HANNAH FITZHARDINGE is mayor of Fremantle. In today’s Thinking Allowed she explains her council’s vision behind redeveloping Fremantle Oval and why some housing on the site shouldn’t be seen as too scary.

IT’S literally a game-changer. The redevelopment of the Fremantle Oval Precinct is quite simply, a huge opportunity for Fremantle.

Imagine an oval in the heart of our city that could accommodate crowds of up to 15,000 people enjoying a game of football in comfort. 

Imagine an oval which is a lovely place to sit and eat lunch or do some exercise during the day – with shade and accessible pathways that meant you could access it from the hospital, Fremantle Prison or city centre. 

Imagine being able to enjoy the heritage of the oval, and discover previously hidden heritage by opening up to the historic Knowle at the Hospital. 

At a minimum, imagine an oval where people in wheelchairs could move around easily and access bathroom facilities, where there were specific change rooms for women…

The Fremantle Oval Redevelopment Masterplan was endorsed for public comment by council earlier this month and it outlines how this vision can be achieved.

Sport is of course a key objective – with the growing annual AFLW season, the much-loved South Fremantle Football Club in the WAFL and WAFLW, and mass participation events such as the AFL Masters Carnival which we hosted recently – there’s no shortage of football content to keep the oval busy. 

Not to mention keeping busy the local hospitality sector, before and after the games.

But when a green space as significant as Fremantle Oval is right in the middle of a city, it needs to do more than just host sporting activities. 

It needs to function as the lungs of the city – increasing tree canopy and providing a cool place to sit and relax, a space for schoolkids to do their outdoor education, a place for city dwellers and workers to use for fitness and wellbeing.

Currently the oval is effectively a block to movement from the southern side of the CBD – unless you want to scale a few fences, it’s pretty much impossible to get from the Markets to Fremantle Hospital without going the long way around. 

The Masterplan, while enabling ticketed access on gamedays, envisions a permeable space which invites pedestrians to move through the precinct to get where they are going. 

Fremantle Oval sits in a truly significant historic area – but right now, visitors to the oval hardly get to see the beauty that is just a stone’s throw away. 

By opening up the oval to the south and west, redevelopment will enhance visibility of the World Heritage Listed Fremantle Prison and the historic Knowle building at Fremantle Hospital.

The refurbishment of the historic Victoria Pavilion and reconnecting it to the oval will also retain heritage and benefit spectators. 

Heritage

While some will say that any development of the area has a negative impact on heritage, it’s important to not assume that all change is bad. 

Perhaps the element of the Masterplan that will cause the most discussion is the allocation of some land to provide housing. 

While this is not a current use on the site, it is a priority that was clearly identified in our recent Strategic Community Plan consultation as needing urgent action. 

There’s a number of reasons why it makes sense to include housing in the precinct – having a residential population will guarantee 24/7 activation and support the provision of other community amenity in the area. 

But from my perspective, because it is an area where council has more control than if it were simply a private property development, it gives us an opportunity to interrogate the current gap in the Fremantle housing market and provide for that – whether it be disability housing, affordable or ‘key worker’ housing, student accommodation or aged care – or a mixture of all of the above. 

The Masterplan has been carefully designed to ensure that the building envelope doesn’t impinge on significant views to and from the prison and is scaled appropriately in the context of surrounding buildings. 

Of course, the actual buildings will go through a full planning approval process at a later stage. 

The recent consultation on the oval redevelopment reached 2,400 people, with 163 of them taking the time to make a formal submission. 

The feedback was supportive of the Oval’s redevelopment, noting that while the precinct should remain primarily a place for sport, that shouldn’t exclude other uses – particularly those that benefit the broader community such as childcare, fitness and allied health. 

Finally, a word on governance. 

This masterplan has been developed through a long and robust process of working with the key stakeholders on the site – the South Fremantle Football Club, Fremantle Dockers and WA Football Commission, as well as with the surrounding stakeholders – including the Fremantle Hospital, the Fremantle Prison and others. 

The masterplan absolutely reflects the needs of the clubs, who will be in a position to build on their history and heritage in Fremantle and be able to operate long-term on the site in a sustainable manner. 

The Fremantle Oval Masterplan is open for public comment until Wednesday 6 November 2024 at mysay.fremantle.wa.gov.au