Orchardtown Road, New Lambton

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What's happening at Orchardtown Road?

We are improving safety and the look and feel of Blackbutt Village, Orchardtown Road, New Lambton as part of our Local Centres program.

Key features of our upgrade include:

  • A new 40km/hr zone, making it safer for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.
  • An off-road shared pedestrian and cycle path.
  • A new pedestrian crossing, providing a safer link between the western car park and the shops.
  • Footpath connections to Blackbutt Reserve, Novocastrian Park and Richley Reserve.
  • Wider footpaths and new plazas to improve outdoor dining and promote activation of the centre.
  • Renewal of drainage, kerb, gutter, road, lighting, and street furniture.
  • Improvements to the natural environment and increased shade with additional tree planting and ground cover, including over a 100 new trees and 23 garden beds.

What is the current status?


    • New footpaths and the planting of street trees on Freyberg Street and Dunkley Avenue are complete.
    • Work to upgrade drainage, undertake landscaping and improve access for pedestrians and shoppers in the western car park and shopping area is now complete. Minor works in this area will continue over the coming months, including further landscaping, lighting and commissioning of murals.
    • The majority of the 130 new trees planned for the upgrade have been planted to improve the natural environment and increase shade in the area. 

To minimise impact on business operations and access for shoppers in the lead up to the busy Christmas and New Year period we will postpone the start of our final stage of major works until early 2025. This includes upgrade of the Carnley Avenue intersection and traffic signals, and delivery of the new community spaces near Myra Street and near the Carnley Avenue intersection. 

In the meantime, we will continue to deliver other improvements including new footpaths in Freyberg Street, and along Orchardtown Road near Novocastrian Park. You will also see the last of three new murals come to life in the area next to Katilly's Boutique.

We will also install smart parking sensors to collect parking occupancy and turnover data, which will assist us with future planning to better manage parking. The sensors will be installed in both the Western and Eastern Car Parks in November. 

We will provide updates to businesses and residents in advance of work commencing in their area. As we deliver these works there will be diversions in place, and noise from machinery. Please follow the directions of signage and our team on site.

Have your say

Thank you for having your say - Community Plaza's
Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on two new community spaces for Blackbutt Village via our online survey. Feedback has now closed. We are currently reviewing your feedback and will report back soon. Visit the Have Your Say Page for more details.

Thank you for having your say - Timed Parking
During earlier consultation we heard the availability of safe parking options is important to the local community. We sought feedback from local businesses, and then asked for broader community feedback on a range of timed (not paid) parking options in the area. Thank you to everyone who provided their feedback.
With the eastern and western car parks completed the new timed parking restrictions have now been installed. Parking will remain free of charge and more information on these parking restrictions can be found here on our Have Your Say website.

Latest news

30 July 2024 - City of Newcastle delivers a splash of colour to Blackbutt Village

5 July 2022 - Community feedback sought on parking at Blackbutt Village

15 June 2022 - Improved connection to Richley Reserve as Blackbutt Village upgrade progresses

28 Feb 2022 - Multimillion dollar Blackbutt Village upgrade ready to commence

Project background

We ran an online survey in December 2017 to gain feedback from the community about issues related to the public domain and priorities for improvements. In June 2019 we undertook place experience (PX) surveys with 50 community members to gather further community input. You can view the results in the PX2 Assessment.

The information provided by the community was used with data gathered from a site analysis to inform the draft Blackbutt Village, Orchardtown Road Public Domain and Traffic Plan which was on public exhibition for community comment from 2 March 2020 until 23 April 2020. A community workshop scheduled for 28 March 2020 had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 and instead a visioning survey was undertaken online with community members who had signed up for the workshop.

The exhibition results have been analysed and are available in the following reports:

Following the public exhibition, we finalised the Public Domain Plan in line with community submissions. The final Public Domain Plan was adopted by the elected Council on 22 September 2020. We then completed our design, and commenced construction in March 2022.

The Public Domain Planning Process Flow Chart (PDF) outlines the process in more detail.