City of Wanneroo Budget 2024-25: The Landscape of our City
Unpublished
By Unpublished By By Linda Aitken JP, Mayor of Wanneroo, July 2024
I’m pleased to give you an update on the City of Wanneroo’s 2024/25 Budget, focusing on some exciting projects that will benefit your business.
Our current population is about 236,000 people, and is forecast to grow to approximately 437,000 by 2046. That’s an increase of around 201,000 people – quite incredible.
While this growth presents fantastic opportunities for local businesses and the local economy, it also poses challenges for us as a local government as we consider how we will meet the needs of the growing population, maximise opportunities to help attract investment, and facilitate business and job growth.
Budget Overview
With these challenges being a key focus, the has City adopted a $324 million budget for this financial year, investing in a range of services and facilities to keep our community connected, safe and sustainable.
This budget reflects our commitment to delivering the programs and services our community relies on and expects, while also future-proofing our facilities and infrastructure.
As one of the fastest growing local government areas in Australia, we have a responsibility to deliver value for money for our ratepayers, and to invest in building a sustainable City for future generations.
We have committed $70 million for capital works to ensure we are meeting our growing community’s needs and expectations. These works all have a “Buy Local” component in the tender process to ensure local business participation.
$38 million of this will be invested in roads, pathways and streetlighting to provide a safer and more efficient transport network.
A further $12.5 million will see major sports and recreation projects progress, and $51.5 million will be spent to maintain, protect and enhance parks, coastlines, reserves, streetscapes and conservation areas, amongst other budget items. Local construction businesses are expected to benefit from all of these projects.
One of the most important budget items for those of you here today is the $1.5 million for Business and Economic Development.
Key focus areas of the City’s Economic Development Strategy include:
Our strategic partnerships play a big role in how we deliver Business Engagement and Support, and our partnership with the Wanneroo Business Association is one of the most important.
We recently renewed our Sponsorship Agreement with the association, ensuring we can continue to work closely and provide the best possible support for our businesses.
We also work closely with the Small Business Development Corporation, the State Government body dedicated to supporting small businesses in WA. We were one of the first local governments to complete the Small Business Friendly Approvals Project with the Small Business Development Corporation, through which we improved our touchpoints with businesses and reduced red tape.
As an outcome of this Project, we now have a dedicated Business Support Service to offer a wide range of support and guidance to businesses and investors. Additionally, we developed the Business Wanneroo website and social media platforms to provide clear and simple communication. This complements our monthly business e-newsletter, which provides information and updates on key business news and events to more than 20,000 subscribers.
The City has an Enterprise Fund through which it partners with the WA Indigenous Tourism Operators Council, WA Leaders, Curtin Ignition, Business Station and Scale Up – among others – to offer professional scholarships and targeted training to local businesses through workshops and programs.
We recognise that small, medium and large businesses all contribute significantly to the vibrancy and growth of our local economy and provide essential employment opportunities for residents. Through our collaboration with the Wanneroo Business Association, we are able to provide support, including access to education, networking opportunities and resources.
The City is dedicated to attracting and supporting new businesses, hosting welcome events and offering meetings to assist with approvals and any other business-related requirements. We are committed to nurturing a thriving business environment and we are here to help you every step of the way.
A number of large businesses are moving into the Neerabup Industrial Area and have engaged extensively with the City to finalise their plans.
Neerabup Update
The Neerabup Industrial Area has been a key strategic priority for the City of Wanneroo for a number of years. An emerging industrial hub, Neerabup is set to become the City’s largest employment centre, supporting up to 30,000 jobs.
The first 16-hectare parcel of City of Wanneroo land holdings is close to development, with the Tender for construction works expected to go out by the end of the year, and the sale of 41 lots to follow shortly after.
This first stage is just part of the City’s 150 hectares of land that will be developed into industrial lots over the medium to longer term.
The release of State Government land managed by Development WA in Neerabup has been brought forward due to high demand. This high demand is being experienced across the State and was further boosted by the announcement and launch of the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct, or AARP. As the home of the AARP, Neerabup is rapidly becoming a national and global epicentre for automation, robotics, remote operations and zero emissions technologies.
The 51-hectare precinct provides local, national, and global companies with a unique testing and development environment that is unparalleled in Australia, and one of the biggest facilities of its kind in the world.
Several innovative companies are already using the AARP, including:
The Precinct currently provides extensive test beds, leasehold lots and an onsite office for industry use. A state-of-the-art Common User Facility building that will house research and development facilities is expected to open this year.
Many of these tech companies need places for visiting business colleagues to stay and places to meet with high quality food and beverage offerings such as Mindarie Marina and the proposed Glamping Resort and Reception Centre in Quinns Rocks. This precinct will certainly generate additional visitation to the region.
Tourism/Visitor Attraction
The City’s visitor economy has annual sales of around $900m, directly employs 2,700 people, and indirectly employs a further 2,600 people – it’s an important part of the City’s economy!
We are actively working to support and further develop our tourism industry and the broader visitor economy to attract more visitor spending. A key aspect of this effort is the Discover Wanneroo brand and online presence. We have established social media channels to enable promotion and marketing of all that Wanneroo has to offer, with 1,000 followers on Facebook and 3,000 on Instagram. This is supported by the City’s social media channels with approximately, 52,000 followers collectively.
We collaborated with Yanchep National Park on the development of a Recreation Master Plan, with the Park recently securing $2.4 million in funding for a new caravan park, which is a project identified in the plan. I would like to acknowledge Julia Coggins – Manager of Yanchep National Park who is here today and the great work you do in collaborating with the City.
The City works in partnership with local businesses through its Sponsorship Program on innovative opportunities to increase visitation to the region. This includes Mindarie Marina, Wanneroo Raceway and Get Reel Two Rocks.
These initiatives and collaborations are just some of the things we are doing to showcase our tourism destinations and support businesses that benefit from the visitor economy.
Advocacy Priorities Update
Turning to our Advocacy Program leading up to the federal and state elections early next year, the City is committed to meeting the evolving needs of our growing community and Advocacy plays a key part in meeting this commitment.
Our Advocacy Program allows us to share the City’s major priorities with key decision makers to attract public investment.
Our approach prioritises 11 projects, identified in consultation with our community and other key stakeholders.
I won’t talk about all of these projects in detail but will instead focus on a few key projects that are important to our local businesses.
Road and Rail Transport Infrastructure
A key focus of the Program is improving road and rail transport infrastructure. While there are a number of essential connections to residential areas that we are advocating for, there are some critical connections for our major industrial hubs in Wangara and Neerabup that will result in significant productivity benefits to business.
As many of you may know, substantial investment has been made by State and Federal Governments in Road and Rail Transport Infrastructure to date including:
Our next priority is advocating for the construction of the Whiteman Yanchep Highway, including all access roads in and out of the Neerabup Industrial Area, linking it to the Perth Metro and National freight network.
We are also seeking the realignment and upgrade of the Whitfords Avenue – Gnangara Road intersection in the Wangara Industrial Area. This will open up a significant land parcel for industrial development, which will in turn deliver the jobs needed for our residents.
These essential road connections will benefit business by making it more efficient to move goods and services and make it easy for employees to get to work.
Activation of Yanchep Strategic Centre
Another very important update for our businesses is the Activation of Yanchep Strategic Centre.
Yanchep will become the City of the North – much like Fremantle – and will be the main focus for business growth over the next 20 to 40 years.
Yanchep is expected to service a substantial population, providing health, community and social services, and providing significant opportunities for new businesses to establish and grow. Developing this new centre will generate opportunities for building and construction businesses, manufacturing businesses and service businesses. The result will be a well-planned city centre with liveable spaces for the local workforce and community.
We are asking that State Government coordinate and fund an infrastructure delivery strategy and program to enable the sustainable economic development of Yanchep Strategic City, including enabling over 20,000 jobs. Now that the Yanchep Rail Station is open, I can see that the delivery of these jobs will become a reality.
East Wanneroo
We are also progressing the development of East Wanneroo, which provides the long-term vision for more than 8,300 hectares of land, and will cater for 150,000 residents, 50,000 dwellings and support up to 20,000 jobs. The local resident workforce will form an important employment base for businesses in Wangara and Neerabup.
This significant development will result in further consumer demand, and we expect this will lead to expansion of the Wanneroo Town Centre and a lot of business opportunities within East Wanneroo itself.
Close
I call this next phase of exponential growth the industrial revolution of Wanneroo, which will impact considerably on the future generations who will call Wanneroo home.
We are making intergenerational decisions and maximising opportunities that will influence the long-term success of the City of Wanneroo.
With this in mind, I encourage you all to keep in touch with us for the latest updates and information at the City, so you know what is happening.
You can follow our Business Wanneroo Facebook page, sign-up for our monthly e-newsletter or reach out to our Advocacy and Economic Development team.
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