We are now in the Unrestricted Burning Period.

There are no fire restrictions on burning until 1 November 2025. However, if the Fire Danger Rating is High or above and/or a Total Fire Ban has been put in place then no burning is permitted. 

For up to date information regarding Total Fire Bans and community warnings about emergencies visit Emergency WA

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Our plan for the future

Your Place, Your Say

The Shire of Harvey is streamlining how we plan for the future, remain accountable for that plan, and have two-way conversations with our communities.

We recently carried out an extensive community engagement as part of the development of a simplified Council Plan.

The Council Plan will provide the community with one central plan. It will be our roadmap for the next eight years: it will help us plan, fund and deliver the services and facilities our Shire wants and needs.

The community engagement was carried out in two parts: completion of a MARKYT® Community Scorecard, followed by a series of FUTYR® community workshops. Independent consultants CATALYSE® were engaged as research partners in this process.

The response from our communities to both stages was fantastic! We received an incredible 1,991 responses to the Scorecard, providing honest, detailed feedback about our service delivery and about community priorities. The graphic to the right shows the percentage of scorecards returned per region within the Shire - this is close to double the response from the last Scorecard in 2020.

142 people attended the seven workshops held around the Shire, where we reported back on the scorecard results, and then asked for direct feedback on the draft actions being developed for the Council Plan.

A huge thank you to every single person who participated in this process.

You can find more detail about participation in the overall engagement process in the Your Place Your Say Engagement Overview downloadable infographic below. You can also download the MARKYT Community Scorecard report.

Participation rate in the MARKYT Community Scorecard by area

 

What we heard

The Scorecard indicated that top performers across the Shire were Library services and facilities (91% positive rating), marine facilities (85% positive rating) and sport and recreation (82% positive rating). We were also stronger compared to other Councils on local roads (77% positive rating), seniors’ services and facilities (84% positive rating), and lighting of streets and public places (79% positive rating). Further, the Shire of Harvey received a 95% positive rating as a place to live.

Some clear community priorities emerged across the Shire in the areas of Asset Management, Discretionary Services, and Advocacy. While these were common themes across the Shire, our different regional areas had specific focuses and concerns. You can find out more about these by downloading the region-specific overviews below.

Overall priorities

The following were the top community priorities to emerge from the Scorecard. More information can be found about community feedback on these priorities in the scorecard at the link above.

Asset Management
  • Parks, playgrounds and reserves - upgrades to infrastructure in existing parks, accessibility, and new facilities, particularly in Australind, Leschenault and Harvey
  • Footpaths, trails and cycleways - connectivity within and between areas, general upgrades, and new trails, particularly in Coastal, Australind and Rural South
  • Local roads - upgrades and sealing of roads, particularly in Rural North and Rural South.
  • Streetscapes, trees and verges - removal of dead or dying trees, and upgrades to streetscapes, particularly around Treendale
Discretionary Services
  • Safety and crime prevention - greater ranger presence, particularly around Australind, Coastal and Rural South
  • Aged care and accommodation - smaller units for older people to free up houses for families, more aged care accommodation along the lines of Brunswick River Cottage, across all areas
  • Pest management (weeds, feral animals, etc) - management of mosquitoes, foxes, cats and rabbits in Australind and Leschenault, management of cottonbush, bridal creeper, cats, foxes and rabbits in Rural North.
Advocacy
  • Sport and recreation - upgrades to local leisure centres, and more facilities for young people to play sports, particularly in Harvey, Australind and Brunswick
  • Safety and crime prevention - greater police presence, hooning and unlicensed vehicle concerns, particularly around Australind, Coastal and Rural South
  • Housing - affordable housing and making land available for subdivision, across all areas.

FUTYR® Workshops - Emerging Themes

Photos: FUTYR® Workshop participants from Binningup, Australind and Yarloop

142 people attended 7 FUTYR® workshops across 5 local areas in May 2025. In the workshops, we presented an overview of the scorecard results, and carried out three activities:

  • Writing down two or more tangible objectives or actions each participant would like to see achieved
  • Reviewing and providing feedback on the Shire of Harvey vision
  • Reviewing and providing feedback on the list of priority projects proposed for the draft Council plan.

Each of these activities are outlined in more detail in the drop down boxes.

For an overview of workshop priorities by location, please see the downloadable PDFs below.

Written comments in answer to the question, "what are two tangible objectives or actions you would like to see achieved over the next ten years?"

This question received extensive feedback in all workshops, with more than 200 comments submitted overall.

The comments covered a range of topics, such as:

  • Improving water quality and pressure
  • Beautification of specific areas
  • Mosquito and pest control
  • Access and inclusion
  • Looking after the environment
  • Telcommunication upgrades
  • Aged care infrastructure
  • Tourism office in Harvey
  • Town centre activation
  • Verge planting and maintenance
  • Upgrades to skate parks and other facilities
  • Streamlining of planning approvals and processes
  • Support for small business and employment opportunities
  • Updated tourism signage
  • Housing
  • Road maintenance and safety
  • Beach maintenance and safety
  • Coastal trails and paths

All of the comments have been recorded by Shire officers. These will be circulated to Council so Councillors are informed on what people are advocating for. Comments that are topical to current projects or advocacy pieces will be shared with relevant managers within the Shire.

Feedback on the Shire of Harvey vision, "Together, towards an even better lifestyle"

FUTYR® Workshop participants were asked to review and provide feedback on the Shire of Harvey vision, Together, towards an even better lifestyle.

Participants worked in small groups to review the vision, and provide written feedback. The feedback included suggested edits to the wording of the Vision and associated strategic priorities, general comments, and an indication as to whether group members wanted to keep the vision as is, make minor changes, or create a completely new vision.

Approximately 33% of participants wanted to keep the vision. 47% wanted to make minor changes, and 20% voted to develop a new vision.

Some of the comments covered topics such as:

  • Beautification of areas
  • Increased ranger presence
  • Protecting the natural environment
  • Mosquito and pest control
  • Transparency and communication

What is the role of the Vision?

The vision aims to provide an overarching goal, or guiding statement describing what kind of Shire we want to have. It gives us something to aim for.

What will we do with the Vision feedback?

Community feedback on the vision statement will be communicated to Council, who will workshop any potential changes as part of the process of reviewing the draft Council Plan.

Reviewing and rating the list of priority projects contained in the draft Council Plan

In the final activity, workshop participants worked in small groups through nine different objectives, to review the list of priority projects related to that objective. The groups then rated each project as low, medium or high priority, or to scrap the action. They wrote down thoughts or questions about the various projects, and noted down anything else they thought should be added.

Top-rated action items across all workshops included:

  • Complete a Lighting Audit of local streets and public places to identify and prioritise hot spots for improvement.
  • Promote the Neighbourhood Watch program in Shire communications to increase community awareness and participation.
  • Collaborate with key partners to deliver a public education campaign to encourage safer and more responsible use of trail bikes and 4WDs across the shire.
  • Investigate the further upgrade of Brunswick Recreation Centre to an emergency evacuation centre.
  • Redevelop the Leschenault Volunteer Fire Brigade building.
  • Complete a comprehensive review of the existing stormwater drainage network to identify and prioritise cleaning, maintenance and upgrade requirements.
  • Promote resources to support and encourage households and businesses to create localised emergency plans.
  • Partner with key stakeholders to develop education and awareness initiatives on emergency procedures for vulnerable people.

How will ratings from the workshops influence the drafting of the Council Plan?

Overall ratings of low, medium and high priority will be taken into account in the drafting of the Council Plan. In some cases, where workshop participants questioned the meanings or asked for more detail about particular actions, Shire Officers will work on rewriting those priorities for clarity. Written comments made on the items will be considered in this process, and passed on to relevant managers where needed.

The downloadable documents below provide an overview of workshop feedback by area.

What's next?

The information from the Scorecard and the workshops will inform the ongoing development of the Shire of Harvey Council Plan, with all feedback being considered and reviewed for inclusion.

The Plan will be presented to the July Ordinary Council meeting for endorsement. Once endorsed, the Plan will be available for public comment for four weeks.

The plan is scheduled for adoption later in 2025, and will be the Shire's guiding document for 2026-2034.