Greater Springfield, also known as the Greater Springfield , is a private development undertaken by the Springfield City Group and one of the fastest growing developments in Australia - it is located in the south-west of the Brisbane metropolitan area in Queensland, Australia. It is the first privately built city in Australia and the country’s largest master planned community, encompassing 2,860 hectares designed to support population growth from Brisbane radiating out along the coastal strips from the Sunshine Coast down to the Gold Coast. In 2013, the population of Greater Springfield was estimated around 30,000, with a projection to grow to 105,000 residents by 2030. Community development is managed and coordinated by Springfield City Group. The plan is to have a group of suburbs with the population of Darwin by 2030. In 2019, Springfield City Group was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in recognition of their visionary entrepreneurship in establishing Springfield, as a nation-building project and Australia's first privately-constructed city.
History
Greater Springfield was founded in 1993. The land was originally purchased for A$7.9 million and acquired in 1991 by Maha Sinnathamby and Bob Sharpless. Sinnathamby and Sharpless assembled a team and developed Greater Springfield masterplan based on interconnected pillars of health, education and information technology. The Local Government Act 1997 was gazette in view of the long term nature of development being undertaken across Greater Springfield. This Act gave rise to a unique Planning Regime which provides certainty to the developer. The Structure Plan established a unique assessment process that ensures the intentions, provisions and understanding in and behind the Springfield Structure Plan are not to be overreached or changed through Local Planning Policies so to adversely affect the development entitlements conferred by the Structure Plan. All levels of Government recognise that the achievement of this goal is essential to ensure the certainty of the development rights. From Springfield City Group's viewpoint such certainty is essential to the future proofing of the project.
The first stage of Springfield's largest shopping centre, Orion Springfield Central, has been open since 15 March 2007. Major tenants now include Woolworths, Big W, Coles, Target and Event Cinemas. Greater Springfield’s Mater Private Hospital is an 80-bed, $85 million facility which provides a number of medical and surgical services. The 10,000 m2 hospital features four operating theatres, inpatient wards, a day surgery unit and medical imaging services as well as a combination of inpatient, day and chemotherapy beds supported. As of 2017, the hospital hosted 40 private doctors and 260 total employees. 600,000 square metres of land has been set aside for commercial space, which is called the Parkside business precinct. The precinct already contains a 10-story tower which cost $60 million to build, as well as GE HQ and Polaris Data Centre. The Polaris data centre was built at Springfield, opened in 2009 storing data for a range of companies including Dell, Suncorp and HP. The datacentre cost $220 million to construct and was designed by Strategic Directions. In 2016, Greater Springfield’s town centre, Orion Springfield Central, was expanded to provide over 165 commercial spaces for commercial businesses. This town centre also features Robelle Domain, a 24-hectare public space featuring boardwalks, sporting areas, playgrounds and water parks. Within Robelle Domain is Orion Lagoon, an inland water park and paddle pool features pools from 0.3m to 1.5m and a range of public amenities. In 2018, Aveo Springfield opened its first two buildings, providing 86 living spaces for elderly residents. The seniors living community is expected to host more than 2500 living spaces once the development is completed.
Schools
Greater Springfield now hosts 10 different schools, offering both primary and secondary, public and private education. An 11th school in the Greater Springfield area opened in January 2019, Spring Mountain State School. The Springfield Anglican College has a campus on Springfield College Drive, with a second campus on the Springfield-Greenbank Arterial road. In 2008, St. Peters Lutheran College Springfield was opened with the school celebrating its 10 year anniversary with a book launch. The University of Southern Queensland has a campus in Springfield. Classes began in February 2006. In 2015, a new four-story, 9000 square meter building, known as Building B, was opened at a cost of $45 million. TAFE Queensland South West, previously Bremer Institute of TAFE also has a campus in Springfield.
