place strategy and a Ministerial Direction under Section 9.1 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. This direction requires any future planning proposals within the precinct to be consistent with the place strategy.
On 1 July 2020, Property and Development NSW became responsible for future development of Parramatta North. For further information on its precinct development work please visit Parramatta North.
What happens next
Councils and other stakeholders will need to prepare further studies and strategies to investigate the potential development opportunities within the precinct. Any future rezoning of the area will be initiated by councils, landowners or proponent agencies generally through the planning proposal process.
The department and Transport for NSW in collaboration with councils will prepare an integrated transport and traffic study to progress the initiatives of the Place-based Transport Strategy, and support any future rezoning in the precinct.
It is recognised that there is a significant level of interest in how Westmead and North Parramatta will transform to 2036. The department will continue to work with the Greater Cities Commission, who are coordinating a whole-of-government delivery response across the key health and innovation precincts in the strategy.
External view of Westmead Metro station. 
Passengers boarding a train at the Westmead Metro station. 
A building within the Westmead Health precinct. 
Research facility within the Westmead Health precinct.
What’s happened so far
The draft Westmead Place Strategy and was exhibited from 14 December 2020 to 31 March 2021.
A finalisation report has been prepared which considered the key issues raised in submissions and outlines changes to the place strategy. The main changes to the place strategy include updated maps to highlight heritage and conservation items, realigning the road network, and providing more detail on land use and built form principles for each sub-precinct.
Transport for NSW has prepared a Place-based Transport Strategy to support the future development of Westmead. The Transport strategy establishes the vision and actions to achieve this. The Westmead Place Strategy should be read in conjunction with the Westmead Place-based Transport Strategy and consideration should be given to these initiatives as part of detailed precinct planning.
For more information about the Westmead precinct go to: