No free crown land for wavepool developers in Perth, Western Australia.
Four years ago, the former investment banker and self-appointed “hard-core” surfer Andrew Ross announced a masterplan to dot Australia with Wavegarden-powered pools.
The first of the ten pools, which is being built near Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport, is going to get its tank filled in a few weeks with testing to follow before it opens to the public in time for the southern hemisphere summer.
It’s an interesting play. The tech, Wavegarden’s Cove, has never been built to this scale.
Will it work?
Will it thrill?
Nobody, not Wavegarden nor Ross’ company Urbnsurf, knows.
A second pool, which was going to be built in the Perth suburb of Alfred Cove and, importantly, a few hundred metres from my parents’ house, has hit a potentially fatal roadblock.
The state government has refused to kick Urbnsurf a chunk of crown land for the build.
From the national broadcaster,
Lands Minister Ben Wyatt announced yesterday that a proposal by the City of Melville to utilise a portion of Crown land for the project had been rejected.
Urbnsurf founder and executive director Andrew Ross said he only found out via a phone call from Mr Wyatt yesterday afternoon.
“We have been progressing with this project for a number of years now and I think the reasoning that has been given, I don’t know that it makes a lot of sense to me,” he told ABC Radio Perth.
“They felt that the Crown land needed to remain available to the general public.
“We are deeply disappointed that we have put so much time and effort and money into this, to have it all sort of end at this point.”
Mr Ross said Perth was “screaming out” for the wave park.
“We need to have big, clever ideas about how to reinvigorate Perth,” he said.
“Perth has a wonderful climate, we have a huge surfing population of 80,000 people, but we do not have a dedicated surfing facility.”
The waves in Perth, of course, do suck. It’s unimaginably bleak.
Blown out and small in summer; blown out and small in winter.
Question: should the Western Australian government turn over a parcel of land owned by the citizenry for the profit of a private company if it gives pleasure to the aforementioned citizenry?
And, if you live in Perth, does the idea of getting out of the reach of the many Great Whites that patrol those waters thrill you beyond measure?
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EIGHTY THOUSAND SURFERS IN PERTH????
Why the FUCK do people persist in believing these titanically bullshit numbers?
I agree.
Why does no one call them out on these numbers? Madness. Although to be fair he is still estimating substantially less (at approx. 3.7% of population – based on Otto’s estimate of 2.14m) than Andrew Stark – who once said
“The Sweeney Report indicates there are two and a half million surfers in Australia; although I’d tend to think there are half a million to a million more. It’s approximately ten per cent of the population, which is a big number. But it’s more than just a big number; surfing is an iconic Australian sport that plays a huge part in Australian culture and the Australian identity.
Is three and a half million people in the water too many? I swear a million of them were out at Snapper this morning and it was a little unpleasant.”
https://www.coastalwatch.co…
Seriously its time for these fellas to be called out for the rubbish they continue to spurt out.
I don’t think its too far fetched to call surfing populations in some areas at 4% – but across the board that is just madness. Imagine if every surfer in Perth brought one board a year (which most real surfers would do at the very least on average) – and half of those board sales were in shops locally. Then that would be 109 new boards sold a day in Perth. Now that would be a nice little business to be in.
So does anyone in Perth know any shops selling 100 plus boards a week 52 weeks of the year? If Andrew Ross really believes these numbers then his business will do extraordinarily well – and he should be happy to buy up the land anyway. A large chunk of investors would be keen to support him.
Its a shame Andrew and Derek do not get on – as I am sure Derek would not mind asking a few tough questions. Why don’t you interview him Nick and find out exactly how he arrives at his 3.7% number – why this varies so much with that of Surfing Australia’s estimate and why this number seems so obscenely high by most peoples anecdotal observations / evidence? There is a PhD is all of this. If anyone wants to do one I would be happy to supervise.
Maybe a quick call to the big 4 board brands would put this to bed once and for all. Imagine if CI has 10 percent of the market in Perth – that would mean that they are selling 8,000 boards a year into Perth. Thats some seriously big numbers. Are there any industry wide statistics available on surfboard sales? I know that in the US they have been collecting data at customs on all imported boards for the last 10 years approx (Matt Bios said that on a podcast). It would be interesting to know just how many boards are actually sold in Oz each year – or even just some estimates.
Pretty sure Rip Curl would have the data available internally to estimate how many surfers there really are based on their wetsuit sales and their own estimates of market share / how often real surfers buy wetsuits etc. There would be lots of ways to make some high level estimates. Point me in the direction of some data and I will have a crack.
In 2013 Surfing Australia said there were 17,287 Boardriders Clubs members – so if they are counting just 0.7% of reach to surfers then maybe it is time for someone to broadly represent the Surfers and have a crack at the Senate – as clearly Surfing Australia is hardly representative – but maybe just the most well organised bunch though. Maybe you could do this Nick – I can just see you hanging out with Derryn Hinch and the rest of the cross benchers.
Well John Wayne I have written a number of articles about this very subject, repeatedly calling it out for the nonsense it is. The whole thing is totally made up. All of it, conjured on figures that are deliberately misread for effect. The last reliable figures on surfer numbers in Australia that I could find came from the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2011/12, which said in its sports participation report at the time that there were about 226,000 surfers in Australia. The figure was broken down carefully into age groupings which very much reflected the reality of surfing experience at the time, ie a lot more older surfers than might be expected by anyone who didn’t surf much. The number of beachgoers was a different matter and that figure was around 3.5million — like that’s people who just go to the beach for a swim or whatever. It’s that figure I believe has been deliberately used to mislead everyone about surfing numbers. I think maybe that 226,000 has risen a little bit in the intervening years, but not by a factor of 14.
Boardnmakers know the big number is bullshit. Anyone who works or has worked in surf media knows it’s bullshit. Anyone who can count heads at his or her local surf spot knows its bullshit. If there were 3.5 million surfers in Australia, just the law of averages would mean there were around 17,000 surfers at every Sydney beach.
The thing is, everyone who quotes the mega figures always has something to gain from people believing in the mega figures.
I wanna cash in!
Tell me how I can sell out! I don’t care any more!
soul-schmole!
SHOW ME THE MONEY!
Papa needs a brand new board!.
Please god bring us a wave pool. You owe after trigg point you prick
I live in Perth would absolutely froth over a wave pool but they chose a un-realistic location. The wa government doesn’t want to do the local government any favours right now unless given a decent reason to.
There seems to be a real loathing of Perth amongst surfers both from here and from rest of Australia! Like its Perth’s fault or something. The close proximity of good surf regions and the fact that there is actual waves here sometimes mean that Perth has enough to drag you into start surfing as a grommet and get you hooked but not enough to supply you. So you are then stuck in a permanent state of questioning your life choices because really you should either quit surfing or move away. Half your mates already have moved away. You can hold onto “yeah but can just go down” south” but unless you can grab a board and go surf your local it’s not the same!
Fuck, believe me when I say we desperately need this tank. If not just to relieve a little pressure from the ridiculous crowds and non existent waves here.
Can URBSURF not buy some land?
Perth waves are unbelievably shit. Perth would be one of the few places that a wave pool would make sense.
120 grown men fighting over a half ft wave is seriously pathetic
I think surfing life mag voted it worst beach in Australia in one of the Reilly/Baker issues
Breaking News: Self serving cuntard whines about rejection !
City decides in favour of land use for wider public benefit.
Pro tip: Ya didn’t cut the right people in, dickhead.
* chuckles at the irony of Australians calling their public land “Crown land” (with capital C)
URBNSerf
“… I did but see her passing by and yet I love her till I die.” So said Prime Minister Menzies in 63 to the woman who is still wearing the Crown today and sadly still known as the Queen of Australia.
And the Queen of New Zealand. And the Queen of Canada. And Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom.
Daaaaang!
She might come back and be the Queen of the Americas just to liven up the ex colony ?
I can trace my lineage back to Capt. Bolling of the Petersburg, Virginia Militia, who placed his boot in the small of Gen. Cornwallis’ back and kindly ordered him to summarily fuck off all the way back across the pond.
I’d be happy to show the Queen the same hospitality.
Vive la République !
I can trace my lineage back to folks who leveraged the brute force of the Empire to coast through life easily and blissfully in foreign lands without having to earn their keep and fucking over indigenous communities in the process. It’s deeply embarrassing and I’m most ashamed. But at least the Crown isn’t my sovereign anymore, so I suppose that’s something…
There ya go! Turn that pout about.
You should read up on what the indigenous people here in America were doing to each other long before European settlers showed up. They were well versed in raping, pillaging, enslavement, murdering, conquering, warring and any and all general acts of brutality man has come up with. White Europeans settlers could have have been conquered by Tecumseh and the British in 1812 if only the northern territory tribes got along with one another better. That was tough since they had been blessing each other with pillaging, raping, enslavement, war parties etc. for so many years. Their sense of loyalty to the British vs. Settlers was self-serving, often choosing one side or the other based upon longstanding feuds with rival tribes.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Until circumstances re-position us enemies, then it’s all hands to the guns.
By the way you’ve listed all the countries in alphabetical order I’m of the impression you went to The Google to get your facts and list straight before you posted, and likely added grammar to a (probably) original bullet list.
Bravo! I thoroughly appreciate your Sunday effort!
Bullet points? Added grammar?
Cut n’ Pasted my friend. Cut n’ Pasted.
I was curious how many Commonwealth’s existed. After seeing the length of the list, I wasn’t about to put forth that much effort. Especially on such a beautiful Sunday as today.
You bamboozled me by putting New Zealand and Canada up front.
That’s cause those were two others I already knew. The list was quite surprising to be honest. I had no idea the Crown still held so many Commonwealth’s.
In her younger days, she was known to ‘get around’ a bit.
You make me dizzy, Miss Lizzy
The way you rock and roll
You make me dizzy, Miss Lizzy
When we do the stroll
Come on, Miss Lizzy
Love me before I grow too old……..
To find out if a country was once an ex British colony just ask the local population how much they love cricket ?
I say
I don’t like cricket oh no
I love it
I don’t like cricket no no
I love it
Don’t you walk thru my words
You got to show some respect
Don’t you walk thru my words
‘Cause you ain’t heard me out yet….
Fuck the pool, we need more housing for the 200K arriving each year.
Oops..my bad. They’re all coming to Melbourne.
It’s true
Should have built it at Kalbarie missed a huge opportunity I reckon.
Now bankrupt!
Who’s bankrupt?
Ross is aware as long as the crown can sheer them sheep the land will be provided….surfing is free.
We should just sell WA To china.
Then there’d be a wave tank in every town.
I think we already have ,, well all the good stuff in the ground , and waiting for the Chinese Tourists to finish them off!
If the world must have a lone super power, who would you prefer: China, the USA or Russia? And why?
That’s a tuff one.
I’m leaning toward China cause they’re chicks are sexy but fuk so are the Russian babes.
I don’t wanna live in a genderless society so the US is out.
Mmm, I like Chinese food and we will always have better equipment so
Ni hao, Ni hao ma.
USA , all we have to do is convince herr Trump ette to Make the World Great again…Planet 1st!
Pulling out late and sticking it in Yeppoon seems to be the only option.
Talk about coitus interruptus!
“dedicated surf facility”
Mother Ocean: “You questioning my dedication? Well fuck you! I’m here day and night, 365 days a year. I give and give and give. I don’t get paid. I have no health benefit plan despite being subjected to your endless pollution. I never complain. I have to deal with SUPs, foils, VALs, kooks and fucking hipsters. Do you hear me complain? No! And I’m still here. Don’t question my dedication.”
In fairness to the wave pool developers Perth city waves are terrible due to Rottnest island blocking the swell…and Trigg point is ok but gets insanely crowded as only place half decent…any surfer with a pulse would
Be frothing for wave pool as h
In this instance Mother Nature doesn’t deliver
Just wondering if a day at Rottnest ( ferry included ) would be cheaper than a day at the wave park ? A small island 18km from Fremantle with 12000 Quokkas and Hawaiian type waves ( to quote both Thorson and 89 world champ Mr Potter ) sounds like a preferable alternative ?
Yeh 100 percent cheaper – thing wh wave pool is you can have a 1 hour session and catch 10 waves before or after work etc. but for a day trip or even half day Rottnest much better (assuming winds etc are right)
Just blow Rottnest up.
Developers don’t need fairness. They can afford to not play fair. They should be dealt with accordingly.
I’m not Australian, but nonetheless still did some digging, no pun intended, cause land use matters intrigue me. Especially when it’s concerning public land.
Perth has roughly 2.14 million people, out of which, according to Ross 80,000 surf.
In 2017 Perth had a fire sale of Crown lands in order to pay down debt. Sales that finalized far below the asking price. At the time Wyatt was Treasurer and vehemently opposed the sales.
Across the street from proposed sits is a lawn bowling club that was supposed to be moved/combined with other club down the street. The club in question changed their mind and was/is the most vocal opponent of Ross’ site choice.
***There were other sites in/around Perth that were considered, and are being reconsidered but Ross wanted the site that was rejected for its central location. That’s where he got greedy IMO. He figured 2017 fire sales would likely result in his being easily able to purchase Crown land, at a discount, once he had the backing of the city.
Wyatt is indigenous. He’s probably more aware, or in tune with, how important public use lands are, seeings how indigenous peoples originally lived on that land.
Ross should have incorporated some improvement of the Crown land, paid for by him, as a goodwill gesture. Instead he wanted to do a land grab, saying fuck you to 2,030,000 people for the sake of some 80,000. That never works out well.
Ross and Perth will still get their wave pool. It will just be at one of the other sites the developing team considered.
And Mother Ocean? Do you have anything to add?
Mother Ocean: “Yes. Can’t wait to see you next big swell Mr. Anderson. Make sure you bring your favorite board. I can’t wait to snap that fucking thing! Good day to you.”
Jeez, I made my other “I appreciate your Sunday effort ” comment before I read this one.
Will you accept the title of BG Queen of Sunday?
Am I even allowed to bestow such a title?
Im not from Australia , I’m from perth & have an interest in this thing falling over. Even manage to get personal. Otto you are a sup riding nimby from Melville.
You got me. Fuck you’re smart. How did you figure it out?
Don’t start with this research thing. What happens if some of the other ‘people’ get that kind of idea?
Common sense won in the end. The whole project was a stinking turd. A wave park built in a residential area on prime riverfront land 3 or 4 km from the coast?
Urbnsurf wanted the land for nothing. The City of Melville was only too willing to oblige. Russell Aubrey got caught with his pants down. Now he has to find someone else to give our land away to.
Build it in the foothills. Wattle Grove would be ideal. Get Urbnsurf to buy the land at market value and stump up for deep sewerage, and I’m sure that the locals would love it.
“They felt that the Crown land needed to remain available to the general public.“
The unlimited nature of greed never ceases to amaze
Sounds like there was an unmet brown envelope expectation
“Perth has a wonderful climate, we have a huge surfing population of 80,000 people, but we do not have a dedicated surfing facility.”
Uh…
the…
ocean?
Guess what?
It’s free too!
It’s free but it don’t work!
Too fuckin bad.
People say Florida don’t work neither but look what it produced.
Florida is like Oahu compared to Perth. Three hours south, however, a diff story.
Is it really that bad?
Perhaps wind buffering panels might be the better long term option rather than the ridiculous energy-sink if a wave pool.
… oh yeah, I forgot; it’s all about making money, not providing waves.
And… won’t the wind fuckup a wavepool too?
The waves in Perth are sadly terrible tho as Rottnest island blocks swell – if I lived in Perth I’d froth for wave pool. I actually live near great waves in vic and I’m still frothing for the wave pool!
Your dad must be spewin!
Fell to the floor and wept and begged the mercy of Christ. As I dd. Interestingly, he’s COE; I’m Catholic.
Ah men.