Leesha McKenny
They say you can see the Great Wall from space, but it is Bruce Zhong's dream for Australia to see the Forbidden City from the M1 motorway.
The final days of the Year of the Horse will be crucial in advancing his plans to build a $500 million Chinese cultural theme park – working title "Chappypie China Time" –. on 15 hectares of industrial land on the Central Coast.
Mr Zhong, a former Sydney journalist and self-described "culturati", expects to this month submit a development application for the first stage of a complex that promises to integrate "culture and happiness, nature and spirit".
The Forbidden City in Beijing, China, may be recreated on the Central Coast
Mr Zhong, who has never built a theme park, said he "eventually" settled on the Warnervale site, about 100km north of Sydney, as the ideal location for what has been likened to "Chinese Disneyland" after the idea failed to capture the imaginations of other councils, including Penrith and Gosford.
The first stage of the park will open in 2016 "at the earliest", he said, ahead of all 12 stages by 2020.
The $500 million theme park is proposed for the Central Coast.
Wyong's mayor Doug Eaton has emerged as one of the most enthusiastic backers for what the council's website calls "one of the biggest tourism projects NSW [has] ever seen".
"I believe it is likely that other theme parks will follow the Chinese one to Warnervale," Cr Eaton said.
The $500 million theme park is proposed for the Central Coast.
"Initially they wanted council – and this is obviously where everyone would have laughed at them – they wanted council to donate the land," Cr Eaton said.
"And we obviously said 'no, councils in Australia don't do things like that'."
But the $10 million "sale" of the council-owned site to Australia China Theme Park Pty Ltd, of which Mr Zhong is chief executive, has fuelled local concerns about the deal.
"The proponent for the theme park have been given a very generous concession by the council," said John Asquith, the chairman of the Central Coast Community Environment Network.
Council documents show Mr Zhong's company, which opened offices in Kent Street last month but is still registered to a Parramatta townhouse, secured the land with an initial deposit of just $10,000.
Two subsequent instalments have since brought the total amount paid to just $70,000. A $30,000 payment is due next month.
Mr Zhong said the project was to be funded by the company's Chinese-Australian directors and those keen to invest for immigration purposes. It had already secured the $30 million for the development's first stage, he said.
Cr Eaton rejects that the company has received a "sweetheart" deal, saying the project carried the potential of thousands of jobs and had already boosted other Chinese investment in Wyong.
But independent councillor Bob Graham counts among those yet to be convinced the theme park will go ahead as proposed.
"Who would spend a half of a billion dollars on putting a Chinese theme park where here over the years we've had to close down Old Sydney Town?"
"I believe there's an ulterior motive. What it is, I don't have a clue," he said.
But the theme park's project manager, John O'Grady from the multinational service consultancy Cardno, said his clients were committed to the "mindblowing" proposal.
"They're very serious about this," he said. "There seems to be no reason why they won't move forward and finish the whole project."
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