CHRIS THOMSON

EXCLUSIVE: A second marina abutting the controversial Port Coogee has been included in refurbishment plans for the defunct South Fremantle Power Station.

The concept is revealed in a City of Cockburn blueprint seen by oneperth.com.au.

In March, the state government approved the revamp of 91 hectares of former industrial land between historic South Fremantle and nouveau riche Port Coogee.

The centrepiece of the 4800-dwelling project will be the conversion of the long-defunct power station. However, owners Verve Energy say the station will take $46 million just to make water tight.

Planning Minister John Day left the zoning around the station vague so extra planning could address the building’s heritage, public access and relationship to the foreshore.

Cockburn mayor Logan Howlett told oneperth.com.au the marina concept was in its early days and one of many options being considered for the power station precinct.

“It’s up in there now as an option to be worked up and costed,” Mr Howlett said.

He said the marina could offset the massive cost of the power station revamp.

Mr Howlett conceded the proposal could be contentious but said all options would be subject to rigorous community consultation.

He wants the power station to have community uses – possibly a Museum of Cockburn – on the ground floor. The upper floors would be filled with apartments and offices.

In the face of vehement local opposition to further privatisation of the Cockburn coast, the adjacent Port Coogee took more than a decade to be approved before being embroiled in a Corruption and Crime Commission probe in 2008.

In a similar deal to that envisaged for the power station marina, the former Gallop Government ceded the seabed beneath Port Coogee for free to Singapore-owned developer Australand to offset the cleanup cost of contaminated land that lay on the hill behind.

In 2008, Australand was hauled before the CCC to answer questions about the role of disgraced former Premier-cum-lobbyist Brian Burke in the Port Coogee approval.

That was during the last Perth housing boom.

Now, in the midst of an extended housing slump, Port Coogee is proceeding at snail’s pace – with the exclusive marina part of the project boasting just one lonely mansion under construction.

Architect Andrew Sullivan once chaired the wound-up Coogee Coastal Action Coalition which opposed Port Coogee. He is now a City of Fremantle councillor who sits on the state government steering committee overseeing the Cockburn coast redevelopment.

“The marina is only an idea at the moment in the sense that the detailed planning for the power station is only starting to occur,” he said.

“The existing beach is compromised by sea walls and is basically an area that needs a lot of work.

“Whether it is a marina or high quality beach that ends up there, major civil works will be required.”

Mr Sullivan said the 300-metre long marina would take up 700-metres less beach space than Port Coogee which had alienated a kilometre-long stretch of sand.

He said the idea made more sense than Port Coogee as it would help clean up a stretch of coast blighted by seawall and contamination.