Multi-million dollar development plan for Coogee

Deputy Premier Ian Taylor today outlined a multi-million dollar plan to radically change the face of Coogee and turn it into a showpiece development for industry, housing and recreation.

He said it would include a $35 million investment by the State Government, plus tens of millions of dollars more by private investors building new housing and leisure facilities.

"The plan will see South Coogee's animal and fish processing industries cleaned up and relocated, the construction of a new village housing project and marina and virtually all the coastal strip opened for recreation," Mr Taylor said.

"In fact the plan is one of the most ambitious devised for the redevelopment of a major industrial area.

"Between now and the turn of the century it will see the creation of a thriving new community - without damaging the district's vital economic importance and without posing a threat to the 2,000 jobs that Coogee provides today."

Mr Taylor was releasing for public comment the draft document of the Coogee Master Plan before it was presented to State Cabinet for final approval later this year.

"Already the State Government and the City of Cockburn have taken many of the steps necessary to solve the district's environmental problems," he said.

"What the draft plan does is consolidate these initiatives and provide the strategy to turn Coogee into a district of which any community would be proud."

Mr Taylor said key elements of the draft plan were:

·         the relocation of all industry to areas north of the railway line;

·         an end to all effluent discharge into Owen Anchorage;

·         the creation of a new residential area in South Coogee;

·         an integrated transport system with new roads, walkways and cycle paths; and

·         an extensive landscaping program.

Mr Taylor said under the plan the State Government would be providing financial assistance to industries in the South Coogee area to relocate north of the railway line.

He said much of the assistance program would be funded through the sale of land for private residential development.

The main site for relocation would be the new Biotechnology Park which was designed to accept animal and seaford processing companies.

"But we will not just be moving Coogee's processing industries from one site to another," Mr Taylor said.

"The new Biotechnology Park will be offering a strictly controlled industrial environment which will ensure that all those bad odours in the area are a thing of the past."

Mr Taylor said the Government's $35 million program covered road improvements, industrial infrastructure, a central waste processing facility for industry, landscaping and funds to finance industry relocation.

"The main features of the program will be implemented over a four year period," he said.

"If the Master Plan is accepted, then by 1996 Coogee will be looking radically different from what it does today."