Newcastle-founded urban planning consultancy Barr Planning has officially joined national property and infrastructure firm Beveridge Williams. The acquisition integrates Barr Planning’s regional planning operations into Beveridge Williams’ broader multidisciplinary network, which spans New South Wales, Victoria and the Northern Territory.
Founded in Newcastle in 2015, Barr Planning has delivered strategic planning, development assessments, and social impact planning across residential, industrial, commercial, infrastructure, education, and healthcare sectors across New South Wales for 11 years. The merger expands the firm’s local service offering to include in-house surveying, civil engineering, urban design, landscape architecture, and project management capabilities.
Beveridge Williams has operated for over 60 years as a privately owned land development consultancy. Under the integration, Barr Planning’s existing Newcastle team and client leadership will remain unchanged while operating under the expanded corporate framework.
Director and Strategic Lead of Planning and Business Development, Stephen Barr stated that joining a national consultancy increases operational capacity while maintaining local client relationships.
“We are very pleased to become part of Beveridge Williams to not only extend our service offering and increase our capacity but also to allow the Directors and Staff of Barr Planning to continue to support our clients over the long term,” Stephen said.
“After 11 years of growing and running Barr Planning, it is great to join Beveridge Williams and continue to grow our services here and across NSW. For me, this is an opportunity to keep doing what I love with a company that shares our values. I’ll continue working alongside our clients, supported by a larger team and broader expertise that will help us deliver even better outcomes into the future.”
Director and New South Wales Planning Manager at Beveridge Williams, Rebecca Johnston added that expanding technical resources supports regional land development across an increasingly complex planning environment.
“Supporting and developing a thriving NSW Planning team to service an increasingly complex legislative landscape is a key focus going forward,” Rebecca said.
“For our clients, the expanded team capability will mean that we can offer greater diversity of skills and experience within a broader geographic area.”
IMAGE | Barr Planning Directors Stephen Barr (right) and Rebecca Johnston (left) with Alisanne Boag, National Manager Town Planning at Beveridge Williams (centre).
