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City of Bunbury endorses Boulters Heights masterplan, retaining but not quenching its waterfall

Breanna RedheadBunbury Herald
Boulters Heights
Camera IconBoulters Heights Credit: Jon Gellweiler/South Western Times

Despite a heated debate, Bunbury’s Boulters Heights waterfall will remain dry, with council endorsing a new plan to revitalise the reserve but not get taps flowing on the falls.

At an ordinary meeting last Tuesday, the City of Bunbury officially passed the draft masterplan to restore and activate the reserve, a prominent regional attraction offering panoramic views of Bunbury, however, the proposed plan will not see water return to its 55-year-old waterfall.

The 26m waterfall was developed in 1966 in honour of the Queen Mother’s visit to Bunbury but because of the lack of sustainable water resource, no longer operates.

The new draft proposes to “retain, extend and enhance” the falls existing rock structure with a light-up waterfall display — an improvement on the original plan which suggested the removal of the rocks and subsequently met a lot of community backlash.

Additionally, plans propose to include high-quality planting design, interpretative signage of the waterfall when it flowed and community accounts and memories of the waterfall.

But despite these improvements to the plan, councillors argued back and forth on its need to function.

Cr Michelle Steck said there had not been enough public consultation on the plan, making a motion to adjourn the matter but it was lost.

“You have not given enough attention to this number one asset of our community,” she said.

Cr Gabi Ghasseb also emphasised the importance of a “wet” waterfall, arguing “water is life”.

“The estimated evaporation of the waterfall is equal to one toilet flush a day,” he said.

“I will happily donate a pool cover to a resident to counteract this evaporation.”

The plan was endorsed five votes to two, Cr Betty McCleary congratulating the council on “wonderfully inputting” the design, encouraging the City to “get on with it” and not waste time on a “talk fest.”

City mayor Jaysen Miguel the City had “taken on board” comments from the community.

“At this stage the expectation will be to have a lit up waterfall which will be quite incredible,” he said.

“There’s nothing to say it couldn’t be (reinstated) but that will come at a cost, anything will come at a cost. . . but it’s good to have some kind of masterplan. . . to get started on.”

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