More questions about caravan park proposal lead to deferral

By Anita McInnes

WANNEROO councillors have requested further information about the proponent wanting to develop the former Quinns Rocks caravan park site and answers to questions staff took on notice at a special meeting on June 20.

At the end of the meeting, which lasted more than three hours due to many in the public gallery wanting to give a statement or ask questions, councillors voted 10-4 to defer the matter to a special council meeting to be held by September 26.

The council had been expecting to make a decision that evening about whether to approve, in principle, proceeding with private treaty negotiations with Heritage WA Investments (or a company to be established by the directors of that entity) for the development of an ecotourism, café and event space on the vacant former Quinns Rocks caravan site.

There were murmurs of discontent from people in the public gallery whenever the administration staff could not answer some questions and said they would have to take them on notice.

The officer’s report said the proponent Russell Percival from Buckland Estate would if the council approved the proposal establish a new company to develop and operate the proposal, which has been estimated to be worth $7.5 million to $8m.

Deluxe glamping tents, family tents, outpost tents, a licensed café open to the public for breakfast and lunch, a lawn area and an event space for community events, business meetings and family celebrations are included in the proposal.

Some residents were unhappy with the council only intending to undertake further due diligence once the company structure, shareholders and officers of the new company were known.

When it was her turn to speak former Central West ward councillor Nat Sangalli, who suddenly resigned in April, said she was disappointed with the questions taken on notice as she had asked some of the same questions when she was a councillor.

Mrs Sangalli then asked a question about proponent Russell Percival’s statement, which had been read out earlier by Wanneroo Mayor Linda Aitken.

“There is a part in here under our experience on the second paragraph (where) he talks about the strong relationships he’s built with Tourism WA and the state government land department in Western Australia,’’ she said.

“They’re now talking about having him as a key preferred developer in the glamping industry in Western Australia.

“My question to the city is have any of you actually verified this information.’’

Corporate strategy and performance director Noelene Jennings said the statement like everyone else’s had come in for that evening’s meeting.

“We do talk to Tourism WA and we have spoken to the (Shire) of Northam so that’s as far as we’ve been doing for the situation at the moment because we’re not going any further until council has made a decision but we certainly don’t check everybody’s statement for tonight,’’ she said.

Nat Sangalli said from her experience as a councillor the statement would have been received in due time before the meeting for it to be looked into.

Mrs Sangalli also said when people not familiar with the area were asked by door knockers to fill in a survey the brochure handed out to them did not say the area was Bush Forever, did not talk about the competing uses of the area, the parking being out of kilter or the community value of the area.

Ms Jennings said the consultants had all the information available to them to explain to people what the survey was about and they only answered the survey if they agreed to it so no-one was forced to do anything.

In response Mrs Sangalli said to make her point clearer people were asked if they were aware of the Quinns Rocks caravan park site and if they answered no they were told to skip to question 10.

She said when you skipped to question 10 it said: “Before this survey had you heard about the Quinns Rocks ecotourism accommodation, café and event space proposed concept eco-tourism development proposal at the former Quinns Rocks caravan park?

“If you said no it told you to go to section three – important and its says before filling out the remainder of the survey – keeping in mind that we’re talking about door knockers who you’ve applied a lot of weighting on okay – before filling out the remainder of this survey please have a look at the project brochure and you provided a direct link in your agenda so if any of you have got the electronic agenda go to this page click the link and have a look at the brochure supplied and not once does it mention any of those things.’’

She said as a councillor she had raised the issue over and over again that people outside of the area were not familiar with it, were not told that it was Bush Forever at an early stage, were not told about the coastal hazards and were not told about the community values.

Ms Jennings replied that people were asked to read the brochure as part of the door knock.

The former Quinns Rocks caravan park site, which is freehold and owned by the City of Wanneroo, is part of Bush Forever site 397, which encompasses the whole of Lot 211 (including cleared and developed areas).

Bush Forever site 397 is about 400ha and is located in the coastal strip from Wilbinga to Mindarie.