These families chased the Australian dream — it came with a catch.
It's an idyllic scene: children riding their bikes down a quiet street, new houses filled with families on one side, masses of green space to the other.
But the parents who moved their families to Marsden Park — about 50 kilometres from Sydney's CBD — face some tough choices.
A lack of transport options means long, costly commutes to work, and time away from their kids.
And that green space isn't a park.
"This is supposed to be the location of the high school," Alpesh Puwar says of the greenfield site about 200 metres from his home.
"There's nothing there, so now we are thinking of our other options."
In some of the Harbour City's newest suburbs, families have bought into the Australian dream.
Many migrants moved here, lured by the promise of a brighter future for their children, but a lack of critical infrastructure and services, like schools and childcare, has left some struggling, and questioning if they made the right choice.
Expensive toll roads and limited public transport have put pressure on families, even before mounting interest rates blew out the household budget.
These communities could hold the key to next month's NSW election, as the Labor opposition and even a teal independent eye a swathe of Coalition seats on the city's outskirts.
About 14,400 people live in Marsden Park, but the local council estimates that, by 2040, more than 53,000 will call it home.
Alpesh and his wife Falguni are among those looking at real estate ads again.
The couple migrated to Australia from India almost 10 years ago, and, thought the suburb ticked all the boxes.
While they knew they were buying into a new development, there were promises to improve access to public transport, build a high school, and lay new roads.
"The main reason for us to move here in 2019 was the high school," Alpesh says.
"The first year we were here, everybody was asking and talking about the school ... now we hear there's no plan until 2025."
Then-premier Gladys Berejiklian in 2019 announced a high school would be built at Marsden Park.
It was supposed to be finished this year.
In 2021, the NSW government's $17.7 billion education blueprint included funding for it, but a planning review by School Infrastructure NSW from last year revealed the campus wouldn't be open until 2025.
Labor has pledged to build a “fast-tracked” high school at Marsden Park if elected next month, and claims it will be open by the start of next year.
One of the closest public high schools to the Puwar's house is at The Ponds, 10km away.
Student numbers there are almost 70 per cent overcapacity.
The Puwars have enrolled their children in nearby private schools.
"It wasn't painful for the first year too much, but this year definitely after the increasement of interest rates, now we're paying 50 per cent more on our mortgage," Aplesh says.
"We knew we were sacrificing with travel and with the mortgage when we moved here, we didn't know the education would be missing as well."
Families with four-hour commutes
Marsden Park is a fast-growing suburb and a prime example of the new communities popping up on the outskirts of Australia's most expensive housing market.
The latest Census data revealed 69 per cent of residents are couples with children.
Almost half the households have two cars — 12 per cent higher than the national average.
They need them.
Afrin Sultana and her family live close to the Puwars.
Her commute to work at Sydney Airport can sometimes mean a four-hour return trip on public transport.
Driving takes about three, but costs $44 a day in tolls.
Either way, it's time she'd rather be spending with her family.
"If I take the train, I leave early to get a car space at the station ... it fills so fast," Afrin says.
"Sometimes I feel guilty being away from my children so long, they sometimes call me in the morning."
Afrin and her husband Towhid Islam moved their family from Bangladesh three years ago.
They were trying to escape Towhid's nightmare daily commute to work, which could take two hours each way.
"Bangladesh has so many people it takes four or five hours to get to work for my husband, but I take about the same now," Afrin says.
Towhid is not convinced he made the right decision leaving Bangladesh.
"I have to ask myself, what am I doing?" he says.
"If in my country, I am driving two hours and here it's more than three hours for my wife to get to work, why am I here?"
The Coalition's $16.8 billion WestConnex toll road could shave about 40 minutes off Afrin's drive to the airport when it's finished in 2025.
The government is also spending $12.4 billion to build four driverless metro train lines, two of which will give people living on Sydney's outskirts more public transport options.
The total project isn't due to be finished until 2030.
Labor has promised to expand the number of lanes on the main arterial road leading out of Marsden Park, as well as create more bus stops in the area. It also claims it's going to cap tolls at $60 a week for motorists.
Meanwhile, the Coalition's toll-road rebates plan means people spending thousands annually to drive on Sydney's motorways can apply to get up to $750 back.
'McDonald's built faster than schools'
Tom Nance, manager of strategy and delivery at Western Sydney University, says moving to the city fringes in a bid to improve your lifestyle is part of the Australian dream.
"Many people want that quarter-acre block, but a subsequent lack of access to key pieces of infrastructure, such as public transport and schools, inevitably drives up costs for families."
"Often people assume these facilities will be present, so won't factor that sort of thing in before moving there."
He says families that move to suburbs like Marsden Park could feel cost-of-living pressures more than most, "because they're now having to make choices about driving longer distances and the financial stress of living disconnected".
"Residents understandably get frustrated when they see the McDonald's go up a lot faster than a school in these areas, so it is critical that the rollout of infrastructure is planned appropriately."
"Too early and you have empty classrooms or vacant train carriages, too late and you have areas like Marsden Park and Camden where people are left waiting."
Atia Naznin, who moved to Sydney from Bangladesh with her husband in 2017, just wants help so she can get back to the job she loves.
The law professor gave birth to a daughter in December.
The waiting list for a place at the only childcare centre in Marsden Park is already 18 months long.
Atia asked the baby's grandmothers to come from Bangladesh to help, but they're leaving soon — a major hurdle to her plans to return to work on her university's campus.
"It's not a long-term solution," she says.
"My mother-in-law is leaving in a month, so we have to start thinking of a suitable plan if we can't get into childcare."
Atia is hopeful she will be able to juggle her career and growing family.
"My older son has been on the waitlist for more than a year ... it's been a challenge," she says.
The seats around Sydney's fringes could be critical to forming government on March 25.
Most are held by the Liberals, but the growing pains in housing developments, coupled with redrawn electoral boundaries, have given both major parties headaches.
Labor will likely need to win several of them if it is to emerge from 12 years of opposition.
To the south west, Climate 200-backed independent Judy Hannan is also rated a chance to claim the seat of Wollondilly.
This map shows 10 crucial electorates on the Harbour City's outskirts.
Click on them to find out more about the candidates and what's at stake.
Marsden Park was advertised as a place for families where "liveability matters most".
It was part of the reason Alpesh and his family traded in their apartment in Wentworthville to move further out.
But as development outpaces infrastructure, their version of the Australian dream has been recast.
And, for some families here, the cost-of-living crunch being felt around the country is even more pronounced.
"We moved here for the best education and the best quality of life ... we have come a long way and worked so hard, but we didn't think it would be this hard," he says.
"Australia has given us a lot, and this community is something we've wanted.
"What we want, any party like Labor or Liberal, doesn't matter, is to make promises and keep them."
Credits:
Editor: Riley Stuart
Video: Tim Swanston, Ross Byrne
Photography: Tim Swanston, Ross Byrne, Maryanne Taouk, Flavio Brancaleone, Jeremy Ng, Dominic Lorrimer
