EAST FREMANTLE council has formed its first Climate Action Reference Group.

The council said CARG members were a mix of environmental experts, scientists, community members and councillors. 

Chairman Tony Natale said the group would engage the East Fremantle community in discussing the impacts of climate change on the small municipality.

“It is a journey that we must partake in because there is a sense of urgency 

[regarding] the climate emergency that the council called and we are here for the long haul,” Cr Natale said. 

Mayor Jim O’Neill said the group would help guide council policy, strategy and decision-making so “climate adaptation and mitigation in the broadest sense is in the forefront of our minds”. 

The elephant in the room is the low-lying Leeuwin Barracks, slated to be one of the biggest residential developments in East Fremantle’s history but in an area which Coastal Risk Australia’s modelling shows will have water lapping at the doors of peripheral houses by 2100, even based on moderate predictions of sea level rises. That’s just at high tide, let alone during a storm surge.

Cr Natale didn’t have much to say about Leeuwin, and when the Chook asked the council whether the mayor would address the issue, was told he wouldn’t comment in case that “devalued” the development.

by EMINA HAJDAREVIC