A hidden city that could have been the capital of Australia has been re-discovered by an urban planner, but he cautions about developing it
Sam Austin, who is an urban planner based in Sydney, said he found the place by accident whilst fiddling around with Google Maps and discovered the hidden outlines of what appeared to be an urban plan.
He discovered that the city had a fully planned outline for train stations, a port terminal and even administrative buildings.
Speaking to news.com.au from Canada, Mr Austin said it was crazy that he had discovered the city.
'From a satellite photo, you might assume it's just bushland. But hidden under the trees is a fully designed city,' he said.
He also said that there was a subdivision hidden within the trees.
'I did some googling and discovered North Arm Cove and thought it was absolutely fascinating,' he said.
Designed by architect Walter Burley Griffin, Port Stephens City was designed to be the capital, and the plans were developed and based on what eventually would become Canberra.
But a decision in 1924 by the NSW parliament to concentrate investment in Newcastle led to the project being scrapped, followed by the Great Lakes Council deeming the project to be non-urban, effectively killing it stone dead.
'It's really fascinating. There are examples like this all over NSW,' Mr Austin told news.com.au.
He also said that they were called paper subdivisions, with the intention of building new towns across the country.
He also said that the town had a garden city design.
'It has a central rail terminal and then you can see a concentric circle design that extends out of it,' he said.
In recent times, amid the housing crisis, landowners have been lobbying the NSW government and the federal government to rezone the land and get the city built.
But North Arm Council, which has the Port Stephen plot in its local area, has said that as there is a lack of infrastructure and development of the area would be expensive.
Mr Austin also expressed caution about developing the bushland.
'I much prefer to see urban consolidation, or development around existing settlements, particularly given there is very strong ecological value in that area,' he said.
'I do have some reservations on broad-scale development in essentially pristine bushland, which is what it is,' he said.
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