Overview

The 74 hectare Northern Gateway Transport Hub is located at the northern Taree interchange with the Pacific Highway, at Cundletown. It sits between the Taree Regional Airport and Pacific Highway, which is the main regional transport corridor linking Sydney and Brisbane.

The Northern Gateway is intended for transport employment-generating industries, given its proximity to the Pacific Highway. Over time, this hub could be connected to other transport forms including air and rail. Expected uses include freight transport facilities, truck depots, transport depots, warehouses and distribution centres. This will increase the amount of freight and freight related businesses located in Taree, providing local jobs and economic development.

After gaining support from both Government and private investors, the first stage of the Northern Gateway Project was rezoned in 2016. This stage is made up of seven hectares of land owned by Jim Pearson of Jim Pearson Transport, who intends to relocate his Taree depot to the site.

The second stage required the rezoning of 67 hectares of land to ‘General Industrial’ to enable development of the transport hub, while a new development control plan provision, as part of the rezoning, addressed visual amenity, traffic, flooding and ecological issues.

MidCoast Council approved the rezoning in October 2020 and the State government gazetted the rezoning of the land in April 2021.

Detail of project works

The Northern Gateway is a high priority project in both the Hunter Regional Plan 2036 and the MidCoast Regional Economic Development Strategy, with the NSW Government committing $15 million for Infrastructure works, to allow the first stage of the project to proceed.

Preliminary works began in December 2020 to relocate services, while the first stage of the project began in January 2021, with construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Princes Street and Emerton Close at Cundletown to facilitate truck and B-Double entry to the sites.

The roundabout construction was completed in April 2022. As well as constructing the four-leg roundabout, the project involves construction of around 35m of new, four lane flexible road pavement (the stub road), kerb and gutter and pavement reconstruction on the other three legs of the roundabout, piped stormwater drainage, open basins, electricity and street light relocations, and ancillary works such as barriers and fencing.

Construction of the Access Road for the Northern Gateway Industrial Lands is complete. Council determined to extend the current scope of works to include the second bypass roundabout to better facilitate access into the industrial lands. These works have now been completed in November 2023.

Any organisations or businesses who would like to find out more about the location and future opportunities, can contact Council’s Economic Development Team on (02) 7955 7777.