Ordinary Meeting of Council 24 November 2010 6.3 URBAN GROWTH CORRIDOR - LOCALITY NAMING AND BOUNDARIES (Altone Ward, Swan Valley/Gidgegannup Ward) (Information Services) KEY ISSUES • The development of the urban growth corridor requires the naming of localities and the definition of locality boundaries. It is recommended that the new localities be named and the boundaries defined. BACKGROUND Portions of the existing West Swan, Henley Brook, Caversham and Whiteman localities make up the Urban Growth Corridor. The most recently named of these was Whiteman, formally named in 1981 and Henley Brook, formally named in 1972. The City refers to three of these development cells of the corridor as Albion, West Swan East and West Swan West. The fourth is Caversham which is not subject to renaming. The Albion development currently sits across the existing locality boundaries of Whiteman, Henley Brook and West Swan. Albion has been the subject of a suburb name proposal by the Vintage Sports Car Club. West Swan West is west of the proposed Perth–Darwin National Highway from the remainder of West Swan, creating a suburb division similar to the situation in Beechboro where a number of residents are located north of Reid Highway whilst the majority of the suburb is south of the Highway. There has been interest from the residents of Beechboro (North) to rename that portion to Bennett Springs. As this was the developer’s estate name it is not supported by the Geographic Names Committee. Developers at the time may have informed buyers that the suburb would be called Bennett Springs. Inclusion of Beechboro north with the West Swan West development is a logical grouping for a new suburb due to the confines of the area. Whiteman Park to the north, Perth–Darwin Highway to the east, Reid Highway to the south and Malaga to the west encircle this residential development. The Urban Growth Corridor developments have average block sizes in the 400-600m2 range. These urban sized lots will be significantly different to the existing rural blocks of the Swan Valley suburbs that average 2ha in size. These developments have necessitated the creation of new localities and definition of new locality boundaries, taking into consideration their community focus, points of Page 1 Ordinary Meeting of Council 24 November 2010 access and constraints. Naming each development would give each area and the new communities their own identity. REPORT The City of Swan proposed to name the urban growth corridor after the developers chose not to submit locality names. The City of Swan wrote to the Department of Indigenous Affairs, Swan Indigenous Reference Group and the Swan Valley Progress Association inviting them to submit potential names for the three proposed localities. These groups were identified as having a direct community of interest with the area or the land. All three groups recorded no official reply to the City so we proceeded with a public advertising via print media and the City of Swan website. Members of the public were invited to submit potential locality names. Submissions were to include name, source, meaning or definition and which locality they were to apply. Respondents were also to be guided by the Geographic Names Committee Western Australia: Principles, Guidelines and Procedures document. In total 51 names were received recognising many different pioneering and Aboriginal terms. City staff reviewed these names and discarded those which were not in accordance with the guidelines. In providing some naming guidance to the process the Geographic Names Branch of Landgate also reviewed the list of names submitted and indicated those names that may be considered by the Geographic Names Committee. Two of the names were submitted before any call for names was made public, Brabham, proposed for Area C and Bennett Springs, submitted as a renaming of the Beechboro north area now part of proposed Area A. Brabham, as submitted by the Vintage Sports Car Club of WA, is named after Sir Jack Brabham. Whilst the man could be judged a great Australian icon, his name is not very significant to the area. Born in New South Wales and currently still living, Jack Brabham only raced at the Caversham racetrack on two occasions. The first time for third place and the second time he did not finish. The main straight of the racetrack forms the eastern boundary of Area C, the remainder of the track is outside the area and also outside the urban growth corridor. The Brabham Reserve, an area of bush forever at the south of Area C was named last year. Bennett Springs, submitted by West Swan MLA Rita Saffioti in support of a community group, is a developer’s estate name. QUBE began development of the Bennett Springs Estate subdivision in 1999. The MLA’s office surveyed the residents of the estate area asking “Do you support changing the suburb name of Beechboro (north of Reid Hwy) to Bennett Springs?” The name has support from the local residents, of 1200 residences 400 returned their survey in favour of the change and 14 were against. An additional 4 residents were in favour of Bennett Springs in reply to our advertising. In total this represents 33% of residents in favour of the change and 1.1% against. With each of these two names there are points in the guidelines which would leave them unsupported. Page 2 Ordinary Meeting of Council 24 November 2010 • Localities may not be named in honour of someone still living. • Renaming proposals are unlikely to succeed if the proposal seeks to adopt a developer’s inappropriate name coined to promote a development. From the submissions entered we did receive some well thought out and appropriate names for each locality. Some names were submitted by more than one individual or group. For Area A, Bennett Brook received three separate submissions. All three referenced the geographical feature that is Bennett Brook. The Bennett Brook was named after Matilda Bennett who was the wife of the Surveyor-General John Septimus Roe. For Area B, Dayton stood out significantly. Walter Day, an English migrant who lived and worked in the area, enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force in World War 1 and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field. He was also awarded the Centenary Medal and a certificate for the best vineyard in WA during Western Australia’s centenary of 1929. A successful vigneron and cattleman, Walter Day owned many properties throughout the Swan Valley and even had land resumed for Whiteman Park. Within Area C Haddrill and Wanunga were names that were well thought of. William Haddrill was one of the first labourers in the colony to be able to purchase his own land, he built a home and raised a family there. His descendants remained in possession of this property for 140 years. Haddrill’s house is listed as a permanent entry with the Heritage Council of WA. Wanunga is an aboriginal word meaning “peaceful or quiet”. It also happens to be the name of a bushwalk trail in Whiteman Park and land currently in Whiteman will form some of the new locality of Area C. These names represent both pioneer and aboriginal influences, both of which are representative of the category, name associated with the area, as stated in the guidelines. The guidelines for locality size as set out by the Geographic Names Committee of Western Australia; Urban localities; • Minimum size of localities to be 100ha. • Minimum number of available lots to be 1000 and maximum to be 10000 • Ideal size to be approximately 500ha Urban Growth Corridor projections estimate 12500 dwellings and 33000 residents. Area A 425ha, 3000 dwellings (includes Beechboro north) Area B 263ha, 2500 dwellings Area C 624ha, 5000 dwellings (includes 60ha of bush forever) Page 3 Ordinary Meeting of Council 24 November 2010 Generally the proposals will shift the existing locality boundary alignments from their current position to the existing and proposed road centrelines and lot boundaries to form the new localities. The proposed alignment in each location will follow the description below and as depicted on the attached maps (Figures 1 - 3) Area A: From the intersection of the locality boundaries of Ballajura, Malaga, Whiteman and Beechboro continue east following the Beechboro boundary (Marshall Road) to the intersection of Marshall Road and Roedean Street. Continue north and follow the existing West Swan locality boundary to the centreline of the proposed Perth – Darwin National Highway. Continue south along this centreline until the intersection with Reid Highway. Continue westerly along Reid Highway to the existing locality boundary between Beechboro and Malaga. From here continue north following the existing locality boundary of Beechboro to the point of origin. See Figure 1 Area B: From the intersection of Harrow Street and Malvern Street continue south along Malvern Street to the eastern lot boundary of lot 29 Sam Rosa Place. Continue south along each of the following eastern lot boundaries in this order; Lot 26 Sam Rosa Place, Lot 7 Coast Road, Lot 15 Coast Road, Lot 4 Victoria Road and Lot 56 Victoria Road, all lots are currently within West Swan. Continue to the intersection with Reid Highway, continue west along the centreline of Reid highway to the intersection with the centreline of the proposed Perth – Darwin National Highway (currently Lord Street). Continue along this centreline to the intersection with the existing West Swan boundary. Follow the boundary east then north to the intersection with Harrow Street. From here continue east along Harrow Street to the point of origin. See Figure 2 Area C: From intersection of Park Street and Murray Road continue south along Murray Road to the intersection with Woollcott Avenue.