Boolaroo deal will deliver thousands of jobs and a $1.8billion economic boost


20th August 2019
A State Government deal to take control of the former Pasminco lead and zinc smelter site at Boolaroo will unlock the area and deliver unprecedented growth

A State Government deal to take control of the former Pasminco lead and zinc smelter site at Boolaroo will unlock the area and deliver unprecedented growth and investment.

The State Government will today announce that is has agreed to compulsorily acquire the 92-hectare site from the administrator and transfer ownership to Hunter Central Coast Development Corporation (HCCDC). Importantly, responsibility for the ongoing maintenance of the containment cell on the site will be the responsibility of the State Government through HCDCC.

This is a fantastic result for Lake Macquarie that will see stalled opportunity removed and way too much gloom over the area lifted.

A lot of people have worked very hard for a very long time on this, and I’m grateful that we’ve had a Government and a Minister in Melinda Pavey who have listened to us and answered the call.

Make no mistake, this deal will see Boolaroo become an economic powerhouse and the flow-on effect to surrounding areas will be very substantial.

It is now known that the likes of retail giants IKEA and Costco have had long-held interest in occupying parts of the Boolaroo site. Those options have been essentially frozen by the administrators, to the point where they were almost lost to the region, but this deal puts them firmly back on the table.

That is only part of the Boolaroo picture. There is scope for 730 new homes and more than 40 hectares of job-generating commercial land. All up, the site has the capacity to generate an estimated 2643 new jobs and generate $1.826 billion in economic benefit for the region. That includes 837 full-time jobs post construction, and a post-construction benefit to the community of $436 million every year.

It’s been disappointing that legal mechanisms have been used by the administrator to obstruct and frustrate good outcomes for so many years, and indeed by Pasminco which left this community with an incredibly difficult mess to deal with when they walked away in 2002.

But I’m very pleased to say that those days are now behind us and we can look forward to a new era of economic prosperity.

THE NUMBERS:

  • Economic value during construction: $1.39 Billion
  • Jobs created during construction: 1806
  • Annual economic value post construction: $436m
  • Annual benefit of new jobs: 837
  • 700 new homes
  • New population: 2100

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