Connecting With Country: Lessons from Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport

How can major infrastructure projects ensure Aboriginal knowledge and perspectives contribute meaningfully to decisions about planning and design?

The Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport project offers an example of how First Nations-led engagement can inform the development of major transport infrastructure.

The project was selected as a pilot under the NSW Government Architect’s Connecting with Country Framework, which encourages built environment projects to recognise and respond to Country and Aboriginal knowledge.

GHD, working alongside Zion Engagement and Planning and Michael Mossman, supported Sydney Metro to establish a long-term approach to engagement with Aboriginal communities and Knowledge Holders.

Building relationships before developing solutions

Rather than beginning with a predetermined engagement process, the project team first sought to understand how Aboriginal stakeholders wanted to work with Sydney Metro.

This early engagement informed the establishment of a Connecting with Country Working Group comprising Dharug and Dharawal Traditional Custodians.

Through workshops involving storytelling, deep listening and relationship-building, Working Group members shared knowledge to inform the project’s approach to planning and design.

The process recognised that meaningful participation requires more than an opportunity to comment. It also depends on culturally appropriate ways of working, relationships and continuity.

Connecting engagement with project design

A key outcome was the development of Connecting with Ngura, a document created collaboratively with the Working Group.

The document provides guidance for Sydney Metro and its delivery partners on responding to Country throughout the project.

Importantly, this guidance was incorporated into the tender process, with Working Group members involved as expert advisers.

According to GHD, engagement continued as project teams worked to understand how the guidance could inform planning and design.

Sydney Metro’s subsequent project reporting also describes continued engagement with the Working Group and the integration of responses to Country into design activities.

What can infrastructure professionals take away?

The project highlights several considerations for teams seeking to strengthen First Nations engagement.

Establish how people want to participate. Engagement approaches should recognise cultural authority and be developed with the people whose knowledge and perspectives are being sought.

Allow time to build relationships. Trust and meaningful participation depend on continuity, not simply the number of engagement activities delivered.

Connect engagement with project decisions. Processes and documentation need to create opportunities for Aboriginal knowledge to inform planning, procurement and design.

Maintain involvement throughout delivery. Early engagement is only one part of the process. Ongoing relationships can help project teams continue learning and responding as decisions progress.

The experience offers a practical example of how engagement can be connected to the systems and decisions that shape major infrastructure.

For practitioners, it raises an important question: are engagement processes designed only to gather input, or do they create genuine opportunities for that input to influence what gets built?

READ GHD’S PROJECT STORY

EXPLORE THE CONNECTING WITH NGURA DOCUMENT