Williamstown’s beloved beach is about to change forever – and for the worse – unless residents, ratepayers, and everyone else who loves Williamstown speak up now.
Hobsons Bay City Council is about to rule on a planning application for a major redevelopment of the Williamstown Swimming & Life Saving Club at the west end of the beach.
It’s great that that wonderful community asset is being expanded and modernised. But the present redevelopment plans are for an enormous two-storey warehouse-like building that will destroy the ‘village’ feel of historic Williamstown, overwhelm the existing heritage clubrooms, and overshadow the beautiful beach.
For generations, this charming little beach has been a magnet for artists and movie-makers. The clubhouse has featured in iconic Australian TV shows including the ABC’s SeaChange (you may remember it as the Pearl Bay Court House) and the children’s classic, Round the Twist. But if this redevelopment goes ahead, that charm will be gone, snuffed out by a brutalist building wildly out of place in this town and on this beach.
Under the present redevelopment proposal, the bottom storey is new storage space for the club’s essential life-saving equipment, and training facilities for the admirable club members who volunteer their time to keep the beach safe over summer. But the top storey is an unnecessary extravagance. It will not be used for life-saving purposes – it will house a gym and a big new events/entertainment/party space, with seating for 80 diners, standing room for hundreds, and opening out onto a vast balcony so that the noise will travel far and wide.
What that means is that if this plan becomes reality, it will change Williamstown beach and damage community amenity forever – more noise, more traffic, more alcohol, and more late-night hooning and dangerous behaviour on the Esplanade and Victoria Street, which as the local police will tell you is already a notorious hooning hot spot in the west.
Residents and visitors heading to the beach from beautiful Victoria Street (or Hannan or Bayview Streets, or anywhere from the west) will be confronted as they turn the corner into the Esplanade by a vast double-storey shed with a row of roller-doors – a bit like a Bunnings on the beach but without the logo. Sadly, but inevitably, ‘the Great Wall of Williamstown’ will prove irresistible for graffiti artists.
The proposal is too big: it will turn Williamstown beach into ‘Party Central’.
The solution is simple: councillors should reject the proposed second storey. That way, this overdue upgrade of the life-saving club won’t assault community amenity.
At the moment this is a win-lose proposal: the club wins not just all that it needs but all that it wants – it’s an ambit claim. But residents, visitors, and the heritage values of Williamstown all lose as the historic clubrooms get overwhelmed and overshadowed, and the amenity of the area gets destroyed.
Pulling the plans back to a single-storey redevelopment would turn this into a win-win: the club could get all that it needs, but without unnecessarily harming the interests of residents, ratepayers, and visitors to this precious place.
Together, we can save Williamstown beach.
Just as people power saved the life-saving club’s bayside pool – which was to fall victim to an earlier version of the redevelopment plans – now people power can save the beach, by speaking up against these new redevelopment plans.
Here’s what you can do:
1. Contact Hobsons Bay City Council (phone 9932-1044 or email customerservice@hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au) to register your opposition to the proposed second storey. The council staff are very approachable, helpful, and efficient.
2. Write directly to the mayor and the other six local councillors, letting them know of your concerns (their phone numbers and email addresses are available on the council’s website at www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/Council/Mayor-and-councillors/Your-elected-Councillors, and in the council newsletter that is dropped in your letterbox). Please be respectful and constructive.
3. Sign up to the Save Our Beach community group, so we can build extra momentum behind this campaign. Our email address is SaveWillyBeach@gmail.com.
To be clear: we support the life-saving club, we support redevelopment of the club, and we celebrate the fact that a people-power campaign has saved the club’s pool and beachside lawn. But we do not support Bunnings by the beach – an overbearing, extravagant two-storey party venue in this beautiful part of our town.
Please speak up to save Williamstown beach.
Paul Austin is a longtime resident of Williamstown and a convenor of Save Our Beach (SaveWillyBeach@gmail.com).
