Defence Establishment Orchard Hills | |
---|---|
Orchard Hills, Sydney, New South Wales in Australia | |
Location in Greater Sydney | |
Coordinates | 33°48′44″S150°41′31″E / 33.812264°S 150.6918705°E |
Type | |
Area | 1,740 hectares (4,300 acres) |
Site information | |
Owner | Department of Defence |
Operator | Royal Australian Air Force |
Site history | |
In use | 1940s –present |
Garrison information | |
Occupants | Defence Explosive Ordnance Training School |
Defence Establishment Orchard Hills (abbreviated as DEOH) is a tri-service munitions storage base of particular importance to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Located in Orchard Hills, in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, the main role of the establishment is for storage, mainteance and distribution of Explosive Ordnance such as Bombs, Bullets, Missiles, and other military explosives. The base is also home to the RAAF-run Defence Explosive Ordnance Training School, which provides training in handling explosives to all branches of the Australian Defence Force, public servants and contractor personnel. [1]
As well as the storage of munitions, other activities carried out on the 1,740-hectare (4,300-acre) site include the use of weapon ranges, firing ranges, fire training areas, and fuel storage and distribution from above ground and underground storage tanks. The site also contains a sewerage treatment plant, and two landfills for waste disposal from both site operations and general non-putrescible refuse, including building rubble. [2]
Also located on site is the privately owned Thales Ordnance Training Centre, an accredited registered training organisation that provides qualifications specific to explosives, and covering the disciplines of storage, transport, manufacture and proofing of explosive ordnance. [3]
Defence Establishment Orchard Hills encompasses a significant area of critically endangered and protected Cumberland Plain Woodland, [4] [5] which is endemic to the Western Sydney region. [6]
During siting and construction of the Western Sydney (Nancy Bird-Walton) Airport, it was announced that Defence Establishment Orchard Hills would serve as an environmental offset to compensate for destruction of the woodland associated with clearing of the airport; over 900-hectares of Defence Establishment Orchard Hills was set aside for this purpose. [7]
Part of the area established as the environmental offset has since been cleared to allow construction of a carpark for a new facility within the establishment. [8]
Other groups have raised concerns that because the property is owned by the Federal Government and was already listed for protection and conservation, it does not serve as an effective offset for the new construction. [9]
From 2019 the base saw a significant investment in infrastructure, particularly as a result of the 2020 Defence Strategic Update and Force Structure Plan. [10] In 2019, a $95m AUD Naval Guided Weapons Maintenance Facilities Project was announced, and the facility was due to be completed by July 2021 [11] but officially opened by the then Minister for Defence Peter Dutton on 5 April 2022.
On 23 July 2019, the Australian Government published an Approach To Market for a major base redevelopment. The scope of the work included: [12]
The project is valued between $300m and $400m AUD, and construction is expected to commence towards the end of 2023. [13]
The Scheyville National Park is a protected national park that is located in the northwestern suburbs of Sydney in New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The 920-hectare (2,300-acre) national park is situated approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of the Sydney central business district, northeast of Windsor, near the settlement of Scheyville. Longneck Lagoon lies in the northern section of the park. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 9 April 2010.
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Greater Western Sydney (GWS) is a large region of the metropolitan area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia that generally embraces the north-west, south-west, central-west, far western and the Blue Mountains sub-regions within Sydney's metropolitan area and encompasses 11 local government areas: Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Camden, Campbelltown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Hawkesbury,Liverpool, Parramatta, Penrith and Wollondilly. It includes Western Sydney, which has a number of different definitions, although the one consistently used is the region composed of ten local government authorities, most of which are members of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC). The NSW Government's Office of Western Sydney calls the region "Greater Western Sydney".
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The Cumberland Plain, also known as Cumberland Basin, is a relatively flat region lying to the west of Sydney CBD in New South Wales, Australia. An IBRA biogeographic region, Cumberland Basin is the preferred physiographic and geological term for the low-lying plain of the Permian-Triassic Sydney Basin found between Sydney and the Blue Mountains, and it is a structural sub-basin of the Sydney Basin.
Newington Armory is a heritage-listed former Royal Australian Navy armament depot, now used for tourism purposes, at Holker Street, Sydney Olympic Park, Cumberland Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1897 initially by the New South Wales Military Forces then by the Australian Army and later by the Royal Australian Navy. It is also known as Millennium Heritage Parklands Precinct, RAN Armament Depot Newington, Royal Australian Navy Armament Depot (RANAD), Newington Nature Reserve and Sydney Olympic Games site. The property is owned by the Sydney Olympic Park Authority. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 14 January 2011.
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