Council Moves Cossack Future

KARRATHA City tonight moved to allow off-the-grid developments at the historic site of Cossack, about 1480km north of Perth.

The unanimous vote to adopt town planning scheme amendment No. 44 ends decades of frustration for land owners who have battled local and state government red tape to develop their blocks 100m from the banks of the picturesque Harding River.

The Council officer’s report says the former provision prevented, “progress towards realisation of Council’s adopted vision for additional low key tourist development at Cossack. Removing this provision would clear the way for the Cossack vision for to be realised”.

The report states the amendment, “has been prepared to give private landowners an option to participate in realising the vision for Cossack. There are State policy issues that have been raised that have implications for the development potential of privately owned lots at Cossack and potentially invoke the right to compensation”.

It adds: “The WAPC needs to determine how State policy issues should be addressed at Cossack from a State Government perspective.”

Importantly, “At a minimum, it is likely the WAPC would recommend approval to elements of the Scheme Amendment determined not subject to modelled coastal erosion or storm surge risk. On the positive side, this would at least provide for some development to occur.

“However, questions about the relevance of the coastal erosion modelling to Cossack could mean some land (including private lots) would be unnecessarily shown as constrained. It should be noted that nearly all private lots sit outside the unconstrained area”.

StreetWise visited the site in March, details of Council’s vision for the historic ghost town in the latest Easter print issue.