In 2012, the Bureau of Statistics made it official: Wyndham was confirmed as the fastest-growing place in Australia.
A staggering 12,230 people arrived in the space of a year, an increase of nearly 8 per cent, heaving the population to nearly 184,000. Former mayor Kim McAliney was quick to point out that it shouldn’t be worn as a “badge of honour”, with massive growth revealing bigger shortfalls in the city’s capacity to accommodate it.
Nothing underscores the City of Wyndham’s growing pains more than the West Gate Bridge. In February, freedom of information documents revealed the bridge was cracking and corroding under traffic loads.
Lobby groups used the revelations to call on the government to build a second river crossing from the western suburbs. It wasn’t long before fed-up Wyndham residents took to the roads in April to protest against the city’s choked arterial roads. The demonstration coincided with a council report that revealed that 18 key roads were at or over capacity. The council hinged its hopes on cash from Spring Street in the May state budget, but the cries seemed to fall on deaf ears.
But days after the budget, Planning Minister Matthew Guy announced the
