BADGE Constructions has been awarded the $4.1 million contract to build the long-awaited combined Department of Planning and Infrastructure and Department of Fisheries Marine Operations Centre for Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour.
Fisheries is to be the major tenant of the single-storey complex, to be built on the corner of Capo D’Orlando Drive and Mews Road, Fremantle – the southern extremity of the harbour.
The department will move several of its regional operational groups into the centre, which has been on the drawing board for five years.
In the process it will free up two leases it holds in Fremantle and one in London House at 216 St Georges Terrace, Perth.
Fisheries manager regional services Greg Finlay said the department’s other CBD facility, on the corner of King Street and St Georges Terrace, would remain.
Besides Fisheries and DPI staff the centre will also play host to South Fremantle High School and Challenger TAFE classes.
South Fremantle High School has a marine program that links with Challenger’s course offerings.
The DPI will manage the centre, which is being built on its land.
That land already plays host to ageing Fisheries, DPI, SFHC and Challenger TAFE buildings, which will be demolished to make way for the new centre.
DPI manager regional and asset performance, Steve Jenkins, said dis-cussions had been held over the centre within various sectors of government for the past four to five years.
“We just sorted the funding out in the past 18 months,” he said.
The users will split the rental of the site based on their use of it.
Fisheries, with 56 of the 73 people the complex is expected to hold, will pay the bulk of the rent.
