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Articles on Western Sydney

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Darug women Leanne Watson, Rhiannon Wright and Jasmine Seymour at Dorumbolooa. Avryl Whitnall

Friday essay: how a long-lost list is helping us remap Darug place names and culture on Dyarubbin, the Hawkesbury River

It was once thought the Aboriginal names for the Hawkesbury had been lost forever. But after a remarkable find in the Mitchell Library, almost 100 place names will be restored to Dyarubbin Country.
Centrelink queues shocked Australians but long before COVID-19 Western Sydney had job-poor neighbourhoods with very high unemployment rates. Loren Elliott/AAP

Recession will hit job-poor parts of Western Sydney very hard

Western Sydney’s growth-driven boom had ended before COVID-19 hit. Some neighbourhood unemployment rates were 2-3 times the metropolitan average, with female workforce participation as low as 43%.
Up early and home late: that’s the daily routine for hundreds of thousands of commuters out of Western Sydney. Dean Lewins/AAP

Jobs deficit drives army of daily commuters out of Western Sydney

Education fuelled extraordinary growth in Western Sydney’s professional services workforce, but their jobs aren’t local. More than 300,000 commute to work outside the region.
Sydney CBD is highly accessible and remains clearly the dominant centre in the metropolitan region. Holli/Shutterstock

How close is Sydney to the vision of creating three 30-minute cities?

When a city gets to a certain size, it starts to make sense to have multiple centres of activity, and three are planned for Sydney. So what needs to be done to bring the city closer to this goal?
Significant investment in public transport is essential to ensure the Central City CBD can handle the predicted growth in commuting trips. Dean Lewins/AAP

Reimagining Sydney: this is what needs to be done to make a Central City CBD work

Central City 2048 proposes one new rail line, three metro lines and almost 300,000 extra jobs for the new CBD, one of three proposed for metropolitan Sydney. Clearly, the investment needed is massive.
Parramatta has been designated as the central CBD of three future city centres in the Greater Sydney region. haireena/Shutterstock

Reimagining Sydney with 3 CBDs: how far off is a Parramatta CBD?

The Greater Sydney metropolis is envisaged as having three CBDs by mid-century, but an assessment of the proposed Central City around Parramatta shows how much work is needed to make that a reality.
‘Soft fall’ surfaces are widely used in play areas where children might fall, but can also get very hot in the sun, which undermines this safety benefit. Brisbane City Council/Flickr

Materials that make heat worse for our kids demand a rethink by designers

Commonly used surfaces in play areas, such as “soft fall” materials and Astroturf, can heat up to 80-100°C in the sun. This makes them a hazardous design choice, especially as the climate gets hotter.
The term ‘Leb’ embodies hyper-masculinity on the street. Generic image from Shutterstock.com

What does a ‘Leb’ look like?

Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s novel The Lebs is a realistic portrayal of teenage boys in Western Sydney.
Early intervention via education and training is a proven way to stop unemployed youth becoming unemployable adults. Tom Sodoge/Unsplash

A closer look at jobless youth in Western Sydney points us to the solutions

Early intervention via education and training will cost money straight up. But it makes no sense to watch young people drift through unemployment and disengagement and turn into unemployable adults.
Many people in culturally diverse populations in Western Sydney have lived in Australia for many years, if not several generations. Shutterstock

Blaming migrants won’t solve Western Sydney’s growing pains

Reasoned debates on sustainable migration intake levels are important. But transport and health infrastructure shortfalls in Western Sydney won’t be solved by reactive anti-immigration attitudes.

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