Camden Town Farm, where you find the Saturday markets, looks like it will be undergoing some changes to bring in more tourists and to create educational and event spaces.

The plan is to create spaces for private functions in open paddock areas using lawn marquees (area 2c, 3, & 7), add two car parks along Exeter Street in (area 8 & 9), which will probably help with parking around the Bicentennial Equestrian Park and the cricket fields of Onslow Park; open a music festival area that might also be used for a night food markets, an open air cinema, machinery exhibitions and other pop-up events (Area 7). On first blush it seems like a reasonable and practical plan for a part of town that is perhaps a little underused. You can see the full development application here. 

UPDATE: We have now been able to find the updated plans for the Dairy Co-op and Function Centre that were previously on the Council website in March 2017. They are no longer on the Council website but you can find them here. The image above has been changed to reflect this more recent proposal. We are not sure why these more recent plans are no longer available but it would suggest they continue to go through further modifications. You can find the original plan that previously headed this story here.


This proposed development application (DA/2016/169/1 - showing the original plan) has been working through Camden Council since February last year. My understanding is that it has been returned a few times to the applicant for changes. The aim is to produce a structure that includes five new restaurants, a function centre and car parking.

This is a very significant and quite bulky development at the gateway to Camden. To give readers some context, the location of the old Dairy Farmers Co-op was named in the Camden Town Centre Vision 2014 report as a key-site for Camden and it was suggested that special zoning be introduced to allow for its development. As far as I'm aware, that zoning has not yet come before the Council.

The key consideration with this development is that it will be the first significant building that will be seen by visitors coming along Camden Valley Way as they arrive in Camden. It is essentially a gateway development. The size of the building also means it will obscure the Dairy Co-op. For this reason its design is crucial and should be in sympathy and representative of the character of the town.

Camden is a relatively successful township in terms of retail, small business, and visitor numbers. This is due in large part to its unique character, which has recently attracted a range of new and quite vibrant enterprises. If this new building turns out to be inconsistent with the character of Camden, it will immediately change the first impressions and even sense of Camden as visitors arrive. Its design could also potentially set a precedent that will likely encourage other developments of an inconsistent type. If that occurs, the unique character of Camden in the Sydney basin, which is its economic strength, will disappear.

In terms of the future of Camden, this one building potentially has a huge flow-on impact. Clearly, Council officers have some concerns as it is over a year since this development application was submitted, so its future is not guaranteed. Even with that in mind, all Camden residents and business owners should watch this closely. 

A subdivision of 70-80 residential blocks has been proposed for three large lots adjacent to Turner Road and Newmarket St, Currans Hill. The developer aims to rezone the area from E4 (Environmental Living) to R1 (Residential). You can see the current zoning here (pdf). 

This is not part of the South West Growth Area, so it falls entirely under Camden Council's purview. You can find all the documents relating to the development here. 

Recent discussion around transition zoning between Currans Hill and Smeaton Grange potentially makes this an interesting case. Should the report on the transition zoning suggestion return and the Council votes on the creation of such a zone, this could have an impact on the western point of this block.