Brisbane West: Quarry Plan to Create 1800 Homes in Redbank Plains

Planning I Phil Bartsch I 28 Aug 24 I The Urban Developer

Redevelopment plans have been filed for a quarry south-west of Brisbane to create a master-planned residential estate comprising 1800 homes.

The proposal is for the transformation of the Hardrock Quarry, which has been operational since the 1980s and spans an elevated 182ha site at Redbank Plains.

Brisbane-based developer Atrio Property is behind the application seeking preliminary approval from the Ipswich City Council to guide future development of the site about 35km from the Brisbane CBD.

Under the plans, the quarry site would be divided into eight precincts that would house a mix of  mostly low-to-medium-density housing as well as a neighbourhood retail centre, community facilities and a network of recreation parks and conservation areas.

“The site has unique characteristics which make it well suited to a masterplanned development,” a town planning report said.

It noted the site’s singular ownership, varied topography, large expanses of highly disturbed areas with limited environmental value as a result of quarrying and cattle grazing, and its closeness to infrastructure.

A future rail corridor runs along the northern edge of the site, which is also affected by koala habitat.

According to the report, the proposal is “a logical extension of existing urban development” and its residential component would be made up of “predominantly traditional residential allotments of between 15 to 30 dwellings per hectare”.

“While a range of lot sizes and types are encouraged to provide housing choice and diversity of streetscape, development is intended to be predominated by detached dwellings of 1 to 2 storeys,” it said. “Higher (medium) density is envisaged around the future train station.”

Atrio Property’s development general manager Jaryd Collins said as well as aligning with the region’s growth and the rising demand for housing, almost half of the site would become public open space.

“We anticipate that the Springfield-Ripley corridor won’t be able to supply new greenfield land from around 2026, and with Ipswich’s population predicted to double by 2046, Hardrock Quarry’s proposed masterplan will provide a much-needed pipeline of 1800 homes to this area,” he said.

The submitted planning documents said that during the past decade the catchment surrounding the site had grown by more than 61,000 people and at last count it was home to an estimated 214,000 residents.

“This is projected to increase by 2.9 per cent per annum to 2046, reaching a total of about 412,000 people,” the documents said. “From 2023 to 2041, there is forecast demand for 77,736 dwellings, including 60,599 detached houses (81 per cent) and 15,074 semi-detached dwellings (19 per cent) in just the immediate catchment.”

Collins said early discussions with community and government stakeholders were under way.

“Preliminary talks … are focused on ensuring the project serves the community well, meets housing and environment needs and satisfies statutory planning requirements,” he said.

In Australia, as developable land has become increasingly scarce in major cities, developers have realised the infill potential of underutilised and dormant quarry sites—many of them now surrounded by urban landscapes for which they provided the building blocks.

Quarry rehabilitation and redevelopment is standard industry practice at the end of the extraction production cycle.

But until recently the transformation of these urban eyesores has been largely limited to the creation of community open spaces—parklands, sporting fields, wetlands, golf courses and botanic gardens.

AUTHOR Phil Bartsch