Luxury Gnarabup Development granted approval by WA Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn

A controversial $138 million luxury resort slated for construction in Western Australia’s South West has been given a long-anticipated green light by the state’s environment minister.

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) published its final recommendation regarding the Gnarabup Development last year, and today the project received approval from Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn.

The controversial project has drawn significant criticism over the years, including from high-profile surfer Taj Burrow and musician John Butler.

The five-star resort, backed by private developer Saracen Properties, would be situated on Walcliffe Road in Margaret River’s Gnarabup Beach, 280 kilometres south of Perth.

The approval was subject to conditions that protected Aboriginal cultural heritage sites and native fauna — particularly western ringtail possums.

Plans for the project included a 121-room five-star hotel, 51 houses and a cafe constructed across more than 8 hectares of land.

Residents opposed to the development have raised concerns around bushfire risks, wastewater infrastructure and impacts on native wildlife.

‘Fragile site’

President of the Margaret River Coastal Resident Association Adrian Wilson said the decision did not go far enough to protect the landscape.

“It’s an extremely fragile site. It’s on cast limestone, and the geotechnical studies have been way below par,” he said.

“The western ringtail possum has been sighted on this site, Carnaby’s black-cockatoos often use the site and yet the EPA has given a clearance, basically, to clear the whole of the development site.”

The ministerial decision included conditions that would require developers to have a “fauna spotter” on site during all ground disturbance works to identify western ringtail possums and their dreys (nests).

The conditions would give spotters the power to put a halt on the works if a possum was seen in order to give it time to vacate the site.

Mr Wilson said environmental conditions placed on the developer were “pure lip service”.

“They talk about compliance — how can you comply with environmental conditions if you’re given approval to clear the whole site, which at the moment is a coastal heath in very good condition,” he said.

“When you have bulldozers getting in there, and you have a possum spotter, seriously?”

‘Recipe for disaster’

Mr Wilson said he and other residents had been fighting developments like this one for more than 30 years.

He said upcoming development approvals would expose strains on Gnarabup’s existing infrastructure.

“The latest development is an extremely high density, there’s approximately 50 houses,” Mr Wilson said.

“With 121 rooms, various function centres, restaurant in the other part of the site, the end result would be up to 1,500 extra people into Gnarabup.

“Having more people embedded with the very lack of roads and infrastructure we have is, in my opinion, a recipe for disaster, but that’s not what the EPA considers.”

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