‘It’s a transformation’: Inside Bradfield, Australia’s first new city in 100 years

Bradfield City has reached the point where it can stop being spoken about as a future promise and start being sold as a powerful economic proposition.

Australia’s first new city in 100 years is being built in Western Sydney at a moment when several major forces are converging: a new international airport, billions of dollars in infrastructure, a growing and skilled population, future-focused industries and a long-overdue push to create high-value economic opportunity west of Sydney’s traditional centre of gravity.

For the Bradfield Development Authority, that makes the timing of its newly unveiled Built for what’s next positioning deliberate.

“Creating a new city doesn’t happen overnight,” said Ken Morrison, chief executive officer of the Bradfield Development Authority.

“There’s a hell of a lot that was vital to get to this point, but we knew we needed to mark this point very strongly.”

The positioning arrives as Bradfield moves from years of planning, infrastructure and industry engagement into a phase focused on private sector participation.

The new campaign, developed with creative consultancy Common Ventures, is the public expression of that shift. But the bigger story is the brand being built underneath it: a new city designed around innovation, liveability, connectivity and Western Sydney’s next economic chapter.

Bradfield sits within the Western Sydney Aerotropolis, an 11,200-hectare area around Western Sydney International Airport. Morrison said the scale is equivalent to placing an area over Sydney stretching from the harbour to Botany and from Bondi to the inner west.

At the centre of that transformation is Bradfield City, backed by $28 billion in government infrastructure and billions more in private investment.

“There is so much happening in this part of the world. It’s really a transformation of Western Sydney,” Morrison said.

The anchor is the new Western Sydney International Airport, which is due to open this year. Morrison described the airport as an economic game-changer that will drive development in Western Sydney for decades.

“That is incredibly important, and as everybody would understand, that’s also an economic game changer,” he said.

“It is a big engine which will drive economic development in Western Sydney forever.”

Bradfield is not trying to be another Sydney CBD, Parramatta or Macquarie Park. Its identity is being built around a different economic role.

Morrison said the city’s foundations are innovation, liveability and connectivity.

“There was an innovation focus and a liveability focus and a connectivity focus,” he said.

“They’re not just buzzwords. They’re inherent in the strategy of delivering this city.”

The innovation piece is being built around advanced manufacturing, semiconductor advanced packaging, quantum, advanced sensors and med tech.

“This is Bradfield’s DNA, which is different from the Sydney CBD DNA, or Parramatta CBD DNA, or Macquarie Park’s DNA,” Morrison said.

“We’re not trying to copy some other city. We’re creating a DNA.”

That DNA is already visible in the early infrastructure.

Innovation at its core

Bradfield’s first building houses the Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility, designed to help businesses upscale and innovate. A second building is about to begin construction and will include an advanced semiconductor packaging facility, supporting sectors such as quantum, advanced sensors and med tech.

The Bradfield City Centre itself spans 114 hectares, around 60% of the size of Sydney’s CBD. Its long-term vision includes 20,000 jobs and 10,000 dwellings.

Morrison said the liveability piece is as important as the industry proposition.

The city’s Central Park is being designed around the First Nations concept of Sky Country and will create a major arrival point from the metro station. Crucially, Morrison said, it will not be treated as a later-stage amenity.

“It’s not going to be there 10 years later. It’s going to be there on day one of the city,” he said.

That matters because Bradfield is being built to attract businesses first, but people soon after.

The immediate strategy is B2B. The authority is inviting companies, developers and investors to locate in Bradfield, particularly those connected to future industries and global supply chains.

“In coming up with the framing here, we knew that we’re in a phase of Bradfield which was all about B2B,” Morrison said. “Now is the phase where we’re inviting businesses to locate in Bradfield.”

Ashley Langton, director, communications and engagement at Bradfield Development Authority, said Built for what’s next was designed to be simple enough to stretch across those different phases.

“Built for what’s next is deliberately simple, because it really lets those key characteristics of the city shine through,” Langton said.

The campaign’s second phase leans into the “built for” platform to speak directly to business audiences, including messages such as “built for business, designed for life”.

“Every part of that campaign line is doing a job to support objectives,” Langton said.

The Western Sydney workforce is central to the pitch.

Morrison described the region as large, growing, young, diverse and highly skilled. He pointed to engineering as one example, noting that 50% of University of New South Wales engineering students come from Western Sydney.

“The skills are there. There’s no doubt about that,” he said.

That talent base is a major selling point for companies being asked to locate in Bradfield. So is the airport.

Western Sydney International Airport will open with capacity similar to Adelaide Airport, but has the ability to grow to the scale of Heathrow over time.

“This is where Sydney’s aviation growth lands,” Morrison said.

Its 24/7 operation is one of Bradfield’s sharpest commercial advantages, particularly for freight, manufacturing and businesses tied to Asia Pacific markets.

Morrison said late-night flights, including planned Singapore Airlines services, show how the airport can change the region’s connection to Asia. Passengers will be able to leave late at night and arrive in Singapore early in the morning, ready for a working day or onward connections.

“The economic drivers that the airport unlocks will be immense, and will just continue to grow,” he said.

The timing is what gives the proposition its weight.

The airport opens this year. Metro, road and bus infrastructure are coming together. The advanced manufacturing facilities are underway. Global interest in supply chains, semiconductors, data, advanced manufacturing and Asia connectivity is rising.

Morrison said Bradfield could not have made this pitch five years ago.

“It needs the airport,” he said. “The government investment stimulates private investment, and so you need the airport, you need that extra government investment going into the precinct, and then we are able to deliver Bradfield within that context.

“It is exactly the right time to be doing this.”

The campaign developed with Common Ventures gives that moment a market-facing platform.

Tasked with attracting global investors, tier one developers and C-suite decision-makers, the work focuses on Bradfield as a de-risked, government-backed investment opportunity.

But the campaign is only one part of the shift. Bradfield is no longer just asking people to imagine a future city. It is asking businesses to help build one.

Langton said the opportunity is rare because the authority is not simply promoting a place that already exists.

“It’s incredibly exciting to be part of bringing Australia’s first new city in 100 years to life,” she said.

“It’s that rare opportunity that you’re not just marketing a place that already exists. You’re actually shaping how it’s understood before it does.”