The proposal for the first residential development at the iconic Subiaco Oval has raised alarm bells for residents, who say local schools already bursting at the seams will not be able to cope with the population influx.
International property developer UEM Sunrise has lodged an application to build both a 36 and an 11-storey apartment along Subiaco Road – a total of 342 homes – looking over the oval which is currently used by Bob Hawke College during school hours.
The development will form part of the Subi East rejuvenation project, which will result in changes to 35 hectares of land including Subiaco Oval, Mueller Park, Bob Hawke College and the former Princess Margaret Hospital site.
The total redevelopment could mean up to 2700 new dwellings in the next 20 years.
A separate build with 70 new apartments has also recently been approved along Hay Street.
But despite this population influx, and other plans to revamp the inner-city suburb, there are so far no plans for a new primary school in the area and no plans on how Bob Hawke College could expand when it reaches capacity of 2000 students – likely to be in the next few years after the school takes in its first year 12 cohort in 2025.
On September 9, DevelopmentWA held a meeting to discuss the proposed Subiaco Road apartments. They received mostly negative feedback from 354 residents.
One submission came from the former assistant principal at Subiaco Primary, who worked at the school until 2023, and claimed both Subiaco and West Leederville Primary had been operating at capacity for years and had undergone multiple new builds to accommodate enrolment growth.
“Growth has been steady in these suburbs through infill and low to medium rise developments. But now there is little green space left in these schools,” they said.
“Multi-storey buildings are now required but that equates to more and more kids with less play space.”
An education lecturer at one of Perth’s universities living in the area also weighed in, stating in their submission that schools, particularly primary schools, would struggle to cope with the influx in population.
DevelopmentWA said a number of submissions had been sent after the deadline and were unable to be considered at the meeting, but would be reviewed at the next meeting in October.
Preserve East Subiaco Reserve group member Sharon Williams said she had asked the state government multiple times if it had considered any sites for a new school in the area since the development’s announcement, and could never get an answer.
“We haven’t got that forward-thinking plan, we only get reactive, disorderly and improper or even experimental planning when it comes to schools. Bob Hawke was a reactive plan to growing pressures at Churchlands and Shenton College,” she said.
“We’ve got 6000 more people coming in here [through Subi East’s development] and there is no talk of a primary school, it’s crazy.
An artist impression of Bob Hawke College in Perth, WA.Credit: Facebook
“We were promised a plan for western suburbs schools by former education minister Sue Ellery and now, nearly two years later, we still have nothing.”
Williams said the state government’s own guidelines indicated there should be 1500 dwellings per primary school.
A prior ratio which provided a range between 1500 and 1800 was insufficient – according to the government’s website – because planning was always to upper end or in excess, resulting in insufficient school site planning.
Williams said the guidelines showed there should be at least one more primary school, if not two, planned for the area near the Subi East redevelopment.
But the government does not believe the redevelopment generates any immediate or short-term need for new primary schools.
Department of Education infrastructure executive director Rob Thomson said dwelling and enrolment growth within the local intake area of Bob Hawke College and surrounding schools was being monitored.
But he said higher-density dwellings like apartments had a lower proportion of students per dwelling.
“The department is continuing to work on the Western Suburbs Strategy,” he said.
Rachel Wheeler, a parent from Bob Hawke College, was concerned about the future of the high school, with most of the local primary schools at or over capacity, and no green spaces to play on due to transportable classrooms.
“These kids, they’ve already been experimental, they are like guinea pigs. They are going to school on a building site,” she said.
“The school is busy already, kids are bumping into each other on the stairs. It is only going to get worse next year.
“Subiaco Oval is already well-used during the day with multiple sports lessons occurring at the same time, WA Football Club after school hours. Surrounding schools no longer have access – there is just no space left.”
WA Education Minister Tony Buti has previously admitted it was “always challenging” to build a school in a more densely populated area, when asked about the difficulties which have faced the new East Perth Primary School development.
He said it was not unusual to have schools in inner-city areas using playing fields outside that area.
“There is basically no greenery at Mercedes College,” he said as an example.
“We are not building the school in an outlying suburb, which has more greenfield land; this is an inner city, densely populated area with many demands.”
UEM Sunrise said it had “incorporated best practices in urban design and planning” at The Oval and was collaborating closely with the community and state government.
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