ABOUT
Perth Hills Future is a community peak body that seeks to consult and engage with local communities to re-imagine and design the future of the Perth Hills.
The community consultation process will take a deep dive into the known and shared challenges and opportunities for Smart Growth across the Perth Hills.
A multi-faceted and intergenerational approach will be undertaken to ensure broad-based consultation and collaboration with established community groups and the local business community to avoid duplication.
We believe the wisdom dwells in the community and we strive to amplify the Community Voice to design the future of the Perth Hills.
The outcomes, supported by data will form Community Mandates containing solutions focussed recommendations, prepared as the basis of a conversation with government in pursuit of a more integrated planning and investment future for the Perth Hills.
About the Perth Hills
The Perth Hills span about 80km of peri urban and regional land that is home to vibrant communities across five local government areas; Swan, Mundaring, Kalamunda, Armadale, Serpentine-Jarrahdale.
The Perth Hills are an iconic Western Australian natural asset; a critical habitat for the flora and fauna that make the area a biodiversity hotspot and an integral contributor to the environmental health of the greater Perth region. The ecological and cultural importance of these natural systems grows daily as land on the Swan Coastal Plain is given over to development - catching rain water, cleaning the air and providing habitat for threatened and endangered species.
The challenges are known and shared across the Hills and include waste water management, bushfire risk, drying climate, limited and ageing infrastructure (transport, power, telecommunications) that have resulted in ad hoc and misaligned planning outcomes.
The Perth Hills community actively seek new and consolidated growth strategies to build thriving, diverse economies, aligned with environmental and cultural values, to leave a positive legacy for future generations.
History
The need for a new approach to planning, development and promoting the Perth Hills has been building since the 1990’s, when the growth of Perth began to apply pressure on historical governance structures and the rural and environmental values of residents. This pressure has increased steadily since. Community resistance to major developments has grown with it, both in scale and frequency, and is presently creating significant challenges for local and State government officers and elected members.
The draft Perth Hills Planning Bill 2010 was an attempt to reconcile ongoing misalignment between planning, land development and community priorities. A Bill was tabled but not supported (Parliament of Western Australia, 2020). A dedicated Act is now more broadly supported.
The trend over time of increasing human, wildlife, and economic impacts from bushfires across the Perth Hills and similar geographies across Australia has increased community pressure to develop safer planning and building standards. The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements triggered by unprecedented impacts from the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires, recently released recommendations intended to improve planning guidelines and building standards for areas like the Perth Hills.
