WYNDHAM residents could be swapping car trips for ferry rides into the city within two years following an expansion of the Wyndham Harbour development.
Planning Minister Matthew Guy last week announced plans to add about 150 houses and 500 people to the Werribee South marina development to improve viability of a proposed ferry service from Werribee to the CBD.
The expansion comes a month after Wyndham council vowed to slow growth and limit development.
It said the municipality’s roads and community infrastructure couldn’t cope with current growth.
Mr Guy said Wyndham Harbour was one of the most significant developments for the western suburbs since World War II, and the expansion was a key part of a future ferry service.
“This will change the way of thinking about Melbourne’s western suburbs,” he said. ‘‘[The expansion] will increase critical mass for Wyndham Harbour and the population here at the southern part of the Werribee growth corridor will make a ferry service viable.”
RESIDENTS’ SPEAK: Residents on board for ferry but impact a worry
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Post a comment below
Mr Guy said while a yet-to-be-released Treasury analysis showed Wyndham’s current population was large enough to support a ferry, expanding Wyndham Harbour would increase the number of people set to immediately benefit from the service.
Wyndham mayor Heather Marcus said the council would support any proposal that would help transport residents from Wyndham to the city, but it needed more information about the proposed service.
“We can’t move residents from A to B. We have such pressures on us from growth that we can’t continue like this,” she said.
“We won’t knock back anything that improves congestion, but we haven’t seen a ferry strategy. We don’t know how it will come into Wyndham or the city.”
The government says the ferry will stop at Werribee, Altona and Williamstown. Two inner-city drop-off points are being considered, with Mr Guy saying the ferry was likely to stop in Docklands opposite the AFL headquarters and near the end of Collins Street.
Mr Guy said Port Phillip Bay regulations had to be changed to determine how ferries would interact with vessels near the Port of Melbourne. He said agreements also needed to be reached about the speed the ferry could travel at along the Yarra River, to keep travel times from Werribee to 50 minutes or less.
John Roysmith, chief executive of Lyons Capital, the company behind Wyndham Harbour, said the expansion would help provide much-needed infrastructure for Wyndham.
