Parramatta is currently undergoing a once-in-a-generation change with unprecedented work being undertaken in the public and private sectors. This goes beyond the large infrastructure projects and includes community facilities and creative and cultural precincts like Civic Link and Parramatta North.

The development of these unique areas creates an opportunity for a media organisation like SBS to locate in a special place, rather than simply occupying office premises.

In late 2022, the City of Parramatta launched its pitch to SBS to select Parramatta when it undertakes its feasibility study to consider a move to the Western Suburbs of Sydney. The Albanese government has commissioned a feasibility study into whether SBS should move to western Sydney, and Parramatta Council and others are keen to attract the multi-cultural broadcaster.

Parramatta is a growing city at the geographical heart of Sydney with significant linguistic and cultural diversity.

In the City of Parramatta’s pitch document, there are two attractive options suggested that would both make excellent locations for a multi-cultural broadcaster – Civic Link and Parramatta North.

Civic Link is a 500-metre-long and 20-metre-wide green corridor that is currently under construction. It will draw people to the new Powerhouse precinct, Riverside Square, Riverside Theatres, Parramatta Square, PHIVE and the Roxy Theatre and will foster a new arts and culture ecosystem that will naturally attract film and broadcast industries and as a world-class, creative hub in the heart of Parramatta.

The renewal of the Parramatta North Heritage Area offers a rich canvas for storytelling about the area’s past and future. Utilising an area of NSW Government-owned land in Parramatta North, the precinct will be transformed into a vibrant area that respects and preserves important heritage, whilst providing housing and employment opportunities for Parramatta and Greater Sydney. 

Civic Link

Currently under construction, Civic Link will be a green, pedestrianised public space that connects the heart of Parramatta CBD to the Parramatta River. It will link key landmarks and provide a catalyst for urban renewal in the diverse commercial, civic and creative spaces along its length.

Framed by high-quality architecture like the new PHIVE community building, the new 500-metre-long and 20-metre-wide green corridor will connect Parramatta Square and River Square. It will feature new public domain areas, and a vibrant laneway network, and will draw people to the new Powerhouse Precinct and River Square.

The dynamic, urban nature of the Civic Link location presents high visibility broadcasting opportunities for SBS, with access to major cultural institutions, a potential street-level multi-purpose space for content creation, and a purpose-built flagship headquarters.

Civic Link sets the tone for Parramatta’s future as a highly liveable and connected city, making it an ideal location for Australia’s most diverse multilingual, multiplatform media organisation.

As well as the cultural benefits, Civic Link will be easily accessible via multiple modes of transport, ensuring fast, easy transit locally and regionally.

Providing a canvas for public art, lights, music and festivals while welcoming people of all ages and abilities, Civic Link will become a thriving place day and night. This will foster a new arts and culture ecosystem within the City, with spaces for new local businesses, small bars, collaborative workspaces and creative industries.

In addition to supporting arts and culture, live music, and First Nations stories, the Civic Link creative precinct will highlight the film and broadcast industries.

The space at Civic Link would be a purpose-built dedicated building for SBS and could be available as early as 2024.
 

Parramatta North

Covering 42-hectares of NSW Government-owned land, the Parramatta North precinct is a major urban renewal initiative and will be a popular place to live, study, work and visit.

When complete, it will incorporate a blend of residential, commercial, retail, and cultural uses. By locating in this unique area, SBS would become part of the local community, embedded in the landscape.

The historic area lies just north of the CBD situated on the eastern foreshore of the Parramatta River opposite Parramatta Park. The precinct links education with jobs and innovation, contemporary living with culture and the arts, public spaces with the city, and heritage with the future.

This site could facilitate shopfront broadcasting and street-level integration of a public-use content creation space into either a purpose-built campus-style HQ or the Heritage Core cultural precinct.

The area will be seamlessly linked to the Parramatta CBD, Westmead and Sydney Olympic Park by the new Light Rail, as well as existing bus and active transport connections. 

The precinct will also be home to a new education and innovation campus at Parramatta North, with the University of Sydney as its anchor tenant. The area will gain from a research-focused university presence, providing innovation, jobs, research and education benefits.

It is a globally unique site that will celebrate a significant collection of First Peoples’ and European cultural heritage and community assets, making it an ideal location for a multi-cultural broadcaster.

The space at Parramatta North would be a purpose-built dedicated building for SBS and could be available as early as 2026.
 

Lunar New Year Recipes

Lunar New Year is a time to bring families together and exchange well wishes for the new year ahead. Below you'll find some of these amazing recipes to share with family and friends to bring you luck and prosperity for the coming year. 

MAMA TRUONG’S CARAMELISED PORK BELLY WITH EGGS - THỊT KHO TÀU

Ingredients:

• 1–1.5kg of thick pork belly with skin 
• 8–10 peeled hard boiled eggs 
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 2 tbsp chopped shallots
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 500ml coconut water
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup fish sauce
• 1/4 cup oyster sauce
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp msg (optional)

Method:

1. Dice pork into cubes, wash, clean and parboil for 6–8 minutes with a tablespoon of salt. Remove meat off stove, clean, rinse and set aside

2. In a pot add oil and sugar. Wait for sugar to caramelise then add garlic and shallots. Sauté for about 10–15 seconds

3. Add meat continue sautéing, coating the meat with the caramelised sugar

4. Add coconut water, water, fish sauce, oyster sauce, ground pepper, paprika and msg

5. Cover and bring to a boil, occasionally skimming the scum 

6. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour

7. Remove lid then add in the hard boiled eggs. Continue to simmer for another 30 minutes, or until meat is tender. Flip eggs occasionally

8. Optional: scoop out some of the oil on top.

9. Taste and adjust with fish sauce. 

Tip: to make meat a little more tender, simmer for longer

AUNTY LINDA’S GINGER & SOY CHICKEN

Ingredients:

• 1kg chicken mid wings
• 2 thumb-sized pieces fresh young ginger  (less if preferred) – peel and cut into thin batons
• 4 sprigs spring onions – cut into 2 inch batons – separate the white and the green
• 2 – 3 large tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 – 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• Water
• Optional: dark Chinese caramel soy sauce (not Kecap Manis)

Method:

1. Heat vegetable oil & sesame oil in a wok and add the ginger

2. Fry the ginger till fragrant and just about to turn brown

3. Add the white part of the spring onion and fry for a few minutes

4. Add chicken and toss through until it turns light brown on both sides

5. Add Shaoxing wine and cook it off

6. Add oyster sauce, light soy and dark soy, and ½ cup of water

7. Turn the heat down to low and cover until chicken is cooked through

8. Add more water if more gravy is desired

9. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more soy or more water depending on taste. Best to add less oyster sauce and soy sauce to start, according to taste. It’s easier to add more if needed.

10. Add the dark Chinese caramel soy sauce (optional)

11. Add green part of the spring onions at the  end and turn of the heat. The residual heat will wilt the spring onions

PHAMILY RECIPE – CANH KHỔ QUA (STUFFED BITTER MELON SOUP)

Ingredients:

• 4 bitter melons (also known as bitter gourd)
• 400g pork mince
• 1 medium white onion, diced
• ½ cup wood ear mushrooms
• 1 cup of dried mung bean noodles
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• ½ tsp fish sauce
• 3 cups of chicken stock
• 4.5 cups of water
• Sugar and salt for seasoning
• Coriander bunch, chopped
• Spring onion, chopped

Method:

1. Rehydrate the dried mung bean noodles and wood ear mushrooms. Drain and slice bothing into small pieces

2. Add the noodles, wood ear mushrooms and diced onion to the pork mince and mix by hand

3. Cut the bitter melon in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon

4. Stuff the bitter melon halves with the pork mince filling 

5. Bring the water and broth to a boil in a pot on high heat, set aside about 1 cup for adjusting seasoning

6. Add the stuffed bitter melons

7. Turn the heat down to a low boil, simmer for 20–30 minutes until the bitter melons are fork-tender

8. Taste the broth and season to your liking, add hot water to dilute the broth if needed

9. Remove the bitter melon halves and split so you now have quarters

10. Garnish the bitter melon quarters with the chopped coriander and spring onion, serve with broth. You may like to enjoy it over jasmine rice

SEAFOOD FLAVOUR TOM YUM GONG SOUP NOODLE WITH TOFU (OR LEFTOVER MEAT FROM BANQUET)

Tom Yum Soup Base

• Leftover Prawn heads (about 300g)
• 2 tbsp Tom Yum Paste 
• 1 lemongrass stalk (press to get flavour out)
• 2 garlic cloves (press to get flavour out)
• 4 slices galangal 
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 2 tbsp oil 
   

Noodles and Food 

• Tofu puffs OR leftover cooked meat (300g)
• 1 tomato (cut into wedges)
• Handful of mushrooms (cut into wedges)
• 1–2 carrots (sliced)
• 250g rice noodle 

Garnish

• Coriander
• 1 lime
• 1 chilli 
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar 
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce (2 tbsp)

Method:

1. Fry the prawn heads, lemongrass stalk, garlic, galangal, Tom Yum paste in a medium sized pot for 2 minutes with oil and pour enough water (1.5 cups) to cover and simmer for 30 minutes 

2. Add rice noodle, tofu (or any leftover cooked meat from lunar new year banquet), tomato, mushroom and bring it boil for 2 minutes 

3. Add brown sugar, fish sauce, with freshly cut coriander, chilli and lime juice depending on your preference for sweet (sugar), salt (fish sauce) sour(lime) and heat( chilli) to your taste

CHANG'S NEW YEAR CAKE RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 400 grams of glutinous rice
• 300 grams dark brown sugar
• 2 cups of water

Method:

1. Bring water to boil and stir in sugar until it is completely dissolved. Remove from the stove and let syrup cool completely. 

2. Slowly add in rice flour, whisking it into the syrup until batter is smooth and no lumps remain.

3. Grease an 8 inch round cake pan. Pour in batter

4. Steam for about 1 hour until the cake is solid and no longer a batter. Cool it overnight

5. To reheat, cut the cake into 1/2 inch thick squares and pan fry with some oil and butter

Happy Lunar New Year

Impress your family and friends by learning how to say Happy Lunar New Year in 5 different languages!

Dos of Lunar New Year

1. Wear red on both the outside and under your clothes! Red is a lucky colour which symbolises good luck and success.

2. Feast on lucky foods such as dumplings, rice cakes, fish, dates and mandarins.

3. Being associated with wealth and good fortune, red decorations are hung to ward off Nian (年), a lion-like monster that fears the colour red, so get decorating!

4. Mandarins (柑橘, gan-ju) sounds similar to the word “gold” and “luck” in Chinese, so it’s part of the tradition that people bring along mandarins while visiting family and hand them out as a sign of sharing good fortune.

5. Red envelopes (also known as lucky money) are prepared for children by the elderly and given on New Year’s Day as this represents luck and prosperity for the year.

6. Be happy and make sure your loved ones are happy. Smile and wish others a Happy Lunar New Year.

Don'ts of Lunar New Year

1. Avoid cutting or washing your hair on the first day of the New Year. The Chinese character for hair (发, fa) is the same word in ‘prosper’. This means washing or cutting it off is seen as washing your good fortune away and dramatically reduces chances of prosperity in the year ahead.

2. The Chinese word for “book” (书, shū) sounds the same as the word for “lose”, so buying a book right after ringing in the New Year is considered an invitation for bad luck.

3. Don’t clean! Sweeping on New Year’s Day is associated with sweeping wealth away. Taking out garbage symbolises dumping good luck and fortune from your home.

4. Don’t wash your clothes on the first and second day of the New Year, as these two days are celebrated as the birthday of the God of Water, and washing clothes is regarded as disrespectful. It is believed that pouring away water after washing clothes invokes pouring your wealth away.

5. Using knives and scissors on the first day of the Lunar New Year symbolises cutting away your wealth, so prepare your meals the day before to avoid this.

6. It’s considered important to pay off all debts before the first day of the Lunar New Year. In addition, avoid borrowing or lending money during the 15 days of celebration, as doing either is believed to lead to struggles with money in the year ahead.

Parramatta is connected to the rest of Australia via its excellent transport links but also its diverse community, and business networks. By locating in Parramatta, SBS would have easy access to move in and out of the area with ease, as well as close connections with residents, visitors and businesses.

Parramatta is considered by many to be the geographic centre of Sydney making it an ideal location for a multicultural broadcaster.

With its nationally significant heritage locations and the many stories that accompany those sites, Parramatta is unique. This highlights its connectedness to Australia as a whole.

At the business event to launch Parramatta’s advocacy campaign to attract SBS, former Director of News at the ABC, Gaven Morris (now with Bastion) said “if public institutions, cultural institutions, and media are to speak and connect with all Australians, they need to genuinely be part of all parts of Australia.”

Having headquarters in Parramatta will open the door to Greater Sydney's five million plus population, all of whom will be within 30 minutes travel time to the Parramatta CBD by 2030. Many roads and metro lines lead to Parramatta, making it a destination to live, work, study and visit.

Currently, over 2.3 million people are within a 45-minute trip via car or public transport to Parramatta. Within the next 40 years, almost half of the population of Greater Sydney will live west of Parramatta making it a true Sydney gateway.

Gaven Morris also pointed to the environmental benefits of locating SBS further west saying, “If we could stop all of those camera vehicles and helicopters travelling 40 kilometres every time they need to do a story, we could reduce carbon emissions.”
 

Transport connections

The area is well connected with a range of public transport options, active transport alternatives, and an extensive road network. As part of its growth as an accessible place to work, the new light rail will open in 2023, and the Metro West is also under construction.

Parramatta Station is the fourth busiest in Sydney and the busiest in Western Sydney. Parramatta Station connects to locations all around metro Sydney via three metropolitan lines, as well as the Blue Mountains and Central Coast/Newcastle lines. It’s a 30-minute ride from Sydney’s Town Hall to Parramatta. Plus, there are stations at nearby Harris Park and Westmead providing additional connections. 

Due to open in 2023, the Parramatta Light Rail will transform the way workers, residents and visitors move around the Parramatta area. It’s estimated by 2026 around 28,000 people will use the Parramatta Light Rail every day.

The Metro West that is currently under construction will double Parramatta’s rail capacity and decrease travel times.

Parramatta will be a central interchange point to the new Western Sydney Airport opening in 2026, and a potential fast rail hub connecting Newcastle and Wollongong.

Parramatta is also well-serviced by major road connections.

Innovation and creativity

Former Director of News at the ABC, Gaven Morris also stressed the connections to innovation and creativity.

“You can't tell a story of what's going on in our education sector or our health sector or, the innovation sector or the creativity sector without taking it from a Western Sydney perspective.”

Late last year the Engineering Innovation Hub, a joint venture between Western Sydney University (WSU) and UNSW Sydney, the first of its kind in Australia opened in Parramatta. The Engineering Innovation Hub features education, commercial, retail and co-working facilities. The building has been specifically designed to promote knowledge sharing and to create connections between universities, industry and the community.

In the creativity space, Parramatta has the fifth largest creative industries workforce in NSW, growing by 34.1 per cent in the past five years.

Connect to the natural environment

Another key area of connection is the natural environment that SBS workers will be able to access to cover stories and to enjoy in their breaks. They can connect to the natural environment, as well as the built heritage of surrounding areas like Parramatta Park and Parramatta North and find stories about the area’s past.

There are over 350 parks and reserves in Parramatta.

Parramatta Park's 85 hectares of open space with grasslands, mature trees, gardens and river frontage, features popular cycleways, walking paths, and historic buildings. The Park provides the Parramatta community a chance to exercise or relax outdoors, free from crowds.

Another popular walk for CBD workers is the Parramatta River walk to reconnect with nature during a work break while learning about the area’s history.

At the geographic heart of Greater Sydney, Parramatta is a connected city with excellent transport links, connections to the environment, plus business, education and innovation networks.

One of the highlights of the recent Boomtown! Dinner and Summit held at Sydney Olympic Park is the quality of life that residents, workers and visitors of Parramatta and Greater Western Sydney enjoy. This is in part due to infrastructure improvements, unprecedented development, but also smaller things like local amenities, and a focus on sustainability.

Premier of NSW, Dominic Perrottet spoke at the Boomtown 2022 Summit and spoke about the quality of life in Parramatta, citing a recent article in The Sydney Morning Herald.

“It found that people in Parramatta recorded a significantly higher quality of life than people further east in places like Lane Cove…people in Parramatta like Parramatta better and when you look at the transformation that has occurred in the west, this is no surprise at all,” he said.

Throughout the day-long conference, industry leaders spoke of how Parramatta and Greater Western Sydney are experiencing a once-in-a-generation transformation and will continue to drive meteoric economic growth.

Among the factors contributing to the quality of life for residents, workers and visitors to Parramatta was the focus on place-making and local amenity, the need for strategic planning, and the role that sustainability will play.

Place-making and local amenity

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet commented about the effect of the COVID pandemic on how people view their local communities.

“One of the aspects of the pandemic is everyone grew a great love of their local community because they didn’t have anywhere else to go, so we’re making sure we focus on the small projects in local areas which make our suburbs more liveable. Setting up the $5 billion WestInvest fund ensured that communities across Western Sydney shared in the small things that make suburbs more liveable.”

Among the projects benefiting from the WestInvest fund in Parramatta is the revitalisation of the Central City Parkway underneath the M4 which was announced at Boomtown, along with other projects for the Parramatta LGA.

Chris Brown, Chair of the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue (WSLD) said his organisation was also focusing on place-making. In his organisation's White Paper outlining its 2023 NSW Election Priorities, it says there is an “emergence of the 15-minute local centre as a dominant strategic planning paradigm. Accordingly, place-making has taken on an elevated importance within our planning and transport agencies, complementing the work of local councils and developers.”

WSLD priorities are (among others):

• Deliver Parramatta Civic Link & Parramatta Light Rail active transport connections
• Acquire the Roxy Theatre and return it to public hands
• Provide funding for the completion of the Riverside Theatres Masterplan.

Strategic planning contributes to quality of life

Chief Commissioner of the Greater Cities Commission Geoff Roberts, said that his organisation is about to enter a period of strategic planning that will contribute to how people live in Western Sydney.

When looking at strategic planning, he said it was important to look at changing needs of people and suggested that the 30-minute city concept may no longer be relevant to everyone.

“The evidence that we have is that more people are now happier to live further away from work. The hybridisation of work is here and therefore we are moving more to city regions because of congestion and liveability,” said Roberts.

Geoff Roberts also said that the focus is not on the infrastructure itself but on how it helps. “It’s about the impact on the people, the jobs, the housing, the connectivity, that that creates. That’s the contribution that an organisation like [the Greater Cities Commission] can participate in, in collaboration [with others].”

In the Commission’s Greater Sydney Regional Plan (GSRP) released in 2018, it recognised that the “Central River City will grow substantially capitalising on its location close to the geographic centre of Greater Sydney. Unprecedented public and private investment is contributing to new transport and other infrastructure leading to a major transformation of the Central River City.”

This plan for Greater Sydney has already provided some of the impetus for the growing list of transformational projects in the City of Parramatta including Parramatta Square, transport infrastructure, commercial development, and the new Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences (MAAS), just to name a few.

The City of Parramatta will continue to benefit from the work of the Greater Cities Commission.

Sustainability contributes to quality of life

Western Sydney University’s Dr Roger Attwater who is Senior Manager, Environmental Sustainability, while discussing sustainability in Western Sydney said, “I certainly believe it’s about strategic alignments and the partnerships we have been developing.”

An example of a strategic partnership is the project the City of Parramatta is undertaking with Endeavour Energy. It’s the largest smart and LED energy efficiency street-lighting upgrade project ever seen within NSW.

The $4 million project will see more than 3,000 lights upgraded to high-performance and energy-efficient smart LED streetlights. The new LED lights are between 45 and 60 per cent more efficient and will provide up to 60 per cent energy savings. The amount of energy saved is enough to power Riverside Theatres for three years.

In speaking about her work in the circular economy space, Terri Butler, Chair, Circular Australia said, “There are opportunities in almost every area of human activity to take a circular economy approach.”

An example of the circular economy at work in Parramatta is the new PHIVE community and council facility.

At the Boomtown Dinner, the new PHIVE building won the Project of the Year in the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue’s Boomtown! 2022 Property & Infrastructure Awards. The Award recognised PHIVE’s sustainability credentials making it an example of using a circular economy approach. Opened in September 2022, its sustainability credentials mean it has net zero carbon emissions from day one.

With design principles focussed on environmental performance, the building has a low reliance on traditional heating and cooling methods. Solar collectors on the roof generate power, heating and hot water, while the unique design allows for water harvesting. 

The distinctive red giant louvres respond to weather conditions, such as heat, wind and humidity, and automatically open to fill the building with fresh air and natural light as needed. The system is linked to the Bureau of Meteorology and two local weather sensors to ensure optimal operation. These features and more, contribute to its six-star Green Star Rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.

The Boomtown Dinner and Summit held at Sydney Olympic Park was sponsored by The City of Parramatta and run by the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue (WSLD).

The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is undertaking a feasibility study to consider a move to Western Sydney and has been granted $1 million by the Albanese government to fund the study. The City of Parramatta is keen for SBS to join the many multi-national organisations and the ABC in Parramatta with Lord Mayor Donna Davis calling on the broadcaster to move its headquarters to Parramatta at a recent business event.

By locating in Parramatta, SBS will have access to all that the area has to offer and the communities it serves, as they continue to grow and evolve.
Speaking at the launch event, Helal Shmeissem, CEO, Film & Television Agency said “for us, it's been the land of opportunity and I see that it would be exactly the same thing for SBS, but it's more about who's here and why they're here. How this city is growing should be an overarching message, and it's the reason SBS should be here too,” he said.

At the same event, former Director of News at the ABC, Gaven Morris (now with Bastion) said he didn’t believe it was possible to tell the story of western Sydney without being part of the community.

“You can't tell a story of what's going on in our education sector, or our health sector, or the innovation sector, or the creative sector without taking it from a Western Sydney perspective.

“That's why I'm happy to support this idea that the cultural stories of Australia need to be told by the media being alongside the communities that are forming the cultures and where the stories are derived from,” said Morris.

Embracing global citizens

Parramatta is a place where global citizens live alongside each other making it an ideal location for a multicultural broadcaster like SBS.

Half of the population of Parramatta was born overseas, speaking over 140 languages between them. The population is young with a median age of 32.1 years old and well educated with more than two-thirds of the population with a post-school qualification.

The City of Parramatta is also growing. The population forecast for 2022 is 283,339 and is forecast to grow to 469,247 by 2041.

Gaven Morris believes that a broadcaster needs to be working within a community to really tell its story saying, “you can't talk about the texture of our community and the influence immigration has had on that without telling it from a genuinely western Sydney perspective.

“We want collaborations in these places between all of these sectors and Parramatta gives a great opportunity to do that in a way that is brilliant, and what you see in Parramatta now is a miracle….[it is] where the people's stories are formed and told, and has got to be in the centre of this conversation,” said Morris.

Ambitious & highly educated

With more than nine university campuses, colleges and graduate schools, the City has a strong culture of education, research and development.
Parramatta is home to five universities — Western Sydney University, University of Sydney, University of New England, Swinburne University of Technology and Charles Sturt University, and it’s set to grow when UNSW Sydney opens a local campus shortly. More than 25,000 university students are currently enrolled across the City’s campuses.

“We have all the elements to enable success. Parramatta also boasts the second-highest number of PhDs per capita in the Sydney area. And this means SBS will have direct access to a local talent pool through Parramatta's strong culture of education,” said Councillor Davis.

A city after dark

Parramatta is working towards a thriving 24-hour economy that aims to expand, preserve and cultivate the rich cultural and creative diversity that is unique to Western Sydney. With such a diverse community comes a vibrant cultural scene that attracts people from all over Sydney.

Parramatta is the second-largest night-time economy by turnover in Greater Sydney and third largest in NSW, valued in 2020 at approximately $1.03 billion.