State Government backs key move by Bennett family’s investment vehicle in Fremantle Harbour redevelopment

A proposed development at the Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour by billionaire Angela Bennett could be a step closer after the State Government revealed it wants to relocate the boat lifter that is in its way.

AMB Capital, an investment arm of the Bennett family, had previously faced community opposition when it announced in 2019 that it wanted to remove the boat lifter at its site to make way for a development worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including new apartments, short-stay accommodation, restaurants, shops, offices and recreational facilities.

Ms Bennett bought the site in 2015.

At the time, AMB Capital conceded it could not guarantee it would be able to relocate the boat lifter within the harbour.

Complaints were made during the 2019 community consultation that the removal of the key piece of maritime infrastructure, which is owned by AMB Capital, would kill the harbour’s grit and authenticity.

The WA Fishing Industry Council said in 2019 that the infrastructure, which is more than four decades old, was necessary to maintain the JUarea as a working fishing harbour.

Some complained the harbour would become a tourist and residential facility without the boat lifter, which is used to clean and service commercial fishing boats.

Amateur fishermen use the lift weekly to lower their boats into the water. But the State Government’s recent master plan for the Fremantle waterfront, released last week, revealed it wants to move the boat lifter, freeing the area for mixed-use development.

The Department of Transport’s master plan revealed it was investigating a different site on Capo D’Orlando Drive as a new location for the boat lifter, which is one kilometre across the harbour.

The department’s master plan recommends rebuilding it on “reclaimed land to provide a sustainable operational footprint subject to a detailed site optimisation study which will determine the ultimate design and layout as well as limit off-site impacts”.

The report also claims the existing location, which is closer to the harbour’s hospitality hub, is unsuitable for the function.

“Relocating the facility to the southern industrial working precinct of the Fishing Boat Harbour will provide a suitable commercial operation with regard to site dimension, land area and improved access, and be located less prominently to areas of high public amenity and interaction,” the report said.

However, the report maintains the importance of maintaining the infrastructure within the harbour, claiming a working harbour was part of Fremantle’s character.