TAFE takes out top award
TAFE NSW – Western Sydney Institute has been named the 2010 Australian Large Training Provider of the Year, at the Australian Training Awards The accolade – one of the Australian Training Awards’ highest honours – comes on the back of the Institute being named NSW Large Training Provider of the Year for two years in a row. Asia Pacific glass packaging and manufacturing company, O-I, at Penrith, won the Australian Training Industry Award for Manufacturing.
Professor awarded NHMRC Fellowship
Professor Patrick Tam, deputy director of the Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI), at Westmead, and head of its Embryology Research Unit, has been awarded the highest level of National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Fellowship. Fellowships are highly sought after and competitive, with recipients usually in the top 10 per cent of their fields.
Westmead $7 million for hospital
The Children’s Hospital at Westmead will benefit from more than $7 million in funding for essential medical equipment and refurbishments to the hospital’s emergency department resuscitation room.
Plans for education facility
Initial moves have been made to establish a university annexe at Norwest Business Park offering postgraduate studies to the growing professional population in the Hills. Hills businessman Jim Taggart has joined forces with the head of the NSW branch of the Civil Contractors Federation, David Elliott, and the general manager at Crowne Plaza Norwest, Brian McHenry, to turn the dream into a reality. While the working party will be talking to Australian universities, members are also looking at a number of overseas establishments including the University of Massachusetts, in Boston, USA.
Opportunities for the aerospace industry
The Parramatta-based Regional Development Australia (RDA) Sydney held a meeting, in Bankstown, on the opportunities for NSW manufacturers in the defence and aerospace industry and the issues it faces.
Expansion and rebranding
Indicative of the growth of accounting firm WHK Horwath is the expansion of its Norwest office with the leasing of up to 500 square metres in a new building. The office, which opened in 2005, has increased its staff from six to 34 over that time. From January1 next year the company will be rebranded Crowe Horwath, adopting the name of the global accounting and management consultancy it is affiliated with, Crowe Horwath International, to signal that the Australian firm has an international capability.
Wipro to open data centre
Indian technology outsourcer, Wipro, which opened an office in the Parramatta CBD in 2008 with 30 staff, is attempting to break into the Australian data centre market as it increases the scope of work it carries out on behalf of local clients, which include banks, utilities and telecommunications companies. Wipro employs 1000 people in Australia; one-third of which are Australians.
$9 million for research
Researchers at the Kids Research Institute, at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, are involved in 15 projects that have been awarded more than $ 9 million from 2011, by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Shopping centre is on the market
The Top Ryde City shopping centre, opened in August 2010, is for sale with expectations of about $700 million. The 78.100-square metre (GLA) centre, which contains a Myer department store, a Big W and dozens of other specialty stores, was said to be worth $840 million three years ago.
$37 million for apartment towers
Crown International Holdings Group has paid $37 million to build five residential towers and 430 apartments above the 80,000-square-metre Top Ryde City shopping centre, which opened in August this year. Construction of the first two towers is expected early next year The company is building or planning development at Rhodes and Parramatta, and has completed a low-rise apartment building at Newington.
$75,000 grant for research
Dr Rose Boutros, at the Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI) has been awarded a grant of $75,000 grant, by the Ramaciotti Foundations, to enable her to continue her biomedical research. Dr Boutros’ research is aimed at understanding cell division and how its misregulation can result in cancer.
Professor joins select group
Associate Professor Kasipathy 'Kaila' Kailasapathy, from the UWS School of Natural Sciences, joins a select group of world-class researchers to receive the Danisco International Dairy Science Award. It is only the third time the award has gone to an Australian.
$124 million facility proposed
Parramatta City Council will submit an application to the Department of Planning from the Westmead Millennium Institute for the construction of a part 7 and part 8 medical research facility with 12,921 square metres of floor space, within the grounds of Westmead Hospital. The development, which will house approximately 400 employees, has a cost of $124 million. The institute is closely affiliated with Westmead Hospital and the University of Sydney.
$60 million Bunnings store
Bunnings expects to open a $60 million store in Castle Hill next year. The two-level store will provide employment for 270 staff as well as 345 construction jobs. Bunnings hopes the development will strengthen its network in north-west Sydney. It opened a store in Seven Hills this year and will start building a store in Rouse Hill in early 2011.
Land rezoned
The NSW Government has rezoned the 550-hectare Marsden Industrial Park, which will become Sydney’s largest fully integrated commercial, industrial, bulky goods and
residential community. The precinct will accommodate 10,000 new jobs. The precinct’s largest landowner, Marsden Park Developments Pty Ltd, is expected to lodge plans to develop the first project soon - a $2 billion, 265 hectare industrial, office and residential precinct known as Sydney Business Park.
Tim Flannery honoured
Macquarie University’s Professor Tim Flannery has become the first Australian to receive the Academy of Natural Sciences' Joseph Leidy Award since it was established in 1923. The Joseph Leidy Award was established in 1923 to recognise excellence in publications, explorations, discoveries or research in the natural sciences.
India research centre
Indian Consul General, Amit Dasgupta, has launched Macquarie University’s new India Research Centre, which is designed to act as a focus, catalyst and showcase for the exciting styles of research on India already taking place within the Faculty of Arts at the university. The project began earlier this year with a donation of 100 books presented by the Indian Consul General to the university.
Consolidation of activities
Industry & Investment NSW has assisted HPM Legrand with a $36 million package to establish a 23,000 square-metre, purpose-built facility, at Prestons, to consolidate its manufacturing, research and development, supply chain operations, warehousing and head office functions.
Skoda Auto to sponsor Giants
Skoda Auto is the premier partner of the Western Sydney Giants AFL team for three years and naming rights sponsor of the Sydney Showground, which will be called Skoda Stadium, in a deal worth in excess of $1.5 million a year. Skoda, a car manufacturer based in the Czech Republic, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. Skodas were last sold in Australia in the 1980s, The brand returned to Australua in 2007. Western Sydney dealership are in Penrith and Blacktown.
Three firms win water awards
Three regional businesses are winners in Sydney Water’s annual business water efficiency awards: Swift Electroplaters, Silverwater – save water by recycling the rinse water they use in the electroplating process; Diageo Australia, Huntingwood – save water by improving maintenance and continuing to look for opportunities to improve water efficiency in the manufacturing process; and Merck, Sharp & Dohme, South Granville – save water by re-directing clean waste water from is purified water systems to the utilities cooling tower, and improving water efficiency in taps, toilets and showers.
220-unit project approved
The Sydney West Joint Regional Planning Panel has approved the demolition of buildings and construction of a 19-storey mixed-use development containing 220 residential units, at 36-46 Cowper Street, in the CBD. Estimated cost of the work: $35.7 million.
UWS signs agreement
The University of Western Sydney and Intellectual Ventures (IV) have signed a master license agreement to develop inventions and finance patenting costs for inventions. Professor John Ingleson, deputy vice-chancellor (international and development) said the agreement will see more opportunities for ideas and inventions at the UWS to be commercialised.
DA for 20-storey building
Hassall Street Pty Ltd has lodged a DA with Parramatta City Council for the construction of a 20-storey commercial building containing ground floor retail tenancies over 2 levels of basement carparking, at 1a-3 Hassall Street, in the Parramatta CBD. Estimated cost of work: $70 million.
State-of-the art facility
An $8 million state-of-the art facility for training in the emerging green-collar industry has been officially opened at TAFE NSW – Western Sydney Institute, Nirimba College in Quaker’s Hill.
$12 million investment
Baxter Healthcare, at Old Toongabbie, has launched it’s $12 million compounding facility, which replaces the current plant ensuring supply for the growing demand for compounded medications over the next decade. It will accommodate up to 150 pharmacy staff when at full capacity.
Growth over three years
Total sales by local companies in the Sydney Hills has grown from $9.8 billion to $17.1 billion in three years, according to economic modelling figures compiled by Compelling Economics for The Hills Shire Council. Local jobs have risen from 44,000 in 2007 to 51,000 jobs in January 2010. Total economic output growth has exceeded 74 per cent over the last three years.