Over the last few weeks, a couple of articles have crept into the local Messenger newspaper which could be the beginning of the largest real estate development in the mid northern region of Adelaide since Mawson Lakes was conceived in the late 1990′s.

A Four Billion dollar suburb plan has been proposed to create a new suburb, known as ‘Waterview’, to the west of the RAAF Edinburgh base. Utilising 357ha of land, the proposal includes the development of around 2,800 homes around a network of man-made waterways, as well as commercial and shopping hubs, schools and a railway station.

View Waterview in a larger map

The map above shows roughly where the suburb is likely to be created, according to the boundaries described in the Messegner article, providing easy access to RAAF Edinburgh, Port Wakefield Road, the Northern Expressway, and a potential future offshoot of the Gawler to Adelaide railway line. The proposed ‘Northern Connector‘ which will provide a new expressway to connect the Northern Expressway to the ‘South Road Superway‘ and the Port River Expressway, includes a new freight rail line to the west of Port Wakefield Road. This will leave an unused rail corridor to the from Salisbury to the Northern Expressway (marked in red on the map) which would hopefully be converted to become a part of Adelaide’s passenger rail network, and be extended to Virginia to provide a valuable service to this growing outer suburb.

This would provide a fantastic boost to Adelaide’s north, especially if the rail link is established. With the expansion of the RAAF Edinburgh base, such a development will ensure there is ample quality accommodation to see the north of Adelaide become Australia’s defence hub. The potential upgraded rail means it will be very easy to access other defence areas including the large contractor firms like BAE and SAAB based at Technology Park, Mawson Lakes, and the upgraded roads will provide a freeway journey most of the way to ASC at Osbourne for the Air Warfare Destroyer and Submarine development projects.

This project has only just been announced and there is some way to go to get all of the necessary approvals, but there is potential for development to commence as early as the middle of 2011. Hopefully this project will be given due consideration as an alternative to the Buckland Park proposed development, as the location is much more sensible in the fight to reduce urban sprawl. Watch this space.