AHEAD of the upcoming budget endorsement meeting, Mundaring council unanimously voted for a community hub planned to integrate library, youth spaces, and art galleries into one building.

Shire of Mundaring President Paige McNeil walked around the site planned for the project with Echo News on Monday to share her vision and more details about her visit to Canberra.

“In life, sometimes, you just know when it’s the right time for something,” she said.

“The stars have aligned for this project, so to speak, with our chief executive Jason Whiteaker on board with his experience delivering cultural projects, and Mundaring being within the new proposed (federal seat).

“We’ve saved up separately in our own shire fund and we’ll be advocating vigorously to get the remaining federal funding needed for this project.”

Documents detailing the costs and timeline for the projects showed $12 million had been saved up with a further $13m to be sourced from federal funding to facilitate the projected costs.

Ms McNeil recently returned from her trip to Canberra with deputy president Trish Cook on the first week of July as reported in Mundaring strengthen their ties in Canberra.

At the 2024 National General Assembly, Ms McNeil also spoke to Infrastructure Minister Catherine King about building the new contemporary heart.

“Minister King was supportive of the project and reminded us to keep in mind the surrounding areas of the community hub,” she said.

“You wouldn’t want to build something like this and not consider allowing the buildings around it to be liveable,’ she told us.

“So, we’re thinking the old (Albert Facey Memorial library), and art centre buildings, which will be relocated into the new hub, could possibly become aged care residences or other housing once empty.

“Then we’ll work to attract some developers to make it a reality.”

Ms McNeil said she recognised Mundaring had an aging demographic and so it was important to keep them in mind, while also creating a space for young people as well.

“We do plan for the community hub to be a place where young people can connect and be,” she said.

“Because of that, it’s going to be multi-storey and quite a tall building.

“The tallest building in the area is probably the pub, so it will be a change to the landscape, but we are going to be conscious of keeping the character of Mundaring.

“We do like our rural town feel so it’s important to keep that when we’re developing.

“We’ve got so many amazing pubs and businesses that keep the heritage aspect about them, and that’s what gives us our unique identity and attracts tourism, and we don’t want to lose that.”

Apart from the main revitalisation project, Ms McNeil also spoke about the urgent need to upgrade telecommunications, as evidenced by the communication outages experienced during the Parkerville fire and super-cell storm.

“It exposed to us how vulnerable we were, and that we needed some changes to prevent the blackouts to communication,” she said.

“Even Western Power who were in the area helping couldn’t get their messages out, and it was stressful for families to evacuate.

“We’re trying to make sure that doesn’t happen again, and we’re looking at options like power cubes and independent power sources that can keep communication going when power goes out.

“That’s one of our other major projects we’ll be looking to complete.”

Ms McNeil said there was a sector wide local government call for changes to urgent funding access, as it was simply too difficult to access the money needed for relief work after the disasters with the current processes in place.

“We’re hoping we’ll be able to access the money first to do the work, and then we can complete the compliance and paperwork after,” she said.

“Currently it’s a very rigorous process, as it should be with ratepayer’s money, but it’s also very difficult to get things moving once disaster strikes without the money in hand."

Ms McNeil said the aging infrastructure in areas such as the sporting facilities will be the third major project the council watches on the horizon.

“We’ve recently installed lights into Brown Park to allow for games and practise to run into the nighttime because it is a growing area of participation,” she said.

“There’s really an inclusive spirit here at Mundaring, and a great example would be the Mt Helena Junior Football club’s motto, which is, ‘if you want to play, we will find a way’.

“It’s going to be a busy time ahead with lots to do.

“But it’s Mundaring’s turn to shine and it’s time to get to work.”