FAQ

Connect South is the City of South Perth’s $7.5 million major project to enhance and invigorate the Mends Street precinct and foreshore area by creating a positive environment, both economically and socially. The project is focused on improving public amenity via place activation, improving wayfinding, access to transport, and greater economic opportunity.

This comes directly from the South Perth Foreshore Management Plan 2015, which prioritised the Mends St area (Node 1) as the most important area to start redevelopment works, based on extensive community and stakeholder consultation.

The Connect South project is identified as Node 1: Mends Street in the South Perth Foreshore (SPF) Strategy and Management Plan.  The primary aim of this plan was developed to balance the competing demands for use, development and management of this metropolitan regional reserve, with the need to conserve and enhance a functional and healthy river and foreshore environment. 

The SPF Strategy and Management Plan identifies ten nodes, each with distinctive characteristics, opportunities and management issues, and strategies for each. The Connect South project is part of the Node 1: Mends Street with an objective to develop the node as an active piazza and promenade; an arrival place with day/night activities.

The Mends Street project is the previous name for the Connect South project. The original Mends Street project began as an upgrade to the street and some work on the foreshore area. With the development of further improvements for the area and the securing of Federal funding, the project grew and became the Connect South project.

The South Perth Station Precinct Place + Design project reviewed the 2011 vision for the precinct plan and expanded the area concerned to include the station precinct and the immediately adjoining areas within the South Perth peninsula. The South Perth Station Precinct Planning Design Forum was held in March 2017 which resulted in detailed recommendations for the ongoing planning and development of the broader precinct.  The Connect South project is located within the South Perth Station precinct.

The high level outcomes from the Planning Design Forum (PDF) will also feed into the Connect South project, which will in turn help to inform future activities and development in the South Perth Station Precinct.  Engagement outcomes from the Connect South project will also be considered for other relevant City of South Perth projects.

The budget for the Connect South Project is $7.5 million.  In October 2016, the City successfully secured $2.5 million in Federal funding from the National Stronger Regions Fund (NSRF) to match the City’s contribution of $5 million over two financial years. This will greatly assist the City in the construction of a piazza on the foreshore in the vicinity of the Mends Street jetty as well as upgrading the streetscape and amenity of Mends Street itself.