Port Wakefield’s Edward Street is looking different these days as the Wakefield Regional Council’s plan to transform the town has begun to physically take shape.
In May works began on the Edward Street upgrade, as part of the council’s Port Wakefield Master Plan, on the section adjacent to the Rising Sun Hotel, Post Office and Men’s Shed.
Civil and landscape works on the section were completed on 12 September, which has included new paving and landscaping, new paving on the road adjacent to the aforementioned buildings, pedestrian ramps, seating and a rain garden.
In a report for the council at its meeting last Wednesday, it detailed costs for the civil and landscaping works were more than $1.4 million.
Wakefield Regional Council Mayor Rodney Reid said it was great to see the main street works were complete, and especially liked the use of water from the kerbing on garden beds on Edward Street, as well as other elements.
“The installation of seats encourages that sense of something for people to stop and chat, and take the scenery in,” he said.
There is still more to do for the Town Centre component of the Master Plan, with the Indigenous Art Trail component still to be put in place, as well as the installation of an owl sculpture at the corner of Edward Street and the highway.
The council is also looking forward to another component of its Master Plan, the dredging of the Port Wakefield Tidal Pool.
As part of its Annual Community Plan for 2024/25, funding for the delivery of Master Plan components included $1.644 million for Edward Street, $350,000 for the Indigenous Art Trail, $200,000 for the dredging of the Tidal Pool, and $625,000 for the Tidal Pool Footbridge.
Project funding is split between $1 million in Enabling Infrastructure funds, $500,000 from Open Spaces and Places for People, $619,000 from Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program Round Four, and $700,000 in council funds.
