Learning on the Job in Fremantle, Western Australia

The City of Fremantle in Western Australia has had a long term commitment to sustainability and resilience through its planning for heritage, walkability, transit (the Fremantle community drove the process that started the politics of Perth’s famous rail revival) and redevelopment of its mixed use center. It has staff committed to sustainability which is one of the key recommendations from a review of local government in the US which found that many local governments never got past the rhetoric because they did not have a recognizable program or project officers.

In 2005 the City began a sustainability assessment process on all development and began trialling an innovative household sustainability program. Both are examples of learning on the job as they have led in all kinds of directions. The sustainability assessment process has meant that frequently developments have become highly contested as often the sustainability outcomes are in conflict with rigidly applied town planning regulations (see item ten below). The household sustainability program was called Living Smart and was trialled through the local neighborhood center the Meeting Place (elaborated in Beatley 2008). Living Smart was developed with Murdoch University and trains households in how to reduce energy, water, waste and transport as well as discussing issues to do with healthy urban building, food and planting native gardens. Living Smart became very popular so the City sought help in broadening its application. The State Government has now taken over the program and is trialling it in 30,000 homes across the whole urban region by linking it to the TravelSmart program discussed in chapter 5 of Resilient Cities.

As the Fremantle community has developed awareness of sustainability its community has developed a range of innovations. One of these in 2007 was the commitment by a group of parents, citizens, local government councilors and a community bank, to establish South Fremantle High School as a carbon neutral model. The school immediately helped by providing a half time staff position (fundamental to any new movement proceeding) and immediately grants were obtained and the program began. A detailed energy and water audit was conducted producing considerable savings (eg a waterless urinal system is saving thousands of dollars, liters and greenhouse gases) and PVs are being purchased from an innovative company Sun Grid that has provided a free PV system for every 25 purchased by Fremantle households. Individual household actions are thus leading to community gains. Similar programs are developing on bioregional planting with rural schools to manage the offsets from the school’s fuel use, educational programs and competitions within the school and establishing email links with other carbon neutral schools. Few of these matters were seen at the start but the first steps and a willingness to learn on the job was all that was needed.