High density around railway stations - if they serve Sydney

An eight-storey residential block in Parry Street. Inset - Booragul station, which is on a long, slow loop in the rail line, will at some point become a candidate for closure. Source: Google Earth

Mid-rise residential buildings as high as 10 storeys are coming to the suburbs, thanks to an excellent new state policy aimed at making the best use of railway stations.

But of the nine Newcastle-area stations that the new zoning will apply to, two must eventually be moved and one may be abolished. So it's obvious that state planners thought for no more than five minutes before choosing the places for densification and didn't bother to consider the long term.