Industry and Synergies
The Western Trade Coast has a 65-year history of supporting industrial activity and was one of the first heavy industrial areas established in Western Australia.
Today, the Western Trade Coast is an active industrial precinct, with diverse and unique synergies that link its four industrial areas. An attractive location for industrial development, the Western Trade Coast possesses an integrated industrial symbiosis, where companies located in the region engage in product and biproduct exchanges and innovative collaborations.
What is the Western Trade Coast?
Key Strategic Issues
Buffer Zone
Synergies (Industrial Symbiosis)
What is the Western Trade Coast?
The Western Trade Coast (WTC) is Western Australia’s premier industrial area 30 minutes south of the Perth CBD. It is well-served by major transport links, including deep-water bulk port facilities, high-wide and dangerous goods freight routes, and heavy rail.
There are four primary industrial estates within the WTC, these being the Kwinana Industrial Area (KIA), Rockingham Industry Zone (RIZ), The Australian Marine Complex (AMC), and Latitude 32.
The WTC is protected from residential land encroachment by a buffer zone.
Situated around the edge of the WTC are the residential suburbs of Rockingham, Kwinana and Cockburn. Of the more than 40,000 direct and indirect workers that attribute their employment to the WTC, two thirds live within 15kms of their workplaces.
Industrial Suburbs
There are four industrial suburbs that make up the WTC, each with their own areas of specialisation. They are:
The Kwinana Industrial Area (KIA)
This is the oldest part of the WTC, and was often referred to as “The Strip”. This area represents the original Kwinana Industrial Area, or heavy industry core. Its first entrant was the BP Kwinana oil refinery in 1955. It has been the home of the traditional heavy industries, including petroleum and minerals refineries, power stations, chemical plants, cement works and a range of supporting industries. It is a busy industrial deep-water bulk port and is approaching land availability capacity.
Extending from the south extremity of the KIA to its northern extremity, some 8kms, is a belt of secondary industries which service the fabrication, construction, engineering and maintenance requirements of their heavy industry neighbours.
Rockingham Industry Zone (RIZ)
On the fringes of the heavy industrial core is the RIZ. This is a newly developing heavy and light industrial area designed as an overflow to the KIA and for a belt of light industry through to commercial development as it gets closer to residential development. It provides space for many transport, storage and laydown areas as well as new industrial land for supporting andheavy industry.
Australian Marine Complex (AMC)
In the northern part of the WTC is the AMC, which is a specialist area for shipbuilding, marine engineering, manufacturing, fabrication, defence services, technology and general engineering.
The area alongside the wharves also serves as a marshalling area for mining resource, oil & gas, marine, logistics and defence projects.
Latitude 32
To the east is the Latitude 32 Industry Zone.
Covering 1,400ha, when fully developed this major industrial development zone will be amongst the largest in Australia and will be constructed to meet short, medium and long-term demand for industrial land in Perth.
As a result of the severe shortage of heavy industrial land, the KIC and its members sees Latitude 32 as the area into which the heavy industrial core can expand in to. Once the decision on Westport is made, it is hoped that the western profile of Latitude 32 will be zoned for this purpose, with the remainder set aside for the logistics industries supporting the new port in Kwinana.
Designated Strategic Industrial Area
The strategic importance of the Western Trade Coast has been recognised by the Western Australian Government with it being classified as Strategic Industrial Area (SIA).
The Kwinana SIA ensures strategically important industry has access to serviced, well-buffered and appropriately zoned land in close proximity to the Fremantle Port.
The Kwinana SIA is a specialist centre for chemical and resource-based processing industries, directly adjacent to the Fremantle Port’s deep-water bulk materials facilities and associated road and rail and networks.
The Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation (JTSI) is the lead agency for the development of Kwinana SIA and DevelopmentWA is the estate manager of land owned by DevelopmentWA.
The Benefits of Clusters
An ‘industrial cluster’ occurs where similarly categorised companies are located in close proximity, and the Kwinana Industrial Area (KIA) is an excellent example of one such cluster.
Companies in clusters are more competitive and efficient than similar companies located outside of clusters.
The improved competitiveness comes from being co-located with other businesses, so there is a
- higher likelihood of an efficient, integrated freight transport system servicing the area
- larger number of specialised, skilled and experienced workers who will move within the cluster
- shorter distance from process input supplies, possibly even able to be piped, to user
- higher likelihood that by-products will be able to be used as an input into by nearby industry processes, increasing the re-use and recycling of materials
- increased interest from the secondary (supporting engineering and fabrication) industry sector to locate near the heavy industry cluster thus further reducing the costs for all parties
- an attraction to move to the cluster to take advantage of the synergies, and to add to them
- greater economic impact which can induce greater governmental attention
- greater interest in investment which adds to all of the above.
- economic competitiveness is the bottom
The KIA is a world class example of the benefits of industrial-scale clustering. It is one of the world’s best practice examples of industrial symbiosis at work, with well over 150 product, by-product and utility exchanges occurring on commercial terms.
Clusters can be facilitated by governments through the provision of the basic infrastructure such as appropriately zoned and buffered land, efficient and scalable transport and pipeline corridors, utility provision designed to accommodate growth, etc. Governments can also ensure that their governance over the cluster is of high quality.