Wickham Master Plan

The Wickham Masterplan sets the vision of how Wickham may redevelop from a post-industrial suburb at the fringe into a mixed-use urban neighbourhood supporting the emerging commercial core of the Newcastle City Centre in Newcastle West.

The Wickham Master Plan is published by the City of Newcastle and can be found here:

Development/Land-Use-Planning/Urban-Planning-Documents

The plan is covered by two documents.

Wickham Masterplan 2017
Wickham Masterplan 2021 Update (July 2022)

The 2022 update did not revise the 2017 document, it just modified parts of the 2017 version. Hence you will need to consult both documents. (Yes, a clumsy way to do it.)

The need to revitalise Wickham was identified in the 1990’s and it took some 20 years for the Wickham Master Plan to take shape. The following highlights some the significant milestones over this time.

1996 Building Better Cities Program

In the 1990s City of Newcastle identified Wickham for revitalisation. This led to the targeting of Wickham for revitalisation through the Federal Government’s ‘Building Better Cities Program’. This resulted in the ‘Wickham Urban Village, A Concept Strategy and Study’ (1996) and the subsequent introduction of mixed-use zoning and the preparation of ‘Wickham Urban Village Urban Design Guidelines’ (2006) which was later adapted as a locality specific section within Newcastle Development Control Plan 2005.

2012 Newcastle Urban Renewal Strategy

In 2012, the NSW State government introduced the Newcastle Urban Renewal Strategy. This strategy, updated in 2014, advocates a strategic shift of the commercial core of the Newcastle City Centre from Newcastle East to Newcastle West.

The Newcastle Urban Renewal Strategy also identified the need for City of Newcastle to identify appropriate building envelopes, land use and public domain planning for the Wickham area.

2016 Wickham Master Plan Discussion Report

In April 2016 City of Newcastle released the “Wickham Master Plan Discussion Report”. There were landowner workshops, technical stakeholder workshops, and an economic and market analysis. This work culminated in the first draft of the Wickham Master Plan being put on public exhibition in March 2017.

2017 Wickham Master Plan Adopted

In November 2017 to councillors endorsed the first version of the Wickham Master Plan. In 2018 the Local Environment Plan and the locality specific Development Control Plan 6.03 Wickham were updated in-line with the Wickham Master Plan.

2021 & 2022 Wickham Master Plan Updates

Since the 2017 adoption of the Wickham Master Plan:

The Newcastle Interchange opened and Wickham has experienced a high level of investment and interest with most key sites in proximity to the Newcastle Interchange now redeveloped at densities that reflect Wickham’s role within the Newcastle City Centre.
A number of residential apartment buildings have been built and some challenges were identified with regards the implementation of the development controls.
Subsidence Advisory NSW determined that the risk of mine subsidence in parts of Wickham is much more extensive than previous anticipated, such that local grouting is not feasible and the entire mine workings will most likely need to be bulk grouted. This means redevelopment in undermined areas is prohibitive for individual proposals, and so the envisaged densities in the Wickham Master Plan need review.

These issues, and some others, were addressed in the 2021 update. The 2021 update was updated in 2022 to capture changes to development incentives. These changes seemed to have been driven by the development proposed for 41-47 Throsby Street and it drew considerable, negative community feedback. To this day, some in the community feel the 2022 update should be abolished and the 2021 version be the adopted version.

Related Planning Documents

With the Wickham Master Plan in place, the following City of Newcastle planning documents have been revised or created to ensure the Wickham Master Plan is fulfilled.

Local Environment Plan
Development Control Plan – Locality Specific – Wickham
Wickham Public Domain Plan
Community Infrastructure Incentives Policy

See Planning Documents for more discussion on these City of Newcastle documents, including links to the documents on the City of Newcastle website.

Wickham Master Plan