M4 East Documents
These documents were collated by the groups involved in the campaign. We are indebted to the NSW Greens for their assistance in allowing several of these documents to see the light of day!
2004
M4 East Information Leaflet
This leaflet was distributed in the affected suburbs during mid-1994.
>>View document
M4 East Newspaper - EcoTransit News
Distributed late 2004
>>View p.1, p.2, p.3, and p.4
M4 East Submission
>>View document
2007
SECRET PLANS FOR INNER WEST MOTORWAY
Background
In the face of strong community opposition the NSW Government put the $1.6, (now almost $2), billion M4 East on hold in 2005, saying it would conduct further investigations. The government, including former local Balmain MP, Sandra Nori, said they support the M4 East but that it needs more work. The community was led to believe further investigations would occur into the publicly available options that people were consulted about in 2005.
The options made available to the public all extended from Parramatta Road Concord to Parramatta Road Haberfield. They also linked into the City West Link (either at Haberfield or Rozelle depending on the option). There was no mention of any of these options of extending further to the east along Parramatta Road to Stanmore and Annandale or Camperdown. However secret RTA documents now reveal that the original M4 East was always planned as the first stage of a much bigger project, with future "easterly extension" included in the RTA's original thinking. It is now clear the government has been working on, and was always planning a much bigger network that the community knows nothing about.
The Greens were successful in having some documents presented in parliament but it is clear from those tabled that the government has withheld large numbers of documents. The outcome of the above investigations is unknown. The Greens complained to the Clerk in early 2007 regarding missing documents and he undertook to write to the Head of the Premiers Department regarding these missing documents. After that the Clerk was retrenched and Parliament prorogued.
Documents
Documents were obtained through Parliament by the Greens. Originally these were thought to refer to the existing M4 East and the EIS for that document. Closer scrutiny shows the RTA also included emails and documents outlining their future plans for this motorway. Weeks before Minister Knowles put the M4 East on hold the RTA proposed a delay of 18 months to allow a strategic study to be undertaken into "an extended Inner West Motorway to include M4 East, Extension to Port and Airport and F6".
Subsequent documents show that the RTA did commence investigations into a M4 East to Port Botany link including "a tunnel from the M4 to the Mascot/Botany area would involve a tunnel connecting to Campbell Road south of Princes Highway…and an option [for] an interchange with Parramatta Road near Pyrmont Bridge Road."
Graphic of Inner West Motorway as printed in the Daily Telegraph in March 2007
This map was based on the details contained the emails of RTA staff - we are referring to them here as the "Mal Cross email'(see below).
M4 East Ways Forward Pages 1 & 2:
Outlines the RTA's plan to put the M4 East on hold in order to undertake "a strategic study for an extended Inner West Motorway to include M4 East, Extension to Port and Airport and F6". An internal document headed M4 East Ways Forward shows the government was planning the Inner West Motorway which would cost $4.8 billion and cause a "major issue at Camperdown". The route exiting at Camperdown would revive the old Glebe motorway proposal that we thought had been killed off decades ago. We know the RTA has been undertaking traffic studies in the area. Mysteriously, these have gone missing.
>>View p. 1 and p. 2
Mal Cross email:
Head of RTA Motorways discussing how traffic from the proposed F6 would be able to access the Airport, the M5 East and possibly a motorway that extends to the north (to Parramatta Road, Anzac Bridge, Victoria Road and then even to M4). Describes options that would allow traffic from the proposed F6 to access the Airport and M5 East and "a motorway that extends to the north (to Parramatta Road, Anzac Bridge, Victoria Road and then even to M4)."
>>View p. 1 and p. 2
CApex:
Shows the Inner West Motorway (IWM) and Victoria Road extension as part of the M4 East Project cashflow model.
>>View Document
Schedule A:
Lists some of the missing documents we are yet to receive.
>>View Document