BY JESSICA ROUSE
Five hundred families will soon be calling Maitland home at a new housing development site in Thornton.
Defence Housing Australia is behind the new 511-lot housing development which will provide roughly 250 homes for defence force families based at the Williamtown RAAF Base, and the remaining homes for the general public.
The 58-hectare site will be completed within six stages, with two already complete, and called Wirraway after a training fighter plane and one of the very first squadrons at the Williamtown RAAF base.
Thornton was chosen as the best site for the new development with Development Manager Gully Coote saying the lots available to the public have pretty much sold out and stage three is about to get underway.
“After a lot of looking, and deliberations, Defence determined that the amenities that were available in Thornton and the Maitland area and it’s proximity to base; the availability of schools, the future redevelopment of schools, all of that made it a great opportunity for us for out families.”