Smoke! Mirrors! Etc.
Are you getting a little over, maybe even a little suspicious, of all these announcements for Wavegardens in Australia?
Already, we’re apparently going to get man-made waves in Melbourne, Sydney, and revealed today, Perth, or if we’re going to be specific, the suburb of Alfred’s Cove, midway between Perth and Fremantle.
One year ago, Wave Park Group CEO Andrew Ross told BeachGrit he was aiming for ten pools in a decade. Australia’s vast continent sprinkled with the fairy dust of wavepools. What could be finer?
From the PR spin: “Wave Park Group is thrilled to announce the location of WA’s first Wavegarden, to be located at Tompkins Park in the City of Melville. With river frontage and lush green surroundings, the A$25 million URBNSURF Perth development is set to break ground in late 2017…”
Is it really set to break ground in a year?
That would presume the site had been acquired, that all development approvals had gone through, the poor old bastards whose lives revolve around the Melville Bowling Club (lawn bowls, not ten-pin) had been given somewhere else to shuffle their balls.
How close is Wave Park Group?
The local council hasn’t even considered let alone endorsed the project.
Does a press release that trumpets 300 jobs and a $250 million injection into the economy (“over the life of the project”) seem a little presumptuous to you?
Smoke? Mirrors? Right now, yeah it is.
And, if you were the local council, and if you had even an ounce of research behind you, wouldn’t you wait to at least see commercial applications of the WSL/Slater tank before you threw prime riverfront land away?
Welcome to URBNSURF Perth! from URBNSURF on Vimeo.
Has anyone figured out where the wave mechanism is located in this pool?
It’ll be Perth’s best wave, now for crowd repelling wax.
i was offered a 50K unit the other day, they reckoned the deal was done. I am currently waiting for financial projections ect. we’ll see hey
why, do you intend to take them at face value?
A friend used to say of the Byron Shire Council; “BSC, the best council money can buy”. Feel free to apply as needed…
byron is notoriously the most difficult council in the southern hemisphere. but tell me your secrets.
Many moons ago, in the mid to late eighties, there was a rash of strange decisions that sailed pretty close to the edge of the council by-laws. Some would get through, other similar developments would not. Interestingly, the Top Pub re-developement was one that did follow the rules and actually improved the ‘vibe’.
My friend also used to say that Byron went to the dogs when everyone who owned a business in town moved out into the hinterland. Then it was open slather towards creating any mechanism possible to fleece cash out of any world traveller sucked into the vortex.
https://m.youtube.com/watch…
thats fucken Tweed, they just elect property developers straight to council, do away with the middle man
sustainable development longtom! knock down trees for sustainable development! how does ballina shire council compare?
I believe local council’s planning departments can not assess proposals on the feasibility of their business, rather on their impact on the site and the greater environment (highways and transport,loss or gain of public space, loss or gain of amenities, environmental impact, sewerage, stormwater etc and if it is in contravention with local policy). community consultation contributes largely, and in this case a bunch of core voters (old legends and ducks that play lawn bowls) might activate to tell em to fuck off. of course if local council rejects it the applicant can appeal, and if they are big-time and backed by money, would happily take it to a higher court where they may have more clout and can bend (dodge) local policies.
basics of economic development. tell em it’ll create jobs and that’s why public funds should be put into the project as well.
Derek what has happened with Essendon one??
Have they broken ground on any of these – they talking a big game and surely be better to actually finish one to see if model works, rather than hype the shit out of 10 locations without actually building one!!!
Just asked ’em, breaking ground start of 2017, still got a completion date of Christmas ’17…
ok interesting cheers
i love that they have just photoshopped a beach into a park. and havent even bothered to make it look like an artificial wave. or anything that would even be close to possible.
not when the first one tanks and prevents the other 9 from happening, you go all in with a ruse like this when you can only sell it once
I mean they need to find something for all the unemployed miners to build. The land is most likely owned by Gina Rinehart who i dare say has already ruled out coal or iron ore sitting under it. What good is a lawn bowls to her. Lets hope they serve beer at bowlo prices.
This will be the best wave in Perth by a mile!
I would usually agree, but…
Yeah but to get this wave you have to battle with about 100 sharks. See the news today? Perth surf beaches closed and local surf comp cancelled because of over 60 shark sightings in the last 2 weeks!!
And Triggs? Where’s my little stud Damon Hayes?
Everyone seems to love to have a pop at wavegarden for not being as good as a real wave but surely that’s not the point. I used to go to the indoor snowdomes back in England and yes they where shit compared to the Alps but you could still have fun and get a bit of stoke of snowboarding that you couldn’t otherwise have. It’s a surfable wave and you’d have to be a real miserable cunt not to get some fun out of it. If you rip that hard that a man made wave is shit just get in your car and go and find a real wave.
A snow-dome in England makes more sense given that you can only ski for half the year, and even then only on Scotland. If there are waves for free within an easy drive it’s hard to imagine paying to ride a Wave Garden more than a few times. Then again, what the fuck would I know? If I had any business nous I wouldn’t be sitting in this office.