Community consultation: lessons from Sydney

This paper describes the mechanisms and potential benefits and pitfalls for community consultation on major infrastructure projects, based on the author’s 20 years of experience as a community liaison group facilitator in Sydney, Australia. It reports in particular on lessons learned from consultations on two major projects: the Epping to Chatswood railway and the Cross City Tunnel. Despite being run along similar lines, consultations on the former were widely considered a success by all parties whereas the latter degenerated into open hostility, with negative long-term consequences for the project and its promoters.