What’s happening with Australia’s next great City?

For at least two years, the heart of Church Street, Parramatta, has been a building site. I can still remember the Parramatta library building that was located there, but not much else. The site is in the process of becoming Parramatta Square, described by Parramatta Council’s website as ‘A world-class landmark and destination,’ an environment for meeting people and opportunities for studying, business, retail and dining.

Every time I passed the hoardings bordering the site, I was intrigued by the powerful assertion stencilled on them, proclaiming that Parramatta would be Australia’s next great city. I couldn’t help being curious about experiencing this futuristic incarnation of the geographical centre of Sydney and I knew it was just a matter of time.

After not having been in Parramatta for a year, I recently went back, interested to see what the progress of Australia’s next great city would be.

I was surprised to hear that the sound of jackhammers, the Sydney symphony, was still in full-swing and to see that new hoardings were up and that the stencilled assertions about Parramatta becoming Australia’s next great city were gone. Had the owners of the hoardings lost faith in Parramatta or were they now loathe to tempt fate? The hope of a new great city had been replaced with others.

Also according to the hoarding Aboriginal people used to gather near here, when the land was theirs, and no buildings existed yet.

Included on the hoardings were computer-generated visions of what the new Parramatta Square will look like. Now a new crop of buildings will replace the old. Will people gather here again, or will they only walk through, focused on their destinations?

Recently a hastily-erected high-rise apartment block in Sydney had cracked and sunk, and the residents had been forced to leave. As I looked up at a partly-completed building, I had a terrifying vision of Parramatta's high-rises, both commercial and residential lying in ruins.

I couldn’t help wondering what makes a great city. Is it really a number of tall buildings that resemble solar panels?