The Hunter Economic Zone: An Abandoned Industrial Park

foreign [Music] welcome to Australia's newest industrial estate the hunter economic zone it's a 900 hectare space which is just right for investment by industrial companies looking to synergize and integrate their companies forever even better with just a short drive from Sydney all right what we're two hour drive from Sydney uh but you can make that just 30 minutes if you speed and we have a railway line oh it's it's abandoned well it's still a railway line okay we have hundreds of tenants who have agreed to sign on with us wait what we don't have any oh that's fine we can just lie a bit don't get left behind the hunter economic don't might be completely empty right now but it will take off it's just in its early days what's that it's not in its early days Ah that's fine wait 20 years 20 years this industrial park has been sitting here empty for 20 years what what I'm not putting my face on this I'll have you know I did an ad for sure shock how can I go from that to this what You're Gonna Keep Me hostage until I finish the ad no no get away from me stop stop no [Music] before I continue massive shout out to my monthly curfew supporters please do consider supporting me over on Kofi if you can also please subscribe if you haven't already and do be sure to check out the rest of my channel your go-to YouTube destination for all things City Planning after the video the hunter economic zone or the has is an industrial park development site located in the hunter region that has sat abandoned for over 20 years it's located about 120 kilometers north of Sydney and 30 kilometers west of the port of Newcastle according to archives of the heaves website the site was first identified in the 90s as a potential site for economic development the hunter region has historically been home to many mines and this was for decades the primary employer of the region however in the late 90s these mines started to abandon the region the council needed a plan if they wanted to save their region from unemployment and economic collapse that plan was the hunter economic zone the site was rezoned in March 2002 with construction commencing the same year in August this involved constructing several roads through the estate the main one of which was ambitiously named his Drive in the meantime their website was confidently boasting the following stats even daring to quote news articles that themselves were making zealous claims the roads were all completed by roughly 2005. ready as ever to welcome new tenants into the site but no one came arriving at the turn off to his drive from leggett's drive we arrive at two signboards that once both said Hunter economic zone alas they say this no more we can see that this turn off has been quite ambitiously constructed as there's a median between both sides of this completely forgotten Road oh my God okay let me go I'll do it I'll do it welcome to has the road to business growth Starts Here we deliver world-class infrastructure low setup costs and location lifestyle and opportunity oh come on man this sign looks older than me no wonder no one wants to come here what I came here well yes but you paid me to come here all right you're not paying me anymore if we rewind the clock we can see that this sign has seen better days it's barely illegible now and it's a wonder that no one has taken it down what really makes her drive stick out is however engineered it seems to be there's a footpath really unusual for a country road but a hint at it's intended a purpose there's also many Street laps many of which were just left on during the day the road also has a proper curb and even get this bus base the vegetation is overgrown there's litter everywhere and skid marks from street races doing donuts at night there's a viewing platform out onto a dirty forgotten Lake the hunter economic zone is just strange and Eerie you can just sense that there's meant to be something here industrial warehouses and factories and yet there isn't oh and there's also a railway Crossing for some reason I find it just incredible that there's literally an abandoned Railway running through this site come on this is an abandoned industrial site that literally has an abandoned Railway like how this is how big is that okay okay I'll get off your precious abandoned Railway geez how much longer are you going to keep your prisoner I have lawyers you know oh you kidnapped them too this Railway is part of the closed Richmond rail Railway and I believe this specific section opened in 1922 as a passenger Railway linking the nearby Richmond Vale and P law main Colliers it closed in 1959 however the Richmond Vale Railway Museum runs Heritage services on this Railway or at least they used to I mean you can clearly tell this is too overgrown Urban used recently now I actually have been lying a bit the hairs actually does have tenants but I mean they only have two a power station and an aluminum manufacturer come on at least I wasn't lying as hard as the new heads website because they claim they have over 50 tenants um where there's so many dead ends at the head none of the roads actually lead anywhere look at this a Road to Nowhere guess what if you invest in the his your business will also be on a road to nowhere what it's true can I go now what how'd you guys get guns we're in Australia the amount of effort you're going to and keeping me hostage you might as well use on actually finishing your precious hairs so time to address the elephant in the room what exactly went wrong with the hairs once meant to save the hunter from economic collapse why is it almost completely empty well the answer is actually quite simple let's just take a look at where the head is located okay zoom out more more more more more more more okay you get the idea there's literally cool here it's a good 22 kilometer drive from the Pacific Motorway 37 kilometer drive from the port of Newcastle and so far from Sydney there's not even a point of me telling you the distance anyone who considers this strategically located clearly has no idea how to read a map if its Railway was actually functional there may be value to the site but the railway itself is a dead end and links up to nothing interestingly these more detailed 2010 plans suggest that the heads did have some additional tenants but who knows what happened to them because they woke up and realized where the heads was or rather where it wasn't therefore is it really any wonder that the former owners of the heads went bankrupt in 2012 oh my God I'm not surprised they went bankrupt with a face like that how is this a real news article actually that is incorrect and a common misconception there are actually many people who were interested in the hairs however development plans were consistently pushed back due to a population of Honey eaters that were found in the neighboring Bushland here the leftist Kami woke Greenies claimed that this species is endangered and will not let us build anything here as a result if it weren't for those hippies the heads would be booming right now the head is strategically located we do know how to read a map and resent the implication that we do not I am not currently being held hostage okay actually part of what I just said is true the honey eater has stymied progress on the house in 2016 cessnock Council finally came up with plans to recommence development on the site however these plans were blocked by the New South Wales government due to the endangered honeyeater population and this population seems to have at least partially stood in the way of any development since the heads always seems to be on the custom of greatness I mean come on they literally wanted to build two coal power plants here in 2019 and then two years later they claimed they were going to build the world's biggest battery here the hunter economic zone is like your New Year's resolution you'll always think this will be your year but it never will be their website has undergone numerous rebranding of Henry launches and in fact they had the absolute goal in 2021 to release articles in various magazines announcing that the 3.5 billion dollar Hunter economic zone was launching as though it hadn't already been launched 20 years ago their current website is confusing at best and dishonest at worst other than lying about how many tenants they have the owners of the heads also claim to be the owners of two non-existent service centers on the hunter Expressway a luxurious hotel in Noosa that they themselves admit hasn't been built yet and supposedly acclaimed residential apartments with no location or images or any evidence of their existence provided due to the total lack of anyone or anything here the heads has become a common location for illegal dumping and its long stretches of straight abandoned roads have become a frequent location for illegal road racing bollards were put up in March 2021 to try and prevent this however unfortunately this came with its own price a car crashed into these wallards in April 2021 tragically leading to the death of its 17 year old passenger my condolences to his family so what does the future hold for the head well I'm gonna go out on a limb and say nothing nothing has happened here in 20 years why should anything change now in the meantime the has remained an eerie haunting Industrial Development a good case study into the dangers of poor planning and a site that will likely forever remain lost to time but of course you guys aren't going to let me say that are you so come one come all and join the has Australia's most exciting development that will one day rival such massive projects as the Great Pyramid and the International Space Station this is by far the most exciting thing to ever happen to Australia Bill Gates and Elon Musk themselves have begged us to let them build to their factories here so don't be left behind we've gotten off to a slightly longer than average start but will be the changing face of Australia in no time at all now please please let me go home [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Building Beautifully

Views: 21,802

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Id: Kml6M3sNot0

Length: 11min 49sec (709 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023