BlueScope unveils vision for Port Kembla Steelworks land

BlueScope Steel has unveiled a Master Plan to develop 200 Hectares (Ha) of non-steelmaking, excess landholdings adjacent to the company’s Port Kembla Steelworks in New South Wales.

The Master Plan will see BlueScope transform the surplus land next door to its steelmaking plant, into what the company calls ‘a next generation multi-industrial precinct’ with potential to create 30,000 jobs in emerging industries like clean energy and defence.

The plan includes new commercial and industrial buildings, repurposed existing structures including an old blast furnace complex and community and open spaces.

BlueScope Managing Director and CEO Mark Vassella hailed the plan as ‘one of the most significant land transformation and jobs creation opportunities in Australia’.

BlueScope also announced it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with TAFE NSW to explore the opportunity for a ‘Super TAFE’ on the site.

Vassella said: “We already have around $2 Billion of capital investment manufacturing projects planned or underway in Port Kembla, and now with the release of the Master Plan, it’s absolutely true to say, there has never been a more exciting time for BlueScope and the Illawarra.

“To explain the scale of this land development opportunity the Melbourne CBD fits within the 200 Ha of surplus land. In a sporting sense, a sports stadium is typically about half a hectare, meaning this site is equivalent to around 400 MCG stadiums.

BlueScope engaged Danish urban design group Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to craft a ‘new urban model’ for the surplus land – an area larger than the Melbourne CBD.

“Preliminary economic modelling by Deloitte suggests the master plan could generate an additional 20,000 jobs and contribute up to $5 Billion annually to the Gross Regional Product (GRP).

“This would see BlueScope’s economic contribution in New South Wales double from one percent to two percent of Gross State Product (GSP).”

Picture: