$80m facelift for Austral

Liverpool City Council has begun a long term rehabilitation of Austral earmarking upwards of $80m to improve road safety and upgrade parks, drainage and amenities to make the lives of residents more comfortable.

Council has already taken the first step by creating a special management task force to coordinate the improvement program.

A permanent crew will also be assigned to Austral working out of Devonshire Street.

“They’ll be dedicated to improving facilities, roads and parks,” said Jason Breton, Liverpool City Council Director of Operations, City Presentation. “They will be assigned to Austral and that will cut response time.”

Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun said money for the upgrade would come from infrastructure levies already collected by Council and from future land releases.

“We have around $80m in the contributions fund that was audited by the last council and set aside for use in Austral,” Mr Mannoun said.

“There’s no point in having it in the bank. It should be used. We also have money from the State Government to upgrade some roads in front of Trinity Grammar.”

Mr Mannoun said the upgrade would embrace areas that residents have complained about, including potholes, parks and facilities.

“The first issue is safety,” he said. There are roads out there that are simply not safe.

“Our initial focus needs to be on Fifteenth Avenue. It is a council road but it needs to be a state road.

State Government transport is in the process of upgrading it.

Along with my fellow councillors and directors of Liverpool City Council I took a significant bus ride last week.

We went to Austral to see first hand the problems we’d been told about by the 260 residents who responded to a council request for information about what needed to be done.

It was a first for Liverpool. No previous council has ever gone on a bus trip to look at community concerns.

What we found got our immediate attention, including serious concerns about road safety. We have now established a special task force in Austral to focus on roads, drainage, parks and facilities.

The initial funds for the upgrade will come from the $80m in the Council contribution fund from levies generated from previous land development in Austral and earmarked for use in the area.

The previous council kept it in the bank. We’re using it for its intended purpose – making Austral better.

The ongoing costs will be underwritten by an anticipated $30m a year in future contributions as around 1000 blocks of Austral land come on the market.

It is a sweeping challenge requiring dedication, commitment and persistence.

It will not happen overnight, but my goal is to make it happen as quickly as possible and ensure Austral gets the lifestyle it deserves.

Mayor Ned Mannoun

“It’s $300m to get it upgraded from Kingsford Smith Avenue to Devonshire Road and we don’t have that money.

“In the meantime we will investigate the intersections of Edmondson Avenue and see how we can make it safer. That goes for the north and south roads as well.“

Mr Mannoun said the centre piece of Council’s new approach to improving Austral was the creation of a dedicated management team to oversee the operation.

“Council has not proceeded as quickly as we’d hoped on correcting the issues at Austral but with a new CEO and new director things are moving more smoothly.”

Mr Mannoun said Council was also committing to delivering a park in Austral by either creating a new one or extensively upgrading the existing Craig Park.