Industry and Synergies
What is the Western Trade Coast?
Key Strategic Issues
Buffer Zone
Synergies (Industrial Symbiosis)
Buffer Zone
The buffer zone that surrounds the Kwinana Industrial Area is the result of careful, wise and proper planning dating back to when Kwinana was established as Perth’s premier heavy industrial area. Its aim is simple – to ensure that industry and the community can coexist.
Buffer zones surrounding industrial areas are established primarily to ensure that nearby residential communities are not adversely impacted by health and amenity issues that can be attributed to industrial emissions.
The Western Trade Coast industrial buffer zone is considered by industry to be essential infrastructure for its future certainty, existence and sustainability.
Balancing industrial development with the needs of surrounding communities is a complex challenge that requires careful land use planning.
The importance of buffer zones in safeguarding communities cannot be overstated. The Kwinana buffer zone serves as a vital safeguard against the inherent risks posed by heavy industry, offering residents peace of mind and assurance of their safety and maintain the amenity of their communities. Without adequate buffer zones, the coexistence of industrial and residential areas becomes a precarious balancing act, fraught with potential dangers and uncertainties.
Protection of the industrial buffer zone is one of KIC’s key strategic issues.
The Kwinana Industries Council, on behalf of its members, will continue to advocate strongly, and resist any attempts, to scale back the buffer zone.
What is a Buffer Zone?
Buffer zones create a geographical distance between industry and residential communities.
The coexistence of heavy industry and residential areas in close proximity needs to be carefully managed, and has done so for decades. The Western Trade Coast, including the Kwinana Industrial Area, is undergoing a major transformation with new projects, industries and operators coming in. The largest of these is Westport, the new container harbour for the state, and defence projects as part of AUKUS. These are game changing projects. However, as the face of Kwinana industry evolves, the need for the buffer does not diminish.
The importance of buffer zones in safeguarding communities cannot be overstated. The Kwinana buffer zone serves as a vital safeguard against the inherent risks posed by heavy industry, offering residents peace of mind and assurance of their safety and maintain the amenity of their communities. Without adequate buffer zones, the coexistence of industrial and residential areas becomes a precarious balancing act, fraught with potential dangers and uncertainties.
It is imperative that we reiterate the importance of maintaining and preserving buffer zones around the Kwinana Industrial Area. Any encroachment or diminishment of these buffer zones not only jeopardises the safety and well-being of our communities, exposing residents to unnecessary risks and vulnerabilities, but also puts jobs and the wider economy at risk.
We must prioritise the maintenance and enhancement of buffer zones as a fundamental aspect of urban planning.
If the State wants to maintain a sustainable heavy industrial area into the future, it needs to be surrounded by an immovable buffer zone, one that is not subject to pressures from residential property developers for new housing estates.
Importance
Industrial buffer zones are considered by KIC to be essential pieces of State infrastructure, and they need to be protected in just the same way that major freight highways are protected from inappropriate land use encroachment.
Industry within the Western Trade Coast contributes around $15bn into the State economy annually, and for the direct and indirect employment of more than 40,000 workers.
Existing industrial suburbs (the industrial core in particular) are essentially full, or are close to it. As new industrial land is brought to market, it will be located closer to the periphery of the buffer zone. If incoming industry has concerns about possible future urban encroachment of the buffer zone, it creates a risk to investment and growth.
Strategic industrial areas within the State are afforded a high level of protection via planning controls that designate an area as an ‘Improvement Plan’ area or even better as a ‘Special Control Area’ The WTC is not yet afforded either of these levels of formal protection, but KIC has formally requested the latter control be implemented.
History
The concept of a buffer around industry has been integral to the Kwinana Industrial Area since it was formed in the 1950s.
The history of the buffer zone is that it was originally set up to place distance between sulphur dioxide (SO2) emitting industries and residential communities. This was a successful approach, but over time many things changed. The regulatory environment has become more stringent, industry has evolved and emits less, cumulative and societal risk is better understood, the industrial core is expanding, and community tolerance to emissions like dust and noise has diminished.
Previous governments have tried (and failed) to protect the buffer zone through the implementation of a law, to legislate the location of the buffer to protect industry. This process, despite the unanimous support from government departments and trading enterprises to enshrine the buffer zone on its historical alignment, was severely impacted by the interventions of property developers seeking to diminish the buffer in favour of their residential property development plans.
KIC believes that protection from residential development pressure through preservation of its buffer zone is critical to the KIA’s ongoing success. The buffer zone was established to protect the community from industry activities – as well as industry from the community. It is KIC’s position that without the extensive buffer, the KIA could not have grown to become what it is – the State’s premier industrial area.
Maps
Three maps of the WTC are shown here to illustrate the buffer zone. From left to right;
- The WTC area lies within the buffer zone, and is shown as the variously coloured blocks adjacent to the maritime coast. There are some 6,000ha of land contained within the buffer zone, and three local governments have municipal governance control over the area. In green is the City of Cockburn, in purple is the City of Kwinana, and in orange is the City of Rockingham.
- In the centre, the WTC shown in blue gives a spatial context to where the industrial area is located within the greater Perth area. It can be seen that it is located on the coast south of Fremantle and east of Garden Island.
- To the right is a map depicting the several ‘industrial suburbs’ that combine to create the Western Trade Coast
WTC Precincts Govt Jurisdiction
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WTC Map in relation to the Perth Metro Area
WTC Precinct Plan
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