Federal election 2016: WA economic malaise walks streets of Perth

Western Australia’s economic slowdown are written on vacant shopfronts across West Perth.

‘This structural shift in West Perth is not going to turn around, my view is that it’s a more permanent shift. Perth City councillor Reece Harley.

The withering effects of Western Australia’s economic slowdown are written on vacant shopfronts across the offices of West Perth, and business owners ­complain the upmarket area is turning into a wasteland.

Resource company executives were once cheek-by-jowl in the cafes and bars of West Perth, where a coffee could cost $8 and a stack of eight beautifully arranged chips set pub-goers back $8.50 in 2009. But in the three months since West Perth recorded its highest vacancy rate in 21 years, more “For Lease” signs have ­appeared on and around the main strip, Hay Street.

City of Perth councillor Reece Harley, who lives in West Perth, has lobbied unsuccessfully for concessions to help breathe life back into the area, such as waving alfresco dining fees for restaurant and cafe owners and pushing for free weekend parking. He said businesses told him their turnover had dropped an average 25 per cent. Late last year, he counted 11 closed-down shops on one block.

“In West Perth five years ago, when you were trying to get a sandwich you had to line up out the door but that’s not the case anymore because there aren’t as many customers,” he said.

Mr Harley believes the suburb must consider converting old ­office blocks into apartments and transforming the suburb from a business area to an arts hub.

“It is my view that this structural shift in West Perth is not going to turn around, my view is that it’s a more permanent shift.”

The economic slowdown is ­apparent across the state. Private school enrolments, outpaced by government school enrolments for two years, dropped for the first time this January. The fall in West Australian house prices is dragging down the national average. Unemployment is at 6 per cent.

Last week the government ­unveiled the worst set of books in the state’s history, a ­budget that forecast weak economic growth, rising unemployment and a ­further drop in iron ore prices to blow a hole in the Turnbull government’s budget assumptions.