A New South Wales (NSW) shire has laid down the law on temporary accommodation for workers on large scale renewable and storage projects: Muswellbrook will not allow energy companies to build “substandard” shanty towns on its outskirts.
This week the council endorsed a draft policy which will handle housing for the thousands of people expected to flood into the shire to build the Hunter-Central Coast renewable energy zone (REZ).
“We’ve been communicating this for years and we’re sick of being sidelined. We’re not copping substandard camps on the outskirts of town – this policy promotes genuine investment in our community,” said shire mayor Jeff Drayton in a statement.
“We’re ahead of the pack because we’ve had to be. We’re dealing with multiple major projects, almost weekly.
“If new technology and investment is going to work, it needs to work for the people who already live in Muswellbrook Shire.”
The policy is the first of its kind in NSW. Councils in other states, such as in Western Australia, where the Narrogin shire council is pursuing a similar policy, are also looking at how to manage an influx of temporary workers, and it is has been a constant issue for councils as they weigh the benefits of large project proposals.
Council staff estimate there are at least 24 projects in the Muswellbrook area which will need outside workers flown in between now and 2031.
They estimate that temporary accommodation will need to be found for 1,250 people in the town between 2027 and 2029, which is when the cumulative impact of those projects is expected to peak.
The shire council wants worker accommodation to support towns and integrate people into the community, while preventing the kinds of rental and house price bubbles Australia has frequently seen in the past from other resource booms.
Gladstone is the most recent example of what towns don’t want to become: in the early 2010s, fly-in, fly-out workers building the LNG export terminals sent the town’s house prices skyrocketing. By the end of the decade those same properties were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars less.
Concerns about the pressure temporary workers put on on house and rental prices is now a feature of council and community submissions on NSW renewable energy projects.
In Muswellbrook alone, property prices are up slightly more than 11 per cent in the last 12 months and up 90 per cent in the last five years, according to realestate.com.au data.
No bars, no gyms, nice gardens
Muswellbrook’s draft policy includes some ideas that appear draconian at first, but have been included in order to integrate new workers into the fabric of local towns.
The temporary accommodations must be near or within towns and villages and not hosted at remote rural sites
It must be able to be converted for legacy uses such as aged care, tourism or housing after it’s no longer needed for temporary workers, and those workers must use local suppliers, services and medical providers wherever possible.
And importantly, the sites are not allowed to include a bar, recreation rooms, or a gym – the council wants workers to integrate into the town when it comes to socialising rather than create social cliques.
Importantly, the council doesn’t want eyesores of temporary accomodation ringing townships. The draft policy says the sites should be “designed to create an attractive village atmosphere” and “landscaping to achieve an appealing outlook for workers”.
Already bring done in Dubbo, Wellington
Examples of what Muswellbrook is looking for already exist.
Squadron Energy, owned by billionaire Andrew Forrest, is refurbishing a former aged care home in Wellington to house its workers for the Uungula wind project, in the Central West Orana REZ.
It leased the 32-room building for five years and says it will use local businesses for the work.
In Dubbo, it’s leasing 10 hectares of land on the outskirts of town from the regional council to build temporary accommodation.
The section will be returned to the council with “improved access to services for future housing needs”.
The council expects to take back a site that is zoned for housing which it can develop into residential blocks, says Dubbo regional council mayor Josh Black.
“Having this accommodation village on the urban fringe of a major centre is also expected to add approximately $250 million of value to the local economy each year,” he said in a statement.
