GreaterFreo is a community lead campaign aimed at the people of Fremantle and Greater Fremantle, who would like to see their City become a Greater City. [email protected] Proposed boundary re-alignment: [email protected] Executive Summary GreaterFreo is a community lead campaign that evolved in late 2015. The driving force and objective of the group is simple; residents want their rates to contribute towards the improvement of the facilities they use within their community of interest – Fremantle and Fremantle facilities. For the objective to be achieved, a change in Council boundary for Hamilton Hill and North Coogee needs to occur – a change from Cockburn to Fremantle; a change that would see a more logical and efficient alignment of Council boundaries. The group is composed of residents from both areas and reflects a diversity of ages, cultural background and employment types. The push for GreaterFreo is the result of historical, demographic and economic ties that these areas have with the City of Fremantle. Historically Fremantle is a foundation settlement of Western Australia and as such, the suburbs of Hamilton Hill and North Coogee are extensions of Fremantle from its traditional area. The residents of Hamilton hill and North Coogee identify more with the City of Fremantle than the City of Cockburn and thus perceive that the current boundaries do not reflect their identity. “As a resident of Hamilton Hill and a user of Fremantle facilities/participant of Fremantle culture, I would like the right to vote for what matters to me. My proximal and felt sense of connection to my locality lies with the City of Fremantle.” Hamilton Hill Resident, Ildiko Padanyi. This document aims to follow the Board’s Guiding Principles to form the basis for considering changes to local government boundaries and take into account the factors set out in the Act.8 Guidelines as outlined by the LGAB. [email protected] 1. Communities of Interest: Not only do all roads lead to Fremantle, people choose to live in Hamilton Hill and North Coogee due to the proximity to Fremantle, a community that they identify with. “It is strange and unnatural that the strongly 'Freo' community and landscape of Hamilton Hill, which commences just South of Hilton Park & Winterfold Rd is officially part of the CoC. The people in those streets, on those hills, are oriented towards the urban centre of Fremantle and they participate in and patronise the same shops and community facilities in Beacy and Hilton that our families and neighbours do. Hamilton Hill is squarely part of the Fremantle community of interest.” Cr Josh Wilson 2. Physical and Topographical Features: Current boundaries that separate the CoF from the CoC do not offer any clear or logical delineation between the two councils, in both Hamilton Hill and North Coogee. The lack of clarity between the two council areas causes confusion for both the councils themselves and the community. The current boundary also inhibits use of the area by local residents. The CoC argued in their submission to the LGAB in August 2014 that the proposed Roe Highway presented a more logical northern boundary between CoF and CoC as it will be a ‘major physical feature in the district’ – something that the current boundary of Jean Street certainly isn’t. In some cases the delineation is so poor that the councils themselves are at times caught out, as experienced by Lyn Shipp from North Coogee who submitted a simple request to have a street tree trimmed “Having a rather fun time with Cockburn, I want a street tree trimmed, asked, they replied that it was Freo, asked Freo, they said no its Cockburn. Eventually by sending copies of emails from and to both councils, Cockburn have held up their hand!!” This experience was conveyed by from Lyn Shipp on Nabo and can be seen below in image 2.1 [email protected] 3. Demographic Trends: The population of the City of Cockburn in 2015 was 107,645 while the population of the City of Fremantle was 31,046. The addition of Hamilton Hill and North Coogee (10,435 in 2011) would see the City of Fremantle population expand to 41,481 (an increase of 32.2%). Correspondingly, the decrease in Population in Cockburn would be a mere 9.7%. The City of Fremantle and the suburb of Hamilton Hill have many demographic similarities. Both have median ages that are higher than the Greater Metropolitan Perth area (36). The median age of residents in Hamilton Hill is 39 and the population of the City of Fremantle has a median age of 41. Ancestry of residents within the City of Fremantle and Hamilton Hill also reveal strong similarities. The following two graphs show that both Fremantle and Hamilton Hill contain greater numbers of people with Irish, Italian, Scottish, German, Croatian and Portuguese ancestry than Greater Perth. 4. Economic Factors: The following information is extracted from the 2015-16 Rates brochures for the City of Cockburn and the City of Fremantle; The City of Cockburn rates revenue for 2015-16 was $89,030,000 The City of Fremantle rates revenue for 2015-16 was $38,023,253 Hamilton Hill and North Coogee are built around infrastructure that feeds directly into the Fremantle CBD rather than feeding back towards Cockburn Central. Roads, buses, bike paths and future planned rail will further connect these areas to Fremantle. Key community assets include centres of administration, schools, and recreation centres. Fremantle central administration centre is less than 5km to both Hamilton Hill and North Coogee, while on the other hand, Cockburn Central is approximately 20km away. In 2018 South Fremantle High School and Hamilton Senior High will be merged to form Fremantle College. Fremantle College will be located on the existing site of South Fremantle High School and the catchment of the new community asset will extend into both Hamilton Hill and North Coogee. The CoC are spending around $100 million on a new recreation centre of Cockburn residents, which includes pool and gym facilities. Ignoring the fact that Fremantle Recreation Centre is around 5km from Hamilton Hill and North Coogee, the Melville Recreation Centre is actually closer than the new Cockburn facility. Rate payers of Hamilton Hill and North Coogee are paying for a facility which they’re unlikely to ever use. Many businesses in the areas of Hamilton Hill and North Coogee are service businesses that cater to the Fremantle Port and associated fishing industries. [email protected] 5. History of the Area: Hamilton Hill and North Coogee; two suburbs that are presently in the local Government boundaries of Cockburn but have historically been part of the Fremantle local Government boundaries. The families who settled and developed these areas were prominent Fremantle families and their history is outlined in this submission. Supplying Fremantle with food, materials and labour became a theme for Hamilton Hill, with most of the industrial workers in the port city making their homes in Hamilton Hill. By the 1920s, the area had begun to modernise, and had domestic electricity connected in 1926. The introduction of cars and buses meant that Fremantle was in easy reach, and the district essentially became a suburb of Fremantle. 6. Transport and Communication: In transport terms the residents of Hamilton Hill and North Coogee follow main roads with bus services that feed directly into the Fremantle CBD or areas within the South Fremantle boundary rather than feeding back towards Cockburn Central. Hamilton Hill shopping facilities have been neglected by the City of Cockburn and in general are not considered to be “inviting” due to poor transport connections to the surrounding environment as discussed in Section 4. Many residents prefer the Woolworths supermarket on Duoro Road in South Fremantle as Transport connections to this area make it an easy option. “Many cycle from Hami Hill to work in Freo each day -- down past South Beach where some stop for a swim with the other regular morning swimmers and it feels like living the best of Freo life. But the irony is that we are not technically a resident of Fremantle”. _Cr Rachel Pemberton [email protected] 7. Matters Affecting the Viability of Local Governments Fremantle functions as the second major regional centre for Western Australia and as a global tourist attraction. A study undertaken for the CoF (Drivers of Activity Centre Development in the Fremantle CBD: Property Council of Australia, CoF and Urbis, 2011) found that the Fremantle CBD enjoys a far higher level of street life and vitality, diverse land use mix and optimal CBD layout than other Strategic Metropolitan Centres in the Perth metropolitan area. As part of this function, Fremantle must provide facilities and services well beyond what any other local council must provide, perhaps with the exception of Perth City Council. The point of difference for Fremantle is that it must provide these functions and services off a tiny suburban rate base. For Fremantle to flourish to its full potential and efficiently deliver the services and functions for all those who visit from around Western Australia and the world, the rate base must be increased. The rate base must also be increased to offer CoF more liquidity to enable it to be more agile, flexible and responsive to change. 8. Effective Delivery of Local Government Services The GreaterFreo proposal will allow for both Fremantle and Cockburn Councils to deliver their services more effectively and efficiently as the existing boundary alignment is illogical and hard to identify. There are also areas within the City of Cockburn that Fremantle Council would be more experienced and skilled at managing. This is discussed further below.