PLANS showing a pub next to the Round House have raised residents’ concerns about Fremantle council’s vision for the historic area.
Designed by councillor Andrew Sullivan—an architect—the drawings came to light but were not discussed at the February 26 council meeting which approved Sunset Events’ $3 million bar and concert venue at Arthur Head.
The drawings include an “upper bar” linked to Sunset Events’ J-Shed project via a walking deck over the Arthur Head cliff face. The bar with ocean views is just metres from WA’s oldest public building.
There is also a lift next to the existing timber staircase leading to the pilots’ cottages now used by Round House volunteers.
Cr Sullivan says the drawings are not a council document and have no official status: “It is a sketch I was working on for my own benefit,” he says. “It explores some of the ideas for the area.”
He says his idea has received support as it integrates the area with Victoria Quay and fishing boat harbour.
“Sunset’s lease does not negate work on other areas,” he says.
“The reason I developed the drawing is to help me resolve in my own mind the potential for the lease area.”
But Dick Baynham, chair of Arthur Head Committee and member of the Fremantle Inner City Residents’ Association which opposes the bar, smells a rat.
He accuses Cr Sullivan of effectively writing Sunset events’ business plan and helping force Round House from the area by labelling the cottage they now use “Sunset Artist House”. He says the council sat on the “sketch” for some time before revealing it online.
Mr Baynham says Cr Sullivan first posted his sketch on Cr Rachel Pemberton’s facebook site the day before council approved Sunset’s lease.
A snapshot of comments on her site include a couple from Cr Sullivan who states: “BTW the plan is not the proposal but gives you an idea of the complexity of the thinking that is going into this issue.” Cr Sullivan prefaces the comment with, “I’m a great believer in informed community participation but that is sometimes hard in our passion-rich community where the ‘it’s my way or the highway or ‘you don’t listen’ is often the starting point of a conversation.”
Mayor Brad Pettitt told the Herald the drawings are amongst early versions developed by Cr Sullivan.
“It’s good thinking,” he says. “Ultimately, we didn’t go with this option because it was very expensive and complicated. It was put together to get us to think about what is possible.”
Council voted to scale back the development, which includes a micro-brewery catering for 400 people and 12 ticketed events a year for 1500 concert goers.
Mr Baynham says Cr Sullivan had assured his committee, “he hadn’t made up his mind on this” when “by his own admission [he’s spent] his time drawing up this ‘vision’—complete with a deck connecting J Shed to the Round House, a Sunset artist house and an upper bar adjoining the Round House”.
by CARMELO AMALFI