County of Cumberland planning scheme

The County of Cumberland planning scheme, commonly known as the Cumberland Plan, was a land use and transport strategy developed by the Cumberland County Council in Sydney in 1948 and adopted by the Government of New South Wales in 1951. The plan's key elements were a green belt around Sydney and a radial motorway network, neither of which eventuated on their intended scale.

The Cumberland Plan was developed by the council's chairman John Percival Tate and chief planner Sidney Luker. It "advocated decentralization, zoning, green belts, open spaces, and improved road and rail systems".[1][2]

Though Sydney had had a comprehensive plan for its railways and a number of planned suburbs, including the city centre itself, the city as a whole had been allowed to grow organically. Suburban development in the early 20th century followed a 'starfish' pattern, closely tied to the railway and tramway lines that radiated from the centre.[3] The McKell Labor government sought to create a framework for rapid metropolitan growth in the postwar period, and legislated in 1944 for the creation of a single Sydney-wide planning authority, governed by representatives of the various local councils. The Cumberland County Council commenced operations in July 1945.[4]

An independent and illustrated account of the preparation of the plan was published by Arthur Winston in 1957. The plan was resisted by NSW Government agencies, landowners and local residents and lost its patron when the county council was abolished in 1963.[3] The plan was eventually superseded by the Sydney Region Outline Plan in 1968.[4]

The Green Belt

The most striking feature of the Plan was a vast green belt to hem in the city's sprawl. Beginning near Pennant Hills, the five-kilometre-wide belt would have curved through Western Sydney, encircling Baulkham Hills, Blacktown, Seven Hills and Liverpool before ending on the banks of the Georges River opposite East Hills. A non-contiguous section would then have covered the western Sutherland Shire, roughly bordered by the Georges River in the north and the Woronora River in the east. Motorists travelling north on the Cumberland Highway would have seen, with a few exceptions around Liverpool and Toongabbie, only green space to their left.[5]

The Green Belt augmented an already extensive national parks system around Sydney, stretching from Royal National Park in the south to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in the north.

Roads

The Plan reserved corridors for:[5]

History

Early investigations underpinning the 1951 Plan were in fact undertaken more than a decade earlier by the Department of Main Roads. The investigations were detailed in a report entitled "Main Road Development Plan for Sydney Metropolis and County of Cumberland - Part 1 Investigations Relating to the Present and Future Extent and Pattern of the Metropolis" (DMR, 1940).[6][7]

The DMR commenced surveys of land use, population densities and traffic flows in 1943. In 1945, it issued a report titled the "County of Cumberland Main Road Development Map".[8][9] When the Cumberland County Council was formed in 1946, it used some of the data collected by the DMR.[8]

The Cumberland County Council plan did not differ greatly from that produced by DMR.[8] The Main Road Development Plan "formed, with some small amendments, an important part of the Master Plan" prepared by the Cumberland County Council.[10]: 2  The DMR's road planning "required little alteration"[11] and was "apparently incorporated with little alteration" into the Cumberland County Council's plan in 1948.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Beauchamp, Clive (2004). "Tate, John Percival (1894–1977)". The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate. Vol. 2. Melbourne University Press.
  2. ^ 'Tate, John Percival (1894–1977)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2002, accessed online 11 March 2017.
  3. ^ a b Forster, Clive (1999). Australian cities: continuity and change. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
  4. ^ a b Dictionary of Sydney staff writer (2008). "County of Cumberland Planning Scheme". Dictionary of Sydney. Dictionary of Sydney Trust.
  5. ^ a b Cumberland County Council (1948). "County of Cumberland planning scheme".
  6. ^ Phllip Brogan and Brian Watters (2002). "Developer Contributions and the Containment of Urban Expansion in Sydney" (PDF). p. 6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 March 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  7. ^ Main Road Development Plan for Sydney Metropolis and County of Cumberland - Part 1 Investigations Relating to the Present and Future Extent and Pattern of the Metropolis. Department of Main Roads NSW. 1940.
  8. ^ a b c "RTA Heritage and Conservation Register – Thematic History – Second Edition 2006" (PDF). Roads & Traffic Authority NSW. 2006. p. 45. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 May 2024. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  9. ^ County of Cumberland Main Road Development Map (Map). Department of Main Roads NSW. 1945.
  10. ^ E. R. Jefferay (1963). PLANNING AND DESIGN OF URBAN EXPRESSWAYS IN N.S.W. WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND (Report). Department of Main Roads.
  11. ^ Department of Main Roads NSW (1976). The Roadmakers - A History of Main Roads in New South Wales (PDF). The Department. p. 204. ISBN 0-7240-0439-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 April 2024.
  12. ^ Hon. Justice Michael Barker President, WA State Administrative Tribunal (4 May 2007). How Planning and Environmental Law Has Shaped Our Cities (PDF). 2007 Planning Institute of Australia National Congress. p. 8. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 April 2025. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
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