Perth Riverfront Masterplan

City of Perth

2024

Stakeholder & Community Engagement, Strategic Communications, Writing

The Debarl Yerrigan/Swan River is the jewel in Perth’s crown providing a spectacular backdrop for our world-class, modern City, but it has much untapped potential. The City of Perth first engaged the Western Australian community and stakeholders about how this potential could be realised back in 2020. In 2024, the City of Perth Elected Members endorsed a draft Masterplan that had been designed to reflect the aspirations of Western Australians for the Riverfront. The draft Masterplan was issued for consultation for six weeks in March 2025.

The Challenge

More than 200 masterplans for Perth’s Riverfront have been developed over the past century, with none of them coming to fruition for a range of diverse and complex reasons.

The most recent engagement around the Riverfront occurred just as Covid began to impact in mid-2020. While initial consultation successfully established the community and stakeholders aspirations for the foreshore, it wasn’t unti 2024 that a draft masterplan was ready and endorsed by the City of Perth elected members.

The draft masterplan was advertised for public comment for six weeks from late March 2024 to early May 2024.

The Method

Detailed stakeholder mapping and review of all previous reports and engagement to inform the development of a Stakeholder and Community Engagement Strategy.
Engagement methodology informed by the need to be able to analyse and quantify responses into key themes and areas of interest
Online engagement via EngagePerth, the city of Perth’s online engagement platform, including: online survey; entire masterplan uploaded to the site, both as a single document and in sections for easier downloading; drafting of FAQs
Opportunity for submissions to be made to a dedicated project email address
Three Community Information Drop in Sessions for public to learn more about the masterplan and ask questions of the project team
Stakeholder Workshop attended by key Government Agencies.

The Outcome

More than 1,500 people completed the online survey, and written submissions were received from community groups, individuals and stakeholder organisations.