Ecco Ripley is a master-

planned community A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

in the City of Ipswich,

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. It will be Queensland's biggest housing development and Australia's largest-ever master planned community. The site lies in the northern foothills of the

Flinders Peak Group The Flinders Peak Group is an unnamed range of hills located on the northern edge of the Scenic Rim Region, south west of Logan City and south east of the City of Ipswich in South East Queensland, Australia. The Summit (topography), summit in ...

in the Bundamba Creek water catchment about five kilometres south of the centre of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

. It includes development of the existing suburbs of Deebing Heights and rural Ripley. The

Green Building Council of Australia Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

rated the Ecco Ripley development with a Green Star, a first in Queensland.

Planning

In 2010, it was announced that Ripley Valley, Yarrabilba and Greater Flagstone near Jimboomba would be developed as

greenfield investment In many disciplines, a greenfield project is one that lacks constraints imposed by prior work. The analogy is to that of construction on greenfield land where there is no need to work within the constraints of existing buildings or infrastructure. ...

s in response to the region's population growth which was expected to reach 4.4 million by 2031. The site had been earmarked for development within the South East Queensland Regional Plan which was released on 28 July 2009. The Ipswich City Council worked for a number of years to generate a Ripley Valley Structure Plan. The

satellite city A satellite city or satellite town is a smaller municipality or settlement that is part of (or on the edge of) a larger metropolitan area and serves as a regional population and employment center. It differs from mere suburbs, Subdivision (la ...

is planned to accommodate 120,000 people in 50,000 homes in the rapidly developing western growth corridor of

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a Bioregion, bio-geographical, Megalopolis, metropolitan and Statistics, statistical Regions of Queensland, region of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of ...

. Ecco Ripley is the third master planned community in the western corridor, after Forest Lake and Springfield. Major transport connections include the existing Centenary Highway and an expected extension to the Springfield railway line. The urban core of Ecco Ripley, called the Town Centre, will consist of numerous civic and commercial buildings in a central hub of 194 hectares and is being developed by Japanese home building company

Sekisui House is one of Japan's largest homebuilders. It was founded on August 1, 1960 and is headquartered in Osaka. In 2009, Sekisui House expanded into Australia. The company has origins in and is affiliated with Sekisui Chemical, which once was a major ...

. Included in their plans is the creation of 4,000 homes for more than 10,000 people over 15 years. Sekisui became involved with the project after it purchased land in the Ripley Valley from

Babcock & Brown Babcock & Brown LP (B&B) was a global investment and advisory firm, established in 1977, based in Sydney, Australia, that went into liquidation in 2009. Babcock & Brown Securities LLC is an active investment banking firm focused on equipment an ...

, a Sydney-based global investment and advisory firm which went into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

in 2009.

Development

Groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, turf-cutting, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such cer ...

work was begun by Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale and Sekisui House in late October 2012. The first residents are expected to occupy homes in 2014 with full development of the project by 2057. Stage 1 of the project involves upgrades to Ripley Road, 46 residential lots, parks and a sales and information centre. Infrastructure planning such as sewage and mains water supply has been coordinated by the Urban Land Development Authority, a state government agency and the Ipswich City Council. The council allocated $19 million to spending on road, water and sewerage infrastructure in the 2013/14 financial year.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.eccoripley.com.au/ Populated places established in 2012 2012 establishments in Australia Planned residential developments Ipswich, Queensland Planned communities in Australia