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It has been three years since public open space area was approved for prime land in the leafy riverfront suburb of Applecross.
Demolition of the site at Moreau Mews is half-completed – but the local council could now go back on their decision to make it a park.
A motion to revoke the decision, made in April 2023, has been put forward by City of Melville councillor Michael McGoldrick, which could see almost $700,000 thrown out the window if approved.
The revocation motion was signed off by fellow councillors Jennifer Spanbroek, Crawford Yorke, George Panayotou and Matthew Woodall, and is set to be voted on at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
According to the council agenda, McGoldrick’s reasoning to go back on the decision was “to allow council to properly consider whether the site should continue as a full public open space project or whether an alternative mixed public open space and development outcome should be investigated”.
“Given the extent to which the project has progressed, any change in direction should occur transparently and through the proper governance pathway,” the agenda says.
“This motion therefore seeks to stop the current procurement and delivery pathway, revoke or change the relevant previous council decisions to the extent required, and call the matter back to council for a full review.”
The long journey to turn prime land into public space
In 2023, the council voted to turn 100 per cent of the site – at 50-52 Kishorn Road and 23, 29 and 31 Moreau Mews – into public open space, which would see extensive tree planting, a children’s playground, and seating built.
In 2024, a rescission motion was made by former Melville councillor Scott Green, but was later withdrawn following community uproar.
At a June 2025 ordinary council meeting, councillors endorsed a concept design for the Moreau Mews Town Square and Public Open Space.
The 2026/27 budget, adopted on June 16, saw $5,355,000 allocated to the development. To date, $635,000 has been spent on the project.
But former central ward councillor Margaret Sandford, who served on Melville council from 2019 to 2023, told this masthead the decision to revoke the public open space decision after all these years “undermined the trust in local government process”.
“Council approved the 2026/27 annual fiscal budget which had … five and a half million dollars budget allocation [towards the project]. So obviously, they have the funds,” she said.
Sandford said the revocation motion to go before council on Tuesday night included “exploration of mixed use development opportunities, sale, lease, the whole nine yards”, and believed that, ultimately, it aimed to stop the local government from continuing with the project.
“The park has progressed already. They’ve already demolished all the office buildings on the corner of Kishorn Road and Moreau Mews,” she said.
“They’ve gone out to public tender for companies to tender for completing structures on the park.
“On the car park section of the site, there’s a sign which says, ‘Works to demolish the car park will commence in August 2026, with … completion of the park by 2027’.
“It’s prepared 50 per cent of the site for the park, and they want to stop the car park, which has probably got about 20 car bays, which earns a miserable amount of money, from being demolished.”
Palmyra, Melville and Willagee ward councillor Karen Wheatland – who did not speak on behalf of the council – called McGoldrick’s motion “ironic”.
“Only weeks after the City of Melville approved the Canning Bridge Activity Centre Plan, having considered the Statutory Planning Committee’s recommendations recognising the importance of the Moreau Mews public open space and its interface with the public realm, council is now considering a motion to remove it. What’s changed since June?” she said.
“We approved the budget for this place, and already spent some $600,000 on the project. Are we okay to throw that money away? That’s not our money, it’s residents and ratepayers’ money.”
Olivia Abrugiato, a resident and mother of two, said she was “floored” to hear the park could be taken away before it was even completed.
“The city has already made a decision to convert the site into 100 per cent public open space,” she said.
“They’ve consulted with the community a couple of times, and then to just rescind it at the last minute before works are about to start is absolutely shocking, and it’s extremely disappointing.
“If they take this park away or even a portion of it, we’ve sort of lost the opportunity to deliver on that. Like once that site’s gone, it’s gone.
“I just hope that they just decide to go ahead with the park as originally planned. It’s too late in the game now to be changing it. It just feels like a betrayal, basically.”
Sandford said if the decision was revoked, it would mean an “indefinite delay” on any public open space in the area.
“I think we will be set back at least another decade,” she said.
“There’s a new crop of councillors who are deaf to the community who are ignorant about what’s transpired, and they don’t want to know. And meanwhile, the residents are waiting and waiting.”
McGoldrick’s motion also requests that the city’s chief executive prepare a further comprehensive report to council detailing the implications of reviewing the future use and delivery of the Moreau Mews site, including options for a mixed public open space and property development outcome by December 2026.
Sandford said the options had already been thrashed out and failed in the decade prior to the 2023 resolution to turn the land into a park.
“So, how much time do they need? Like, how long does the community have to wait to get a park?” she said.
The City of Melville was approached for comment.
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