Rarely a Dull Moment – Trees, Roundabouts, Pedestrian Crossings, Fremantle Park Club, Waste Local Law

Welcome back to our regular feature, Rarely a Dull Moment where we report on the highlights of City of Fremantle Council meetings and activities. We would have titled the feature Never a Dull Moment, but didn’t want to overpromise!

In 2026, we are very pleased to welcome Jenny Archibald to the RADM desk. Jenny will be well known to many Freo folk as a former Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Councillor of the City of Fremantle. Jenny brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her new role as our RADM reporter and we are sure many Shipees will look forward to her regular RADM reports.

Welcome readers to our RADM report for the Ordinary Council Meeting of 27 May 2026. More on trees, intriguing opinions on roundabouts and pedestrian crossings, the end of a long saga for the Fremantle Park Sport and Community Centre, a new Waste Local Law and a revised (or perhaps reinstated) system of committee meetings with one Council meeting each month. But first our valued public question time…

Public Question Time

Several members of the public attended to talk about several topics including – you guessed it – trees. Liani Williams, who also attended the last Council meeting to discuss this topic, reiterated concern that knowledge of the Tree Retention Policy 2.26 was not well known and asked that Council consider greater promotion of the policy on its website, and in particular which brand of arborist was qualified to assess whether a tree should be protected or not. The Mayor did agree to look at ways to improve the visibility of the policy and the Director of Planning, Place and Urban Development clarified that the policy was currently under review (in fact was the subject of 1 month consultation on MySay Freo) and would be brought back to Council around July or August.   

Representatives from the Fremantle Workers Social and Leisure Club and sporting clubs (Tennis and Bowls) spoke on item C2605-18 FREMANTLE PARK SPORT AND COMMUNITY CENTRE PROPOSED OPERATING APPROACH – acknowledging that it was time to move to a revised management model and supported the recommendation of the Council to proceed with management of the facility by Council. Steve Hannah from the Fremantle Workers Social and Leisure Club commented that they had “reached the point where they needed to change the model” and that they looked forward to a “bright and sustainable future”. Darryl Power also spoke on behalf of the sporting clubs, reiterating that the proposal was a “viable and financially sustainable compromise.” All clubs reiterated thanks to staff for the ongoing support in achieving this outcome.

Rebecca Prinz-Ruiz (founder of the Plastic Free July program)spoke on behalf of herself and Bella Smith on the items relating to the Douro Rd and South Terrace pedestrian crossing proposals, emphasising that the public consultation demonstrated that many felt unsafe when crossing these streets. She emphasised that this decision tonight was for the next 20 years or more and questioned how some of the assessments had been carried out. The Director of Infrastructure reiterated that the assessments had been carried out by suitably qualified experts, but that further review and assessment would be carried out in the detailed design stage.

Mark Woodcock raised questions about various aspects of the proposed item C2605-21 DRAFT WASTE LOCAL LAW, questioning the use of infringements in particular. The Director of Infrastructure clarified that they wanted to “ensure that (their) approach was modern”, that while 95% of FOGO recovery is good, he seeks to expand recovery to 100% with “infringement …used only as a last resort”. 

South Freo resident Ian Kerr put forward his opposition to the proposed change back to using a committee structure as well as council meetings (C2605-24 COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE MEETINGS STRUCTURE REVIEW), and the President of the City Dockers Junior Football Club sought reassurance that their progress to returning to their former club facilities will not be slowed down by renovations (C2605-22 TENDER FCC691/25 – BRAD HARDIE CLUBROOMS REFURBISHMENT) – which the Director of Infrastructure noted would be tight, but he would review and respond. 

Petitions – not even one – again!

Elected member communication

Cr Williamson Wong reported that she attended the recent National Reconciliation Week breakfast along with fellow Councillors Slaughter and Mofflin. The week-long celebration runs from May 27^th to June 3^rd with the theme of “All In” – a theme promoting that “all of us must step away from the sidelines and take action to make change”…..all the more important with Albany’s Bi-Centenary celebration this year and Fremantle’s to follow in 2029. And Cr Williamson-Wong gave a shout out for the work of Sarah Davis – long-time Freo local and promoter of our wonderful city – in helping organise the breakfast. 

Now for the topical topics:

For Item C2605-18 FREMANTLE PARK SPORT AND COMMUNITY CENTRE PROPOSED OPERATING APPROACH, it would seem a win-win outcome in general for all involved. A journey that started back in 2011 with the “Fremantle Park Bowling Club, Fremantle Lawn Tennis Club and Fremantle Park Association formed a joint working group to explore a proposal for a multi-use community facility at Fremantle Park”. Over the intervening period and more reviews, the group also involved the Fremantle Workers Club – then seeking to relocate from their CBD Freo base. In short, the collective collaborated with the City and the current building was constructed to accommodate the three main entities involved – the tennis and bowls clubs and the Fremantle Workers Club. 

However, with time, pandemics, dwindling members and the like, the capacity of once financially viable clubs lessened, and the Council became involved, most recently with a 2-year management trial following a period of loans to support payment of staff. This period has now come to an end, and a subsequent review has recommended a new approach, much in line with other similar groups around the metropolitan area, where the City can manage the facilities by optimising staff already managing other like facilities such as the Fremantle Leisure Centre and the Samson Recreation Centre. 

The proposal accommodates a licencing agreement for each club covering their respective playing field areas and partial use of areas of the building – thus retaining the core functions of each club. A6-month interim period will allow for the transition from the current lease agreement to the respective licence agreements.Council staff, in overseeing the facility, will also manage the bookings of the venue when not used by the specific clubs, and other sports (indicating Padel/Pickle ball) and activities may be considered in the future as a way to generate additional revenue. The outcome is that the Fremantle catchment area will “gain an addition neighbourhood sized community centre” – likely to be much needed with the trend to increase inner city residents in this area in the future.

Back to the debate – and given the support of club repscommenting during Public Question time, some positive remarkswere made several elected members of the significance of such clubs to our community, and the recommendation of staff was approved unanimously. After such a long and uncertain journey, there was no doubt a great sigh of relief from the club members to have a resolution at last………

Next off the rank is C2605-19 PROPOSED CONCEPT DESIGN FOR PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS – DOURO ROAD AND SOUTH TERRACE INTERSECTION – an interesting one given two trees – no ordinary trees but two very mature Norfolk Pines – are planned for removal to ensure a safe crossing point on Douro Rd near its intersection of South Terrace. Given the planning over the past few months, it is no simple problem to solve– but it does beg one question – does the proposed tree removal fit with the City’s Tree Retention Policy LPP 2.26 ….? Cr Mofflin did add that it “will be curious to see feedback on this… (ie the tree removal)…and it will give a good indication of what our community values and prioritises”.

Along with this, the item C2605-20 PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS ALONG SOUTH TERRACE is also linked to traffic behaviour and pedestrian movements along this section of South Tce down to Douro Rd. With increasing numbers of people visiting this end of South Tce, particularly on weekends, it has become more urgent to consider options for traffic calming and pedestrian accessibility. Of course, nothing in the old town of South Fremantle is easy and there were all kinds of views expressed by elected members, along with some debate on the sorts of pedestrian crossings that may fit the bill – zebra, trapezoidal, sinusoidal wombat, rubber speed cushions, Watts profile asphalt humps etc etc …

Again, with much amendment resulting from collaboration between Crs Sullivan and Williamson-Wong on both motions -seeking better bike lane facilities, limitation of hard surfaces and more urban greening – both motions were both finally approved.

The design for the Douro Rd intersection will now go out for public comment while South Tce and adjacent areas will see more design work for planting, bike lane facilities and pedestrian crossing points – particularly at Jenkin St, Scott St and Little Lefroy Rd as well as parts of Marine Tce. 

Of particular note was the discussion around the success or otherwise of the raised coloured nodes along South Tce – with each costing something in the order of $300k or more. It was acknowledged by Councillors that these installations may not have been as successful as had been hoped. Cr Sullivan commented that he felt the “review would set a new path for the precinct…and with that they may not do all nodes that are in the budget”. Cr Williamson-Wong was “not confident that the nodes had achieved good pedestrian priority”, while Cr Mofflin was “somewhat shocked at the request” to potentially not include more nodes. He also added that he was “surprised that the request came from the community to paint South Tce black and white for the length of it”.Both reports will come back to Council by September this year … “if other projects can be moved out” cautioned Director of Infrastructure.

And everything else

Two important items that were approved were the change back to the committee system of old and holding only one council meeting each month. Item C2605-24 COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE MEETINGS STRUCTURE REVIEW was approved with only one councillor not supporting the proposal – namely Cr van Dorssen – who preferred the status quo. During the Covid period the Council moved to 2 Council meetings monthly rather than holding committee meetings. All meetings at that time were carried out online. It worked well but with changing issues, it is now felt that a return to the committee structure would bring greater opportunity for community input as well as more discussion by elected members. The Council will now hold one Ordinary Meeting of Council, a Planning Services Committee, and a Strategic and General Services Committee meeting per month, with the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee and Planning Framework Committee meetings to be held quarterly, and CEO Performance Review Committee meetings held as required. So beware – this revised schedule will start from the July 2026 round of meetings. 

The Item C2605-21 DRAFT WASTE LOCAL LAW was approved. The “purpose of the proposed City of Fremantle Waste Local Law 2026 is to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for the management, collection, disposal and enforcement of modern waste services across the City”. This will be advertised for public comment and a report brought to a future Council meeting. 

Lastly, a couple of tenders approved for the Brad Hardie building refurbishment (C2605-22 TENDER FCC691/25 – BRAD HARDIE CLUBROOMS REFURBISHMENT) and agency labour hire (C2605-23 TENDER WFCC135/26 – AGENCY LABOUR HIRE), as well as some statutory reports on financials etc. 

Signed off at 8.31pm. Goodnight Freo.

*By Jenny Archibald

~ For earlier RADM reports look here.

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