On 18th of August we had the honour of interviewing Narelle van den Bos, a transport modeller who is currently lobbying against the development of the Moorebank intermodal. She stated the intermodal will not benefit the local residents of the surrounding communities and listed and explained the issues involving the development proposal and the change in land use. Her main arguments consisted of issues related to potential negative changes in land use and its impacts on the local residents, increases to traffic congestion and environment related issues such as deforestation and development of bushland.
Q1: Please outline your general opinion in regard to the topic of the Moorebank Intermodal.
Firstly, I believe that the information available to the public does not represent exactly what is happening. The information you receive, and the information we have are two different things entirely. It’s deceptive and it’s wrong. Why should the government hide these things from the community? But anyway I believe that the intermodal has its uses and benefits, but placing it in Moorebank is going to have a negative effect on the community
Q2: Is Moorebank a suitable place to build this intermodal?
It is not at all the right place to put it. Eastern Creek is the primary distributor and is where all the trucks and resources are needed. However, Moorebank is in the south-west of Sydney and is not even situated in the direct west. So, the location is not at all good for distributing within the Sydney area. The only reason why they have decided to position the site at Moorebank is that there will be distribution over Brisbane and Melbourne. Moorebank is not a good location for the site, as it is very close to people’s homes and the local populations. Eastern Creek has a lot more factories and infrastructure to accommodate the intermodal. You only need to complete a Google Earth search of Eastern Creek to notice all the appropriate architecture and infrastructure necessary for the intermodal. So, once again it is obvious that it should not be built here in Moorebank where most of the land is residential.
Q3: Is this intermodal beneficial for the local community?
The intermodal is going to negatively impact the community in four ways; Economically, environmentally, it will definitely affect transport, and socially. The government has stated that if the intermodal is to go ahead, it will bring 10 billion dollars’ worth of benefits. What they haven’t said is that it’s only going to be worth that much in thirty years time. It is currently going to be worth 2.3 billion dollars, and a lot of that money will be reduced due to the moving of the School of Military Engineering. It is beneficial to the Australian community, but is very detrimental to the local community
Q4: What kinds of issues do you believe will affect the local community? How will the potential development impact onto the surrounding communities and their lifestyles?
One of the biggest things is that traffic will come to a standstill. There will be so many trucks moving in and out. There’s not enough room on the M5 or the Hume Hwy. We were sent letters telling us that there won’t be any changes to traffic. We can add a lane to the M5 but that will cost around 5 billion dollars and maybe another billion or two to fix infrastructure. The other big thing is that the intermodal will affect the environment. 600 adult trees are going to have to be cut down. I’m also aware that there are threatened, or endangered, actually I’m not too sure whether they’re endangered, but they are threatened on the site. It has also been proven that in areas in the USA where similar intermodals were built, there was an increase in carcinogens within the area, which is obviously going to be incredibly dangerous for the residents of Moorebank. Australia will be well above the World Health Standard for diesel emissions if we are to go ahead with the building of this intermodal. Another thing is that two parties are bidding over the intermodal: SIMTA and the Moorebank Project Office (MPO). The government stated that the intermodal will bring in $10 billion; however we have researched this and found out that $10 billion is the total after 30 years and that the total this year is 2.3 billion. One billion of this will be deducted to help move the School of Military Engineering. More will be deducted to help make the rail spur which will greatly reduce the benefits of the intermodal. I also believe that this money is money that should be paid by people who want the intermodal to go ahead. Not by the current tax payers.
