Ms LAWRIE - 2002-03-07
Public comments on the Darwin Wharf Precinct closed on Friday last week. Can the minister update the House on the progress for this project?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question. Currently, we have received 25 submissions about the Wharf Precinct and we are studying them. I intend to personally contact every person who has submitted to discuss the submission with that person. The Wharf Precinct is a big project, it is something that is going to take about 10 years to fully develop, and we want to do it carefully and with a program, not haphazardly.
It will provide significance for Darwin. It will make sure that our capital city is a modern, tropical capital city, and a cool city. It is going to be one of the best cities developed in Australia in modern history. It will link integrally to the Central Business District, and will be an attraction, not only for the locals, but also for the tourists. However, we have to be very careful how we are going to develop it because there are a number of issues to solve, like land issues, and we have to be careful how we manage this project.
While submissions were forwarded to government, I took time to travel to Perth because I was aware of a similar development in Perth, like the East Perth development and also the Subiaco development. One of my officers came with me and we travelled extensively. We had a look at these developments, and we met a number of people involved in these developments – architects and town planners and, especially, the Chairman of the East Perth and Subiaco Development Authority, a chairman who was actually appointed by the government of Western Australia to oversee the whole of this important development.
I have to point out that the East Perth area was a very degraded area, that Perth that citizens would not dare to travel down there after 6 o’clock in the evening. Today, it is one of the most important and significant developments in Perth. For example, you cannot buy a block of land there for less than $300 000, and $300 000 will buy you 285 m2 of land. It is built on the foreshores of the Swan River and it is an excellent and very well managed project. The Subiaco development is an exciting project. They had to sink the railway line and sell the top of the land for development and that was done very progressively. It took time but they have done it very well.
After that, we travelled to Sydney and met with the New South Wales government preferred developers, Messrs Allan and Ervin Vidor, who are currently developing one of the big wool wharves in Sydney, the Pyrmont Wharf. We had discussions with financiers in Sydney and, members of my office also had discussions with people at the wharf development and who financed the Melbourne Docklands area.
We are very careful how we proceed with this development because, as I said before, it is a significant development and will be the signature for Darwin. We do not want developers coming to us saying: ‘Look what I’ve got for you’. We want somebody who will come here to provide the concept and will undertake the development, and in 10 years time we will finish with a significant development that will be something different from what we have seen before - huge areas of carpark and brick paving that is totally inappropriate for a city like Darwin.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question. Currently, we have received 25 submissions about the Wharf Precinct and we are studying them. I intend to personally contact every person who has submitted to discuss the submission with that person. The Wharf Precinct is a big project, it is something that is going to take about 10 years to fully develop, and we want to do it carefully and with a program, not haphazardly.
It will provide significance for Darwin. It will make sure that our capital city is a modern, tropical capital city, and a cool city. It is going to be one of the best cities developed in Australia in modern history. It will link integrally to the Central Business District, and will be an attraction, not only for the locals, but also for the tourists. However, we have to be very careful how we are going to develop it because there are a number of issues to solve, like land issues, and we have to be careful how we manage this project.
While submissions were forwarded to government, I took time to travel to Perth because I was aware of a similar development in Perth, like the East Perth development and also the Subiaco development. One of my officers came with me and we travelled extensively. We had a look at these developments, and we met a number of people involved in these developments – architects and town planners and, especially, the Chairman of the East Perth and Subiaco Development Authority, a chairman who was actually appointed by the government of Western Australia to oversee the whole of this important development.
I have to point out that the East Perth area was a very degraded area, that Perth that citizens would not dare to travel down there after 6 o’clock in the evening. Today, it is one of the most important and significant developments in Perth. For example, you cannot buy a block of land there for less than $300 000, and $300 000 will buy you 285 m2 of land. It is built on the foreshores of the Swan River and it is an excellent and very well managed project. The Subiaco development is an exciting project. They had to sink the railway line and sell the top of the land for development and that was done very progressively. It took time but they have done it very well.
After that, we travelled to Sydney and met with the New South Wales government preferred developers, Messrs Allan and Ervin Vidor, who are currently developing one of the big wool wharves in Sydney, the Pyrmont Wharf. We had discussions with financiers in Sydney and, members of my office also had discussions with people at the wharf development and who financed the Melbourne Docklands area.
We are very careful how we proceed with this development because, as I said before, it is a significant development and will be the signature for Darwin. We do not want developers coming to us saying: ‘Look what I’ve got for you’. We want somebody who will come here to provide the concept and will undertake the development, and in 10 years time we will finish with a significant development that will be something different from what we have seen before - huge areas of carpark and brick paving that is totally inappropriate for a city like Darwin.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016