Next door to the new Sydney airport is a village residents fear will soon cease to exist

2 months ago 16

Outside the Luddenham News and Post, next to the newspapers and the chicken feed, owner Yogeshkumar Methaniya – known as Yogi by locals – talks about his love for the small village in western Sydney where he works. “The community is really helpful, and you can rely on them all the time,” he said.

Behind him, it’s impossible to ignore the sleek new runway at the soon-to-be-completed Western Sydney International Airport. It’s a stark contrast to the semi-rural village that residents say is dying a slow death.

In the almost four years Yogi Methaniya has owned the Luddenham News and Post, he’s seen the village change significantly.

Located one kilometre from the airport, also known as the Nancy-Bird Walton Airport, Luddenham Village is one of the oldest settlements in NSW. Its history dates back to the early 1800s. But in recent years the village, population 456, has struggled to stay alive.

Only 40 students attend Luddenham Public School, businesses have been forced to close, and long-term locals have decided to move away from the village, which is split between Penrith and Liverpool councils.

“All the small businesses are struggling. Rent [goes up] every year, electricity going up, our insurance, everything going up and eventually, if it doesn’t work well, in a year or two we will have to close the door. That’s the last choice,” Methaniya said.

For Methaniya and many Luddenham locals, the solution to save their village is simple: more housing. But with the state government yet to sign off on a strategy that residents say would allow for more residential development, Luddenham Village remains in limbo.

Luddenham Village will die without new housing, says Wayne Willmington, president of the Luddenham Progress Association.

Luddenham Progress Association president Wayne Willmington has seen firsthand Luddenham’s decline over the past 10 years. When he talks about how Luddenham Village has changed, it’s with sadness.

“The school’s levels have plummeted, the amount of kids … it’s just everything,” he said. “It’s as if the state government wants to get rid of us.”

Years of waiting

In 2021, the Luddenham Village Discussion Paper was released by the state government. It issued a dire warning.

“To sustain Luddenham Village within the Western Sydney Aerotropolis, it would need almost 4000sqm of retail floorspace by 2026,” the discussion paper said.

“An additional 540 dwellings (compared to the 2016 dwelling count) would be needed to support this growth.”

The report detailed four growth scenarios for Luddenham Village, including an expanded area to the north that could provide 1200 homes. The proposed housing would fall outside the Australian Noise Exposure Concept 20 – anticipated forecasts of future noise exposure patterns based on indicative flight paths around an airport.

In 2022, the NSW government released the finalised rezoning plans for the Western Sydney Aerotropolis. Luddenham Village was the only area that was excluded.

The same year, the NSW government unveiled the Luddenham Village Interim Strategy, which revealed the next steps to create a sustainable future for the town. But it also said residential development would be delayed until the flight paths, airspace design and noise assessments had been finalised.

Wayne Willmington at the resident-owned Luddenham Progress Hall.

Three years after it was released, and with the airport due to open next year, the state government is yet to sign the strategy off. Willmington said the only thing holding it up was “excuses”.

“[The state government] should do what the state government said and just allow the new housing to go ahead, or give us a valid reason why [it hasn’t progressed],” he said.

On the other side of the airport, it’s a different story: the new Bradfield city is progressing quickly. The Bradfield Superlot 1 has been released for 1400 new homes. It’s being developed by the Bradfield Development Authority, a NSW government agency.

Planning Minister Paul Scully said the state government would progress with the most sustainable strategy for Luddenham’s future “once we understand the full impacts of the new airport”, but he did not confirm when that will be.

“While Luddenham isn’t under the flightpath for Runway 1 as it is shown in the Australian government’s Preliminary Draft Master Plan 2025-45, the full extent of the contours for noise exposure from the airport are still to be finalised by the Australian government,” he said.

“The Minns Labor government is working with the community to achieve the best outcomes for Luddenham Village.”

But those living and working in Luddenham Village believe the community can’t survive much longer without additional housing.

Arthur Okoye, pharmacist at Luddenham’s HealthSAVE Pharmacy, said once construction finishes on the new airport in 2026, workers will stop coming to the village. The reduction in customers make it harder for local businesses to stay afloat.

Luddenham pharmacist Arthur Okoye believes Luddenham needs new housing now.

“You can’t wait. [The village] might die even before there is a lot of growth here,” Okoye said.

“We need the government to really encourage development, especially residential development and accommodation, so that the businesses around here will be sustained until the airport takes off fully.”

The Sydney Morning Herald has a bureau in the heart of Parramatta. Email [email protected] with news tips.