Bradfield City Centre Stage 1 Market Sounding

[Beginning of recorded material]

Natalie Camilleri: 

Good morning everyone and thank you very much for making your way to the table so that we can start this event off.

So, a warm welcome to the launch of our Market Sounding activity for energy, digital, cyber and circular economy systems. My name is Natalie Camilleri and I'm the Executive Director of Multi-utilities, Environment and Circular Economy that's managing this Market Sounding.

Today, after many months of work, we are very excited to share with you the concept design that we've developed for Stage One of the Bradfield City Centre and take you through the market sounding process and the opportunity it represents for all of your organisations -- but before we start, I would like to take the opportunity to make an Acknowledgment of Country. And we are very privileged to be in a room where we're able to have some windows and to look out at the Country on which we speak today. So, this country for Millennia has been known for its fresh water, its vast grasslands and cultivated fields of daisy yams, local people have always cared for this Country. Today we acknowledge all the people from within this kinship system, including the Dharug/Darug, D’harawal/Dharawal, and Gundungarra/Gundangarra people, among many others.

We acknowledge their Elders and Ancestors past, present and emerging, across Bradfield City Centre and Western Sydney. We also acknowledge the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that have come from far and wide to know this country as their home.

We honour their connections to this place and extend our respect to their Country, Elders and Ancestors.

Country is one of the cornerstones of all of our work here at the Authority and we're very fortunate to have our own Aboriginal Outcomes team led by Jessica Herder, who works very hard with our teams across the Authority to drive the awareness and the commitment through our culture and what we do.

So on the screen right now you can see our agenda for today which includes some opening remarks from our CEO, and then a detailed overview of how we want this Market Sounding to work, what processes are for you to follow -- and of course the timeline. We’ll then have a brief opportunity for anyone to seek any clarifications around what's been presented, and then we'll explain what the next steps are before we finish off from a word of our Chair and move out onto the terrace for an opportunity for each of you to meet one another and exchange ideas and make connections.

I’m, joined here today by some other dedicated Executives from the Western Parkland City Authority, and I'd like to introduce them to you and ask that they give you a great Australian wave so that you can recognize them within the room. So firstly, our Chief Executive, Dr Sarah Hill who will be speaking to you shortly to get this Market sounding process underway.

Good morning Sarah.

Sarah Hill: (from the floor)

Good morning.

Natalie Camilleri:

Next is James Passmore our Executive Director Investment, Industry and Partnerships. Good morning James.

James Passmore: (from the floor)

Hello.

Natalie Camilleri:

We also have Peter Anderson, who's the Director of the Bradfield City Centre Development and Delivery, so good morning to you Peter. And lastly, we have the Executive Director of Delivery Paul Hedge who is also here, so good morning Paul.

I would also like to introduce you to Mr Peter Barnett from OCM our probity advisors during this pre-procurement process, so good morning to you Peter.

Peter Barnett: (from the floor)

Good morning.

Natalie Camilleri:

Probity is a critical part of our culture and approach to all of the work that we do here at the Western Parkland City Authority, and we will ensure that all probity matters are clearly communicated, and processes are diligently followed during this Market Sounding and the subsequent procurement process.

Now lastly, I would also like to thank each and every one of you for coming today for this launch and wish you the best in your endeavours to be part of this Market Sounding process -- and indeed for being part of building the very great Bradfield City Centre. We have a host of Industry leaders and organizations from across energy, digital, cyber and circular economy systems here today, so welcome to you all.

And we also have a visiting delegation from Urban Renaissance Japan, who are here to visit the Western Sydney Airport and the Bradfield City Centre, and we recognize the many businesses that are a part of the delegation, so a warm welcome to you. So I hope that you all can stay around at the end of the proceedings and take advantage of the opportunity to make new contacts and indeed make new friends.

I'd like to ask our CEO Dr Sarah Hill to introduce the Western Parkland City Authority and to launch the Market Sounding formally. So Sarah has delivered on turning the Western Parkland City Authority into a multi-dimensional city building and coordinating Authority and is now firmly in charge of delivering Stage One of the Bradfield City Centre. So Dr Sarah Hill.

Sarah Hill:

Well good morning everyone, fantastic to be here and what a beautiful day it is.

I'd like to attach myself to Natalie's Acknowledgment of Country and really celebrate and thank our First Nations people for caring for this beautiful Country that many of you are now going to enjoy over the next two days of a number of fantastic site visits that are being hosted with our Japanese colleagues.

But I'd like to take a moment and just welcome over 43 organizations here today in this room which is quite a remarkable showcase of the great enthusiasm for what is being now created as Australia's newest city - its most green, its most connected and its most advanced. And I'm sure you can see from this beautiful countryside how important that green theme is, that green theme in terms of not only colour and parks and open space but critically green in terms of ensuring we look after and care for our climate and there's a very strong theme in our work in building Australia's newest city. So a warm welcome to over 43 different organizations, 20 of which I understand are represented here from our colleagues from Japan, so a very warm welcome to you.

My role today is to just give you a little bit of context to the Western Parkland City, a little bit of context to who we are as a Western Parkland City Authority, and importantly the work that we're doing to kickstart development and change. So I'm going to step you through big picture and then take you down to the opportunity, and then I'm going to hand over to one of my colleagues, Nick Saphin, who's been leading on a lot of this work with Natalie, a lot of hard work, a lot of analysis, research, testing, to get us to this stage today. So if I kick off and I'm - do you want to just change the slide for me? Thank you.

I'll give you a little bit of context first and foremost to who we are. So we're a New South Wales Government agency, we were set up on the back of what's called the City Deal, a tri-level government deal that tied together commitments to the Western Parkland City, the area that we're in today. So we're an organization that was set up to drive investment and investment attraction, bringing jobs to Western Sydney, bringing investment to this area, but also critically supporting and enhancing the growth of existing businesses. We have a role to coordinate outcomes across the city so that big picture understanding of the substantial growth and change that's occurring in Western Sydney and lining that up with the infrastructure that we need. Extraordinary amount of investment in infrastructure is needed as this city grows by over 2 million, over 2 million people by 2056 - so phenomenal growth and change and an incredible opportunity to do things differently and to do things better.

We also have a really important delivery role, and so this is part of our work for example in Bradfield City Centre amongst other centres that we're working in collaboration with local and state government agencies to master plan and deliver. But Bradfield City Centre is one of those once in a generation opportunities, an incredibly exciting opportunity for us to do something quite remarkable, something that is a legacy of our careers, a legacy for this city -- from the ground up to do things differently, to be thinking, to be innovative in terms of the infrastructure we put in the ground but also the commercial models and partnerships that we put together. We're encouraging you to think about that and to share your advice with us as part of this sounding process.

So just by way of context, the Western Parkland city is an enormous area -- if you include all of the parks and national parks and open space it's about 65 per cent of the greater Sydney area. We have an enormous corridor of development that's occurring - over 72 kilometres from north to south. But really at the heart of this and the genesis of so much of this change has been the Western Sydney airport. Now many of you will have seen, or will be about to see, the incredible work that's happening in that space.

The incredible earth moving works -- the largest ever in Australia if you don't include mining works -- but also critically, the terminal that's under construction at the moment and the incredibly important focus that they are having on climate and ensuring that they take a very sustainable approach to building the airport, but also critically ensuring that it's one of the most digitally advanced airports in the country.

So that is only down the road from Bradfield City Centre, and you'll see on the map really at the heart of this area of the Aerotropolis is the airport. And the airport really is a catalyst for this change.

One Metro stop from the airport though is Bradfield City Centre -- and it really drives and feeds into the broader eleven thousand, two hundred hectares of the Aerotropolis -- which is two slides back if we could just go back, to back to that - so the 11,200 hectares of the Aerotropolis is an area that was rezoned to support a range of enterprise, business zones, employment generating uses, and at the heart of that is Bradfield City Centre, a mixed use area.

And mixed use means that you can include a range of commercial, education, recreation and residential uses and really the heartbeat of the broader aerotropolis area. Just on the theme of the Aerotropolis, for those who are interested, we have a number of brochures around the Government's vision for this area.

I mentioned the precinct planning work by the Department of Planning, but also our brochure -- which if we just go back and slide -- which shows the work that we've been doing and really progressing the thinking, working with landowners, working with stakeholders to understand how we can optimize those precincts, how we can optimize the integrated Logistics Hub concept, how we can optimize the Agribusiness Precinct and the great work that many of you in the room here today have been leading on and I note a number of our key major landowners that are here with us today who are really driving forward the next generation of city building.

So, for those who are interested these documents are available on our website and they provide useful, contextual information.

Now let's drill down to Bradfield City Centre and for those who know Sydney you might know a little development called Barangaroo. Barangaroo, by way of context, is about a fifth of the size of Bradfield City Centre. So, we have an enormous site at the heart of the Aerotropolis with incredible opportunities as I mentioned to come up with a diversity of use, a range of activities on the site. From 36 hectares of public open space, through to education facilities, multiversity -- our university partners joining us to deliver new courses, new ways of building a campus of the future, through to the Government's commitments to deliver on our first building which is already underway -- a multi-purpose building including our pilot Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility, a visitor centre and our first tenants, Hitachi, a big recognition and thank you to Hitachi for being such a wonderful early adopters, getting on board and certainly supporting what is a great vision for our city.

I've also mentioned a number of commitments that the New South Wales Government has made. There is a strong commitment to delivering the Metro, you will see if you haven't already been on site, that those works are underway, together with the full-scale scale Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility which we're already out in market at the moment procuring equipment to support that facility and we’re just in the process of designing the first Advanced manufacturing research facility building. Acknowledgment as well to the CSIRO - the Commonwealth science agency for those who may not know them, they're pretty famous they invented Wi-Fi -- they will be one of our major tenants. Five to six hundred scientists at the heart of Bradfield City Centre.

So a little bit of a flavour, this is a mixed use zone, a range of activities and really our first stage, the first 30 hectares is our initial focus as Natalie mentioned and this is a an image of it and you will find further details in the brochures that are available and certainly the pack of information for the Market Sounding setting out indicative time scales and development phases.

Within this initial stage is a range of enabling infrastructure and we're looking to you to help us understand how we can really back in that innovation in infrastructure, digital, circular economy, waste and working closely with our partners at Endeavor and Sydney water -- and I'd like to acknowledge our partners here today and to thank you for joining us.

So I'm going to wrap up now just giving that little bit of context. I do want to thank you for joining us. I want to thank you in anticipation for your ideas, your thoughts, and certainly the great innovation that you will bring.

We are opening this process with the firm intention of progressing swiftly through to ensuring that we can secure appropriate tenders and start development in this next phase of development next year.

So I'm going to hand over to Natalie now to take us forward. Thank you.

[End of recorded material]

[Beginning of recorded material]

Natalie Camilleri:

Thank you very much Sarah, and now we're at the part of the launch where we will be able to engage very much with the documentation that's on your table. And so I'd like to welcome Mr Nick Saphin to come and talk to you about the details because we're all interested in the details no doubt.

So Nick Saphin is the Project Director in our Multi-utilities and Environment, Circular Economy team and Nick brings decades of experience across the energy, telecommunications and water sectors and has led the work to this point. So Nick will go through the details and including the process and the timeline, that no doubt you're interested in. So a warm welcome to you Nick Saphin.

Nick Saphin:

Don’t like being reminded about the decades, but anyway.

Welcome to everyone and thanks for coming today. What I intend doing is going through the scope of the work we've done and where we sort of land in terms of what we think are the key innovations we need to focus on -- but in doing that, I just want to preface by saying, we're still open to feedback and that's what the market sounding process is about, it’s about the innovations and other solutions that we should consider.

Just in terms of the period of when I've done this work, this sort of commenced a couple of years ago, in terms of the work, and you know where we've sort of landed today and what we're going to go through today, is an enormous amount of work that's been actually undertaken to align with the Bradfield development program from a utilities perspective.

The key to it all in terms of doing this is that, it wasn't only just an internal review [inaudible] Next to my chin? It wasn’t just an internal review in terms of doing this work, it was also used specialist expert advisors in terms of each of the utilities areas to actually look have a look at the work we've done, but also then to actually give us recommendation to how we proceed.

If I look at in terms of where we sort of ended up, what we're trying to do here is balance a few things, I'll go through that in a moment in terms of the outcomes we're specifically focusing on -- and the outcomes are critical. Everything that we've done and everything we've framed, in terms of the outcomes perspective, is based on these, in terms of our drivers.

So when we come up with solutions, we looked at these and we said, do they actually line back to these outcomes and in some cases trying to balance different outcomes to try and achieve the best outcome in terms of doing that but to be more specific, let's have a look at specific outcomes we're trying to seek here.

Customer centric. It’s the heart of what we're trying to achieve here, particularly about being reliable and from a reliability point of view it’s got to be resilient, and deal with external events in terms of what we're trying to do. It's got to be affordable. So it's no point having you know the best solution in the world at the same time, you know the customers having to pay a lot more to be in Bradfield City.

The feedback we've got from people who want to invest in Bradfield, potentially be tenants within Bradfield, is we need competitive pricing, no matter what in term of the services that are being provided in terms of doing that. So it's a key element in terms of what we're trying to do there.

It's about delivering cutting-edge services too. So you can see where the balance is coming in terms of the different challenges you've got here into the trying to achieve things there are as you go through this in terms of trying to achieve these things, clear things you need to balance and trade off because you could get those outcomes.

It's about giving people choice. So to be choice in energy suppliers. Choice in digital suppliers. It's not creating a city which is now basically capturing the customers with on site.

It's about giving them the choice in terms of services and providers in terms of those two areas which are going to be very, very critical when you look at the evolution particularly in the energy market and the ever-ongoing evolution in the digital market.

Digital is a key part of it. Whether it's for the consumer's needs or whether it's about having live information and data to actually manage the city from day one. So, underlying everything we're doing here in terms of whether it's energy, whether it's water, whether it's a circular systems - digital and real-time information from the digital and the data is a critical component on that, in terms of how we actually manage the city but how could individuals can actually manage their own services as we go forward.

The last which is not unimportant, is, it's about being - it comes back to resilience -about being a cyber resilient city. And we've got to make sure that in terms of whatever everything we do, and being cyber secure and being resilient in terms of from that perspective, it is about having reliability of energy supply - it's a critical component.

It's fine to have cyber security if your systems go down because you can't get power - that's not going to help you - so everything we've looked at from an options point of view and design point of view, has taken that into account in terms of how we do it.

Let's start to dig into a bit of detail. Sustainability is the other key component and an opportunity. So achieving net zero you know by 2030. We're at greenfield site, so from an emissions point of view you know when I talk about Net Zero, that's a target we can achieve.

It's not questionable in terms of you know, can you really do that or whatever - yes we can achieve that we're a greenfield site and what we're building and our utility solution designs, are designed to actually provide the platform to do that.

Minimise demand. You know it's fine for us to have the best solution, sustainable solutions for energy, but in particular, but what we've got to also do, is do what you know from a sustainability point of view, is actually helped the city as it evolves from sustainability point of view, look at what they're doing for consumption point of view, do comparisons and actually improve the way people actually use the services and give but you've got to give them the information to be able to do that and give them the actions they can provide to do to do that.

Minimise waste to landfill. You know, target of zero waste by 2030.

Yes, it's a big target to try and achieve that, but that's what we're starting from a greenfield sites in terms of how can we actually do this, how can we actually do this differently in Bradfield and it's been done in other areas - what can we actually do to actually make that different?

Be resilient to climate impacts.

Look, one of the key things about Bradfield, is all about open space also, but also it's really important that you know this environment particularly in summer - and we're almost at summer you wouldn't know it was actually almost at summer at the moment in terms of the weather outside, but it is hot. If you lived in the city the last 12 months you probably wouldn't believe this but it gets very dry.

So we need water from a sustainability point of view, to actually for the greening of the environment and particularly early stages with the development of the open space to the trees we will get going in the ground - that sort of thing - is to make that green and that canopy to reduce the heat impact across the city.

Flexible and future-proofed.

In all our thinking in terms of doing this, what we did, even in terms of the underlying infrastructure and what we're doing, is that we don't know everything today.

What we've got to make sure is that whatever we put in the ground and whatever we're thinking about here, we've got to make sure it's future proofed.

So from a digital point of view it's just as basic as making sure that when we dig up to put the civils in, is making sure they’re sufficient pipes for multiple providers to come into the city to provide their digital services, but it's not just from day one – it can last decades in terms of the capacity we put in, so we don't have the city being dug up.

We avoid the city being dug up to put more pipes in for neutral providers, there is sufficient capacity in the ground to be able to do that.

It's making sure that whatever decisions we make around energy within Bradfield, that it can also evolve, it's not fixed, we're not locking ourselves in. So this technology evolves from an energy point of view in terms of what you can do, particularly things like hydrogen gels, your city is actually built in such a way as that it can evolve to actually take in those accounts and changes in technology when they come competitive, and when the market is willing to take the mark into the quantities they need.

It's a very important part of our thinking around this in terms of making sure that what we're doing is we're not locking ourselves into solutions which we can't evolve and get out of as time goes on.

Which comes to the last bits about learning and evolving. You know where we are today it's a greenfield site, we're about to start the civils to put the infrastructure in.

Where will it be in 10 years’ time? You look at the evolution of what's going on in various markets, in utilities market, it will be different. So what we've got to do is in terms of we've got to use this to plan the city as it grows - and look, in your document when you go online and you get the marketing, the information and registration pack, in there what we've got is what we have to do in terms of doing this work to work out, you know what our needs are going to really be, we have to do some demand forecasts.

There's information in the document, information pack, which gives you, and it's only indicative, remember we’re in 2022 so trying to work out what will be in 2056 I can guarantee it’ll be different right.

But they're forecasting, indicative forecast based on what we see as the floor take up rates within Bradfield City, and also in terms of what it would be in terms of types of customers.

So it's all premised around that from the demand point of view in terms of the infrastructure and we're actually putting in.

But let's start looking at some of the things we've sort of done for each of the areas in terms of – we’ll go through the energy stuff for the first.

District cooling. So when we when we started off in terms of looking at the energy side, you know we had a look around and look I've got to say you know what we've done here is we have cherry picked, right, unashamedly we've cherry picked about what some of the developers are already doing in the Australian market and some of the things they're doing the Australian market are world leading, so district cooling was one of those, so it's you know probably more common in Queensland in terms of parts of Queensland where they're doing it, but Barangaroo is probably the most recent one that's been done in our market and obviously it's a different approach to what we can take with District cooling because they can use the harbour to cool.

We don't really have much of a water source in Bradfield to be able to use to be able to do that so we'd always have something completely different approach - but district cooling came out strongly in terms of the work of my technical advisors.

Primarily because of the benefits around, from an energy point of view, in terms of reduced energy consumption from a sustainability point of view in terms of doing it -  but also if you looked at it in terms of, you know from you know, using the chillers to actually cool, you're going to do that more in terms of when you're during the peak of the day -- what's beginning to happen now in the energy market in terms of when the energy is being flooded into the market on a good sunny day, a good windy day, it's normally during that day those daylight hours.

Well in the past the district’s cooling plan would have probably been from an off-peak point of view in the time they actually would have actually used that to actually get the chillers up to do it.

Look, it reduces energy consumption overall and what also does it has a big impact on peak demand.

And when you get the info pack, we've actually got some graphs in there from the work we’ve done with our technical experts on energy, which gives you an indication of the impacts in terms of each of these steps we're proposing in regards to the solutions for energy, what their impacts are compared to say BAU, right and that shows you what district cooling would do particularly in regards to peak demand and you know in those graphs you'll see what we're proposing from a solutions point of view, from a peak demand point of view, there's a significant reduction in each of those steps to actually achieve that.

Which is important for our partners like Endeavor Energy in terms of that sort of thing from a planning point of view, but it's also important in terms of the impacts within Bradfield from an energy consumption point of view, but also from the benefits to the citizens in terms of the approach we’re taking.

Embedded energy networks.

Our thinking around this is, for in buildings and probably just and the super lots – yes, it's worth considering from a behind the meter point of view, to actually look at how you can actually manage the solar, and the best battery energy storage systems, with it behind that meter how you can actually effectively manage that for the benefit of all the tenants - from a liability point of view, a sustainability point of view, but also from the customer benefits in terms of giving them a much more, lower priced product by actually doing that in terms of doing it.

Electric vehicle charging.

Yeah we could say it's a no-brainer, but what we've got to do within the city is actually plan where we actually put those electric vehicle charging systems. If there's no parking in the streets for example we don't have vehicle charging in the streets. But if it's under buildings – yes.

But we also need the fast charging in public spaces for the visitors coming to Bradfield, to be able to use that. And our thinking about that is combining the fast-charging equipment, with battery and solar in public spaces to be able to do that.

But again, we need to work with our partner and Endeavor Energy around that, about the charging regime, time of day pricing, those sort of things, to basically provide these great incentives for people to actually charge their cars, to actually minimise the impact on peak demand in terms of the grid in Bradfield.

Smart energy grid management.

Look this is probably the most key component in it all, in terms of an entry point you can have all these different pieces but you've got to bring it all together you've got to manage it.

And manage it as a whole. And when you go through the info pack, we do have some things in there in terms of thinking about where we could actually go with this, from a smart energy point of view and how we can actually manage it particularly behind the meter. But also increasingly looking at in front of the meter and how can we actually do that and integrate it all.

It's critical in terms of one in terms of the live data, and been using that live data to maximize your position during the day, but it's also critical for someone such as Endeavour Energy having that live data and then in terms of being able to manage their network but it's also critical in terms of us being able to go customers and saying, you know this is what's actually taking place, you know can we can actually do things differently from a sustainability point of view and a cost point of view.

Gas and hydrogen.

A lot of what we've looked at in this is about electrification. So, what we're really interested from this process too is the feedback about gas and ultimately hydrogen within Bradfield. And what we should focus on in regard gas and hydrogen within Bradfield.

Because clearly in terms of you know where we are today but where we’ll be in 10 years, where we’ll be in 20 years, what role hydrogen will can play in 10, 15, 20 years in the market place, and what role gas will play will evolve and change.

So we're really interested in the views of the participants in this in terms of where they think we should focus on in terms of gas and hydrogen, particularly in terms of the needs of tenants.

There's an interesting article in the AFR today about restaurants in terms of new developments and Lend Lease and I think one other developer in terms of their approach to what they're looking at in terms of gas, that's one approach that's being taken but we're really interested from the market place point of view what's the participants think in regards to gas and hydrogen and the role it will play going forward.

I've talked already about you know the fibre optic network. You know traditionally what a developer does is, they put the pits and pipes in, they get a basically get a fibre provider to provide wholesale fibre to their premise.

Yes we have to do that also and we'll do that but what we're looking at in terms of the extra pits, the extra pipes, potentially pits, is looking at how they can actually get other providers to come in, not just one provider and that will happen anyway because as you get new tenants within the city they'll have their own providers they'll use.

For example – CSIRO. CSIRO will want to use AARNet right. So we've got to make sure that we have the pits and pipes there so that AARNet can roll their networks through not just to support CSIRO, but the other educational institutions that we developed within Bradfield over time to do that.

The other part too in terms of this is making sure that when we from a network point of view, that when we're putting in and we talk about you talk about multi-function poles in the city which can house micro cells from the mobile providers but also going to house sensors and other equipment from other providers in terms of providing services in Bradfield, we've just got to make sure that you know from day one - this comes down to future proofing - that every single area within Bradfield where there will be these polls, or you know even if they’re attached to the side of buildings, in terms of some of the things that we need to be done, there’s power and there’s fibre.

Already there, for multiple uses but it's also done in such a way is that we’ve future proofed if for many, many years, so depending what actually changes it involves, we can actually make sure there’ sufficient power, there’s sufficient digital fibre there for different parties to use.

Data management storage.

Just thinking from an energy point of view and getting all the live data managing that data down to the customer level, but all but also managing what you've got on site in terms of what you've got within buildings, manage it in terms of what's actually going on the marketplace, the energy data management is a large piece, right to actually manage and do it real time.

It needs to be aligned with, obviously the national market systems, it needs to be aligned with what we need to do from the regulation point of view in terms of what we do, so it's a huge component from a data management point of view in terms of how we do that.

It's not a skill we possess within the Authority, it's a skill that exists in the marketplace to be able to do this, but what we're looking at in terms of this is we need to go beyond where it's managed today. We need to start thinking about how we managed that it's set up in such a way that we can actually evolve it as we go along.

It's the same with water. Not so much as you know energy in terms of real time but it's actually making sure that we're getting real-time data in such a way from a digital point of view, that we can share that with customers, we can actually understand from a water consumption point of view whether it's recycled water within Bradfield, whether its potable water, you know whether it's even storm water, that we actually understand from a water cycle point of view how we can actually manage Bradfield in a different way - globally but also down to the customer level.

Multi-functional poles, I have touched them and I've got to say, this is probably the most ugliest pole I’ve ever seen, but anyway, I'm sure I'm sure when we choose one it won't look like that. It might after everything's actually on it.

But look, what we've actually considered in terms of Bradfield and we're again sort of considered it from the evolution of Bradfield out to for stage one out to 2056 is thinking about what we're going to need from the poles point of view, but also from a fibre power point of view and so it's a key component in terms of our managing the digital stuff.

So when we come to the digital stuff and the packaging around that, there's one other component in this I think in terms of comms centres is it? No? No, okay. Just one other thing in the digital stuff is – look, when you drive around cities and I've been to Tokyo a few times it's probably got the same problem that Sydney’s got around this, is that when you drive around you see all the mobile masts right? On the streets, on the top of power poles those sort of things, sides of buildings all these cells and so on, they're pretty ugly right?

So what we're trying to do here, we're a Greenfield's site, what can we do differently to get a lot of this visual pollution off the streets, off the buildings, out of parks, into different places. So one of the things we've actually one of the solutions we're looking at is a comms centre which is basically where the mobile operators and the other operators using want to put equipment outside they normally want to put outside in terms of buildings or into parks or public spaces they use the comms centre to put everything in and they run their fibre back from the poles or wherever, back to those comms centres for their equipment.

So there'll be two of those from a redundancy point of view within the city. Obviously you know 2026 is when the first buildings open, probably the first one there. They need to be built to such a scale right, that they’re future which is a challenge in itself in terms of taking space up in the building which is not going to be used straight away or leased out straight away, so we need to think through that from the solutions point of view. So we have different views of about that in terms of how we actually do that going forward.

The circular economy.

Look there's a number of things we've gone through in the circular economy we actually examined and went through to do this. But probably the key thing from this is from day one, and there's probably a few lessons we've learned here from other develops in terms of what they've done in different areas, in terms of what they've tried to do, what's worked, what hasn't worked, is that from day one is to basically embed the approach around the circular economy.

In terms of you know people coming into Bradfield, the tenants and so on, making sure that everyone is across what we're trying to achieve here and everyone buys in in terms of doing it, how we actually approach it.

So there's simple things like last mile logistics. Simple? It might sound simple I supposer, this actually isn't simple. It is about making sure that you’re not having trucks coming into Bradfield to drop off, you know large cardboard boxes or packaging inside, it's all dropped off at the edge of Bradfield and then electric vehicles will then take it into Bradfield and deliver to the customer after they've been unpacked.

So, we won’t have the packaging issues where we need to actually have storage underneath buildings to actually capture all that, take it out, it's actually happening on the edge of the city.

Another item is like getting food pipeline. It’s making sure the buildings have macerators and they flow into a specific pipe that produces organic food waste, which can be then used to generate energy down the path as the volumes increase.

It won't work in 2026 because there won’t be enough volume going through the pipe, but just with the city as it grows, it will work and that market for the organic food waste is a growing market - particularly from an energy production point of view, to actually going to grow. So, it's about thinking into the future, thinking about how it's going to evolve and making sure that what we're doing day one is putting in place solutions, which from day one you mightn’t need totally but as the city evolves and grows, it fits right into it, provides you other options down the path in terms of doing that.

As I said we're open having to have ideas and solutions when you go through the document and you've got other thoughts around you know you should consider this, or you should consider that and these things we're open -  we're definitely open about getting feedback from our participants about what they think we should be doing, if they're going to opposing views to what we've got in there, that's fine.

That's the whole purpose of this process, from a market sounding point of view is to get your input and your feedback, to actually help us through this process as we basically then go to the market in terms of a later stage from a procurement point of view - it's about informing us and that in the end, you know we've got experts who advise us, but there's experts here. Challenges. You've got different innovative solutions we're open to actually hearing about it

Part of the work we did in this too was looking at a packaging point of view and a commercial packaging point of view, and trying to look at it from the market's point of view in terms of what that what they've done.

In here is you know all the sort of opportunities for packaging issues that we've outlined, I've outlined briefly, but in there is different ways it can be approached.

So one package is it's all bundled up together. Your energy management, your digital, circular economy, it's all bundled up together. Then it begins to break down. You know, different packages coming together. All right so you end up with the last one I think where they're all broken up separately, so you've got things like district cooling, they're all sort of different, you know the digital separate, the energy is separate so there's different ways to approach that.

So my bundling point of view and putting those together we are interested in definitely in terms of feedback about the various packages we're talking about here and the management of those packages sorry, the measure of the services arising out of those packages, will be part of that bundle in terms of doing that. So it's quite a quite a challenge in terms of from a thinking point of view, but the information pack will give you a lot more information when you download that, and that will give you a much better idea in terms of those various packages what you can do, and what you can't do.

Okay market sounding process and timeline.

Look I just want to, I just want to say one thing, I mean before I start this off. If people are going to send in submissions or people end up being part of an interactive session which we're setting up to provide information back our preference is not to receive any confidential information or any IP. Right from an assessment point of view that makes it very difficult for us, so our preference is and I will say it again, we don't receive confidential information or any company's IP.

If you think we need it, sure, but flag what it is, with which bits are confidential in terms of that regard, because we'll need to treat it differently in that regard in terms of doing it how we treat it.

So today is the launch. So between now and the 24th of February people can register and start registering today and getting as soon as you register, fill in the information, you get access to the information and registration pack.

So that that's open to the 24th of February. Then you've got – we’ll do selected interviews, basically who are registering and what their interest is, and if people do want to send in a submission they can send in a submission and that from those submissions we’re received, we'll have to examine that and look at that in terms of which participants we invite to participate in interactive sessions which would take place basically through February, probably till about no later than mid-March.

So there's a card on your table where you can register your interest if you want to start that process today, you can actually do that or just do it online at your leisure in terms of doing that to do it.

So it's all set up. Register, download the document and get more detail there is a contact within that document in terms of -- probably jump into the next slide, I won’t  do that -- there's a contact in there where you can actually send questions to, so any queries need to go to one contact address you'll actually get, so anything outside that in terms of market sounding process it won't be part of that market sounding process you'll be steered back to that that contact point. But Natalie will go through this now.

Thank you for your time

[Applause]

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Natalie Camilleri:

Okay well thank you very much Nick for taking us through all of the detail and I think that the key thing to note, really is to pick up these cards and to go and pick up the information and registration pack. Nick shared a lot of information with you about the initiatives that we're interested in, that said we're absolutely inviting alternative ideas and solutions from you.

And I'd also like to just express that the information and registration pack has a whole series of questions, part around the technical solutions, but equally a whole lot of engagement around the commercial opportunities and how would this be practically delivered, procured and what are the types of commercial arrangements that the market is interested in engaging with the government on. So that's a very equal part of this process, because we are heading towards a procurement mid to late next year and it's very much part of the momentum that we're building for the delivery of the Bradfield City Centre.

So look we do have a few minutes before we move forward onto the morning tea and the network opportunity, to invite clarifications noting that we are in a probity rich environment, however we are here today and we are able to engage in clarifications -- we don't wish to engage in a sort of an open Q and A forum, that's not the nature of this particular process today. But clarifications are certainly something that we are able to discuss and point you toward the documentation and the processes that will unfold today and continue up until the middle of March.

So as I say before we go into the point of clarifications, our probity requirements so that you're all aware, that in terms of asking any questions, we will need to take a detailed note and our response, if we do feel that we need to post them to others who will inevitably engage in this market sounding process and only where necessary.

So if you would like to seek a clarification today, could you just raise your hand, so that we can see you and just wait for a microphone before speaking and then clearly state your name and the organisation that you're from. And then we will to the best of our ability, respond to the question so thank you.

Setsuko Saya: (from the floor)

Thank you very much for your very kind explanation. I’m very surprised to see the progress of the Market Sounding.

I'm Setsuko Saya from Urban Renaissance agency of Japan. I'm headed by the 20 Japanese companies here today, maybe we have 40 participants from Japan. And on behalf of the Japanese companies, I would like to ask maybe just two questions.

First question is the relationship with the local governments or any New South Wales Government or WPCA -- what kind of contribution, or support, can those companies receive from those public authorities -- in particular for the role of the division of work, or if there is any financial support for this program, because I see that the winner can be the best who can best optimise the government investment. I would like to know what do you specifically mean by optimising government investment?

My second question is, usually those energy, or this circular economy, or digital things, would be much better coordinated if we know who are the users of this city -- maybe you will see the artist impression from this vision, so maybe we can imagine what kind of buildings, or how many buildings will be built, but it will be much easier for us to consider who are the users of those energy, digital and circular economies? Thank you very much.

Natalie Camilleri:

Well two fantastic questions, and I'm going to draw in my executive colleagues to respond to the questions, but I'll recap them for the audience so that we're all clear on the clarifications.

So, I'll start in reverse, so one question around -- well who are the users of the city? And essentially, I think that comes to the question of the mixture of customer type, and the forecast take up of the development.

And there is quite detailed indicative information, in the information and registration pack that Nick Saphin has referred to. You will need to download the information and registration pack and we are providing publicly information around the breakdown of what we expect in terms of a commercial and office and residential as well as open space as well you know great consumers of water for example but also have digital needs as well.

And in relation to the optimisation of the government investment -- the second question -- and I do appreciate that you also asked about government incentives.

The way I would respond, and I'll also draw on my colleagues for their further advice, is really to say that you know, we are a government developer and an allocation has been made toward this project for the enabling infrastructure.

However, we recognise, and we aspire toward really engaging in commercial opportunities with the government, sorry with the private sector, to reduce cost to government, to reduce cost to customers, and to optimise the level of investment that the government is already making in this precinct, by way of enabling infrastructure, by way of rail, and by way of early buildings. So we are very much looking for a partnership arrangement and seriously discussing the opportunities for, you know private capital to come in and to look at the end user and the potential for a fee paying customer to be very much part of these innovative services into the future.

But I'll invite my executive colleagues, so are there any other remarks to add or further clarifications to respond?

Thank you for your question.

Okay final call for the questions, but yes sure.

Setsuko Saya: (from the floor) 

Sorry I'm very forward-looking, so you show the timeline for until the March 15th --and I just wonder what happens after the March 15^th?

Natalie Camilleri:

Yeah sure happy to answer that question. So again, when we go into the detail of the information and registration pack, the key message really is that after we listen to all of the feedback from the market - because as Nick Saphin has pointed out - and we've taken a lot of advice, a lot of technical advice, and a lot of commercial advice from very good consulting advisors, but we recognise that the expertise within the market, within the private sector who already are doing this type of work in other parts of indeed Sydney, in other parts of Australia, and in other parts of the world, that you have a lot of information that's through good dialogue, will help to shape our procurement strategy.

So, after March we will go into an intensive period of preparing our procurement strategy with the intention of commencing our procurement activities in mid to late year -- and what that will involve is essentially, likely a multi-stage procurement process, where we will invite expressions of interest from the market. We would shortlist from that expression process, a number of operators from the private sector that could then be invited into a request for proposal pathway. So it's a two-step process -- that's what we envisage in the second half of next year.

Okay. Well thank you -- one further clarification and if you could just introduce yourself and where you’re from.

Melissa Doueihi: (from the floor)

So Melissa Doueihi. I'm from Endeavor Energy. So just a question on the spectrum of packaging options, is that -- so you've got package one to four -- is that how you would like, they're the options around how we could respond is that what this is suggesting? I'm just not clear on what that's, I understand the spectrum, or the bookends if you like, but what is that for a proponent to respond in that fashion they've got the option to respond as a collective versus individual utilities -- is that right?

Natalie Camilleri:

Yeah, look it's a great it's a great question and thank you for that. So the question really relates to the spectrum of packaging options which Nick Saphin pointed to, it's in the document that's on your tables today -- and there are a range of questions around that as I mentioned, there are a whole range of questions related to commercial opportunities. But what one of our key messages is, and it's on the card here today, what we're actually inviting is for the market to prepare a statement of capabilities. And quite explicitly, we're asking the market to come forward --sure individually, if you feel that you can package up, and offer the full spectrum of services, all the way from energy, digital, cyber and circular economy, you may wish to come forward individually.

And certainly through our research we're not quite aware of one particular player in the market who has readiness to do that. Although, and this is why this is a fact-finding mission, we are inviting partnerships -- what we would very much like to see and you will hear this very affirmatively from our Chair, Jennifer Westacott, who would have really loved to have been here today -- and this is a passion of hers -- she would like to see very much, and I think that this is reinforced by our Board, the assembly of new partnerships to drive the packaging towards integrated solutions. Because we strongly believe at the precinct level, that through integration synergies that currently can't be achieved through siloed operations, can be achieved and through partnership, that the customer, the end user and this could become a point of difference in Bradfield and that there is the opportunity for Bradfield to be a true pathfinder place in Greater Sydney, in Australia and internationally. So very much so encouraging partnerships to form and to come forward now so we can start to understand that at this early stage so that we can ready for the expression of interest process and later for the procurement.

Well I'm going to call this to a close because I think on the back of three quality questions we won't go for quantity, but quality. Three outstanding questions -- so thank you to the women here in the front row, thank you very much.

I'd like to also just point out for probity reasons, and like any other Market Sounding or procurement process, from now verbal questions will not be accepted going forward. Any questions throughout the market sounding will need to be submitted by email to the Authority’s contact officer and through to the email address that has been that has been set up to service this Market Sounding and you will find that in the information and registration pack.

All questions will be answered by email to all registered participants at the time of the response and we'll also go further to make that public, so that it is a very fair and open and transparent process.

All right so in the next steps, look actually before, I think I've actually covered the next steps and the procurement strategy, so please do be assured that we are going forward post this Market Sounding. We will drive forward our market activities starting mid to late 2023, and there will be that two-stage process.

So I now have the great joy of really wrapping up these formalities today, thank you to everyone for being involved -- that includes those of you who've made your time and used your precious time to be here today, and all of those my colleagues that have been in weeks and months of preparation to deliver what we believe is a very forward-looking, very professional, information rich, data rich process for you to take forward and to really show us your wares and your capabilities so that we can do the best for the Bradfield City Centre.

On that note, I would like to now close out today by showing a really short clip from our Chair, Ms Jennifer Westacott, as I said she was unable to be here today, but has generously offered a recorded message so over to the team to bring Jennifer into the room --

Jennifer Westacott:

I'm Jennifer Westacott, I'm the Chair of the Western Parkland City Authority. I'm sorry I can't be with you today. What we're looking for is to create in Bradfield City Centre -- a city that represents the best of the world's technology, particularly in relation to energy, digital, cyber and that whole area of circular economy.

We want to make sure that we are at the cutting edge of how consumers use energy, how they use digital systems, we want to integrate as many systems as possible. We want you to tell us about your capabilities. Help us with solutions, help us think about keeping costs down for consumers, help us thinking about getting to a net zero energy use, think about new technologies and new industries we can create and think about scaling them up across just not this city, but across the Parkland City more generally.

This will allow us to do the procurement process more efficiently as we roll out the creation of Australia’s first 22nd century city.

So we're really pleased that you're here -- bring your best people forward, we want to get your capabilities, but we also want you to join with others. Put a consortia together, think about you know how you would actually get a commercial model to work that takes the pressure off government funding.

So spend a day listening to my team as they talk you through this hugely important project. Start to make some connections with people in the room or people you know outside, and bring your best to us. Bring your solutions, your capability, your partnership, the best of your ideas.

Natalie Camilleri:

Okay well what a great message to end today's proceedings on, so thank you very much everyone let's applaud the opportunity and head outside for some morning tea.

[Applause]

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