Quarry closes as plans to build the Penrith Lakes scheme begin to take shape
AFTER fuelling Sydney’s housing and infrastructure projects for more than a century the last truck has rolled out of Castlereagh.
On Monday the last load of sand and gravel was dug out and loaded into a truck, bringing to a close more than 130 years of quarrying operations and heralding the next chapter of the site’s life with plans being finalised to transform the 1940ha site into a series of recreational lakes and housing.
Penrith Lakes Development Corporation chairman Keith Carew said the operation of the quarry and planned rehabilitation was “unique in Australia”.
“Quarrying on this site at Castlereagh is one of Sydney’s oldest continuous industries,” Mr Carew said in a statement.
“It started in the 1880s and today sees the last truckload go out the gate.
“It truly is the end of an era.”
The PLDC was established in 1979 with major mining companies that now include Boral, Holcim and Hansom, to manage quarrying operations at Castlereagh and to ensure the land would be rehabilitated.
PLDC construction and quarry operations manager Robert Golaszewski said the material extracted from the Castlereagh quarry provided high quality concrete using the sand and gravel deposited on the flood plains by the Nepean River over the centuries.
“There was five to seven metres of river gravel intermixed with sand, which is what we quarried out which then went into making concrete, which at times supplied up to 80 per cent of the housing market for Sydney,” he said.
“The material quarried here is round river cobbles whereas the quarries where they are mining from now are hard rock quarries.”
Over the lifetime of the quarry Mr Carew said more than 160 million tonnes of sand and gravel for the construction industry had been extracted from the site
Building materials from the quarry were used in the constructing the M4 and M7 motorways and all of the Sydney 2000 Olympic venues, in particular the Sydney International Regatta Centre, which was built on previously quarried land that had been remediated in Castlereagh.
The Draft Vision Plan for the 1940ha site outlines a plan to create the largest accessible body of water in NSW outside of Sydney Harbour with about 640ha of recreational lakes, 26km of lake foreshore and 20km of cycleways and pedestrians paths.
In 1989 a Regional Environmental Plan supported by a deed of agreement between the State Government and PLDC was signed outlining the financial obligations and rehabilitation process.
FEARS DEVELOPMENT COULD DRAIN THE NEPEAN RIVER
PLDC construction and quarry operations manager Robert Golaszewski said the bulk of the earthworks to transform the land were expected to be completed by October this year.
“Most of the works surrounding the landforms, lakes and recreation are near on completion with weather permitting,” he said.
“Work crews will be coming through over the next few years planting trees and reforming the landscape.”
When completed the Penrith Lakes will for the first time allow the public to step back in time and soak up some of western Sydney’s rich colonial history.
The Hadley Park farming site, a rare and historic estate on the Nepean River Castlereagh flood plain, could be restored to its former glory providing an example of the agricultural history of the region.
Other significant sites include McCarthy’s cemetery, NSW’s oldest Catholic cemetery, and the Landers Inn and Stables constructed after Robert Smith was granted 32ha by Governor King in 1803.
Tools down for veteran workers
THE end to quarrying operations at Castlereagh marks the end of a significant chapter in Penrith’s history.
For many workers it also marks the end of an era, with some having spent their entire working life excavating sand and gravel to feed Sydney construction projects from the site.
PLDC production manager Alan Bond, 62, and Holcim operations manager Roger Moona, 67, both started at the site in 1985.
Both men can remember the frenzied days around the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games when 8 million tonnes of sand and gravel and the same amount of dirt was moved when operations were at their peak.
“You had 300 tonne machines loading up 40-tonne dump trucks and you had a fleet of 20 of them and it was just bedlam at times and dirt going everywhere,” Mr Bond said.
Over the last 10-11 years the quarry has supported at about 300 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs.
Mr Moona said he was looking forward to seeing the conversion of the quarry into a place that would attract people from all over.
“This will be a beacon on the mountain so to speak for the industry for the way the scheme can be finished off,” he said.
“Usually we dig and leave a big hole full of water and rubbish and this is a legacy for the industry that can be left behind to show how it can be done.”
Both Mr Bond and Moona will finish up shortly in their current roles at Castlereagh but will stay on with their respective companies as they take on operations at other sites in the state.
Castlereagh quarry last of its kind
■ The Penrith Lakes Scheme represented the last large quarry of its type within the Sydney basin
■ Quarry operators Boral and Holcim have now opened the Peppertree and Lynwood quarries in Marulan, near Goulburn NSW. They are 100-year quarry leases and require rail and truck operations to move the material more than 160km to the Sydney CBD.
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