The Rottnest Island Authority Board released a media statement on the 25th November confirming that the Pinctada Rottnest Island Resort and Spa Pty Ltd had advised it was terminating its bid and negotiations for the hotel development opportunity at Longreach Bay.

The RIA Chairman Laurie O’Meara said the board was disappointed the proposal put forward by Pinctada would not go ahead, however, the parties had to follow the tendering parameters set at the beginning of the process.  He said the board would continue to pursue developing a hotel on the site.

By the time you are reading this on the webiste it is just possible that a “final” decision will have been made on the current proposal to build a luxury hotel overlooking Longreach Bay.  My use of “final” is deliberate. After all, negotiations involving the RIA and the Minister with the preferred proponent began well over a year ago and, since December 2010, failure to agree on financial and commercial arrangements have resulted in a seemingly endless series of extensions to the process. Read the full article...

We are of course still waiting to see what happens with the Longreach Bay proposal - the most recent announcement from Tourism Minister Hames advised that the proponent, Pinctada Hotels and Resorts, now has another extension of 3 months (until 30th September?), following the previous one month extension until June 30th to come up with the money and finalise negotiations. The Minister is quoted as saying that the Government, the RIA and Pinctada are "working together to bring the project to fruition". We assume that the extension is to the date by which Pinctada must lodge a formal development application. This does seem to be somewhat unfair to the other short-listed proponent and begs the question about what, if any, assistance the government will give to bring this to fruition. We are concerned that no costs associated with this hotel are passed on to other members of the Rottnest public via higher charges.

Read our submision on the proposed development (.pdf)

 

Flawed public comment process

We and many others tried to get it extended for 3 weeks by emailing, phoning or faxing the then Minister for Tourism, the Hon. Dr Liz Constable, MLA - to no avail.

We and many others sought the minister's assurance that comments beyond 'scale and scope' of the proposed hotel would be considered e.g. comments about potential impacts on the natural environment (neighbouring beaches, dunes and headlands), on traffic, and on social and cultural amenity would be considered.  To no avail.

The public comment process was seriously flawed because:

1. It did not include people not on internet;
2. No information about where to view paper plans;
3. No postal address given to mail comment to;
4. No contact name and number given;
5. No details with concept plans about potential impacts of this development;
6. Limiting comment to ‘scale and scope’ not in accordance with Minister’s assurance
7. No details sought of sender’s name and address

What can I do to help?

YOU COULD EXPRESS YOUR CONCERNS TO YOUR LOCAL MEMBER, THE MINISTER, AND THE PREMIER.
Most metropolitan MPs have received recent information from us about this on 8th December. Please click here for a list of Current Members of the Parliament of Western Australia.

This is the proposed site for the new hotel at Longreach.  Two story buildings will dominate this bay (arrow points to bitumen catchment above trees mid-photo which is the ground level for buildings).  What building height limitations are there for this hotel?

• View hotel designs at the Landcorp website: View Designs (.pdf)
• Read Pinctada's submission at: Extracts from Pinctada submission

See some of our concerns about the impact on amenity and natural environment below:

The Rottnest Society is very concerned about the impact on the nearby beaches, dunes and headlands of so many extra pairs of feet. Up to 300 people per night means potentially 70,000 extra pairs of feet per year. What will the RIA do to manage this? How many extra vehicle movements per day for up to 300 people plus say 60-80 staff?

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