I have family that used to own property in Stockton well before the Stockton Bridge was built in 1971.
According to Wikipedia "Stockton was settled almost as soon as the foundation of Newcastle in 1797." -- so yeah, the Orica plant was definitely established well after people were living there. It's grown a bit since, but it's definitely still very much a 'beach town vibe'.
Then of course there's the whole City of Newcastle right across the harbour. While the 1989 earthquake definitely resulted in the city hollowing out, when the Orica plant was built it was a vibrant and well populated.
I'm about 130km north-west of Newcastle now, so relatively safe from any immediate effects.
In Sydney, under the Mascot (main international airport) flight paths, you've got people who purchased property in the last couple of decades insisting that curfew hours be increased, flight paths be changed, etc -- despite the airport operating for 80+ years, and at no time in the past century has anyone thought air travel would decrease in popularity (2020 notwithstanding).
I get that some people buy into areas expecting change / no change, but I'm very wary of people's causality inversion fields getting in the way of historical accuracy.
If Orica's been there for 51 years now, how many local residents turned up since they 1969 vs after 1969?
According to Wikipedia "Stockton was settled almost as soon as the foundation of Newcastle in 1797." -- so yeah, the Orica plant was definitely established well after people were living there. It's grown a bit since, but it's definitely still very much a 'beach town vibe'.
Then of course there's the whole City of Newcastle right across the harbour. While the 1989 earthquake definitely resulted in the city hollowing out, when the Orica plant was built it was a vibrant and well populated.