In a ceremony held on site on 25 February, the Mayors of Cessnock and Singleton join withed the Board of Directors for Huntlee to celebrate the commencement of works on the Hunter’s first new town in more than 50 years.

Mayor Bob Pynsent (Cessnock) and Mayor John Martin (Singleton) together with Huntlee Board members will unveil a plaque which will be the first such plaque for Huntlee’s Milestone Walk to be located in the Town Centre. This Walk will acknowledge the key milestones in the development of Huntlee over the next 25 years. Located at the start of the Hunter Expressway, Huntlee upon completion will comprise four neighbourhood villages surrounding a vibrant 200ha Town Centre. In total, it will boast 7,500 dwellings. LWP Property Group is the project manager for the development with its Huntlee Syndicate having a 50% ownership share. LWP Managing Director, Danny Murphy, said it took eight long and at times very challenging years of hard work to get Huntlee off the drawing board and into reality. “The good news is that the protracted approval period has enabled us to spend a great deal of time and effort thoroughly master-planning Huntlee.

Exhaustive work has already been undertaken to ensure Huntlee is a fully considered community with a focus on education, employment and recreation opportunities for its residents.

“Huntlee represents a total investment of $1.5billion and will generate 3,000 permanent jobs and many more during the construction phase.” The Stage One works include subdivision of the first residential village, Katherine’s Landing, to accommodate up to 1,700 dwellings on 1,391 lots plus an extensive range of community facilities.

Stage One also includes development of the first 60ha in the mixed use Town Centre and up to 120 large lot residential sites. “We are already working on the first stage of the Town Centre which will include a major supermarket and other commercial and speciality retail premises,” said Mr Murphy.

“Over time, the 200ha mixed use Town Centre will cater for a range of retail, commercial, secondary education uses, as well as up to 1700 dwellings. The Town Centre is expected to accommodate more than 50,000 sqm of retail/bulky goods facilities and provide 3,000 permanent jobs. “The centrepiece will be the highly-visible $10million Town Park, recreational lake and sports grounds which will be delivered in the Stage One works and form a civic focus for the township. These facilities are adjacent to Wine Country Drive – which is upgraded in Stage One as part of its transformation to a stunning, four-lane boulevard.”

It shows the Mayor of Singleton, John Martin (4th from left), Mayor of Cessnock, Bob Pynsent (4th from

right) with Danny Murphy, MD of LWP (far right) and members of the board of Huntlee Pty Ltd.