*Some of these pictures were from 2016 so it's of a time I had more hair and I may have used some in a previous blog. *
@Melbourneswest (see what I did there 馃槒) has been expanding for quite some time with alot of people moving out to the in-fill areas or what is now referred to as the Growth Corridor in ten years the City of Wyndham added 100,000 people to its municipality. That's is a massive injection of people for any community to have.
But part of Wyndham's expansion has included rezoning former farmland into a marina and not just any marina but Australia's largest with over 1000 wet births and 390 storage docks for more boats. It's own fuel line, recreational facilities and retail and housing. The location also had one of the beaches fully refurbished I.e. cleaned sand, redesigned and developed and a whole new beach built for residents of the new estate.
It is the first of its kind in Australia and was constructed to fill the void between Geelong and Williamstown and since Melbourne's Bay was being dredged to enable larger cargo ships to dock the increased traffic posed a risk for yacht clubs and boating enthusiasts alike.
The initial development was commenced in 2003 but took 13 years to complete as the global economic crisis of 2008 dug a deep hole into the pockets of investors. It was uncertain whether the project would be completed.
But the developers had a trick up their sleeves to ensure funding kept coming. The inclusion of houses and retail in the area a short drive from the freeway, public transport and Werribee employment precinct provided for housing options for people.
So to fund the project developers commenced selling house and land packages and apartments which also houses retail outlets below. The land wasn't cheap and I recall getting a quote for a Marina view block of land which was only 400sqm and it cost around $AUD800,000 just for the land and then you'd be looking at another $AUD300,000+ to build a house on it.
But the addition of land sales, cafes, restaurants a supermarket and a few other retail stores ensured that people would he interested in purchasing the land and living here. After all the developers even went as far as creating a beach for the residents to enjoy.
Furthermore as my earlier image indicates the entire stone protection wall has been made as a giant walking track which enables fishing. In fact it was the perfect location to go fishing and we used to go quite a bit prior to lock down.
The Marina also has big open areas for larger yachts to dock here and even tourist vessels and a transport boat as the plan was to run a service from Wyndham Harbour to Melbourne CBD which is just on the other side (kinda northish) I think all in all it was an hour trip and they ran a few trials but I think it worked out faster and cheaper to drive or catch a train as many could be in the CBD in 20 minutes.
I'd been waiting some time as I was Interested in purchasing in the area but couldn't afford to at the time but my partner and I attended the grand opening which had the completion of the harbour and apartment blocks. I can't recall what they were selling at but I have never been a fan of apartment living. They're not cheap in Australia.
The other beach that got an upgrade was the Werribee South Beach formerly a place that was not too hospitable to swimmers but is now a beautiful location to go fishing, swimming or even taking a stroll along the bay.
All in all its been a really great investment and I was sceptical about it at first as it requires the rezoning of farm land to commercial and residential which is a growing scenario in the west as this was all once farm land but due to population growth it has been slowly transitioning to housing.
But it is a beautiful place even if it is quite expensive and that hill in the centre is a community centre which is accessible by residents or anyone really and there is also a lovely open space that over looks the bay and last time we went out door beer garden and Woodfired pizza.
Such a wonderful development
