Employment opportunities building at Aura in 2019

Stockland’s $5 billion Aura community is cementing its position as a key generator of employment on the Sunshine Coast with around 340 workers currently on site daily constructing roads and future home sites.

However jobs in construction are only the beginning, with an array of major milestones in 2019 set to create hundreds of employment opportunities in areas from school teaching to retail and hospitality as well as indirect jobs in the region.

Aura will this year celebrate the opening of the first businesses in the $215 million Aura Business Park, its first shopping centre, its first early learning centre and family-friendly tavern – all significant boosts for local employment. In addition, construction will ramp up on its next suburb of Aura Central.

Josh Sondergeld, Project Director at Stockland, said Aura was designed as a sustainable world-class community and he was thrilled to see much-needed employment continuing to be created as a result of the project.

“Stockland will invest $10 billion in the Sunshine Coast region over the next 20 years, and it is anticipated that 20,000 new long-term jobs will be created at Aura, sealing its position as a self-sustainable, vibrant economic hub,’’ Mr Sondergeld said.

“Once complete, Aura is forecast to give the Sunshine Coast economy an 11 per cent boost with a $1.5 billion contribution per year and our vibrant community will be a driving force behind the economic growth of one of the fastest growing regions in Australia.

“Aura currently accounts for more than 25 per cent of the growth in the Sunshine Coast’s population, averaging 2,000 new residents a year.”

Mr Sondergeld said that paramount to the design of Aura has been the philosophy of live, work and play, and the creation of prime employment opportunities for new residents within walking or cycling distance from homes.

By the numbers:

• Extra teachers and staff have started work this year at Baringa State Primary School in Aura, bringing their total to 40, following the completion of an extension fast-tracked to meet demand.
• Aura’s first early learning centre, an innovative $3.7 million facility which will be operated by Goodstart Early Learning, is now open and is expected to employ 26 staff this year.
• Scores of contractors are currently involved in the construction of new homes in Aura’s first suburb of Baringa, which has been growing at the rate of approximately 10 families a week for the past 12 months.
• Aura Business Park is expected to ultimately generate around 3,000 new jobs once complete. More than two-thirds of the first two stages have been sold to a variety of buyers, including car wholesalers, online clothing retailers, veterinarians, cabinet-makers and builders, with the first businesses set to move in during the first half of 2019.
• The $33 million Stockland Baringa Shopping Centre is expected to be completed in mid-2019 and will include a full-line Supa IGA, 13 speciality retailers and commercial offices. Over time it is expected that the IGA will employ up to 100 full and part-time staff.
• Work will begin soon on the first homes in next suburb of Aura Central, with the first residents expected to move in mid-year. The Aura Central Precinct, with plans for a major City Centre, the extensive People’s Place Parkland, a range of education and sporting facilities and a future employment precinct, will eventually generate 6,000 ongoing jobs.
• Almost 30 home-based business ranging from beauty salons to physiotherapists are now operating in Aura’s first suburb, Baringa. 

Over the next 30 years, Aura will be home to around 50,000 people and is planned to include two business parks, 10 sporting grounds, 25 community facilities and 20 education facilities.

For more details on Aura, visit www.cityofcolour.com, call 1300 762 058 or visit the Aura Sales and Vision Centre at 1 Lukin Terrace, Baringa. You can also stay updated with the community’s progress on Facebook at www.facebook.com/auraqld