The opening of WA’s Aboriginal Cultural Centre has been pushed back by at least a year.
The centre, to be located on the carpark between the Swan River and Perth Concert Hall, was planned to be finished in 2028 — in time for Perth’s bicentennial the following year.
But Culture and Arts Minister David Templeman confirmed to The Sunday Times that the next approximate time was now “early 2030”.
The centre — which could cost as much as the $400 million WA Boola Bardip Museum — is to be funded by the State, Commonwealth and from mining giants via the Resources Community Investment Initiative.
More than $100m has already been pledged by the Cook and Albanese governments.
The minister, who is retiring at the March 8 election, recently led a $41,000 mission to New Zealand to look at its Maori cultural centre Te Hana Te Ao Marama.
The State spent $15,084 flying the minister and a staffer to New Zealand, with more than $7000 also spent on Kingsley MP Jessica Stojkovski — the parliamentary secretary to Premier Roger Cook — to be part of the jaunt.
The Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries also spent more than $19,000 for a departmental executive director, two members of the centre’s steering committee and a community engagement officer to attend the mission, a recent overseas travel report reveals.
Mr Templeman likened the trip to those taken under the Barnett government as it planned Optus Stadium.
“It was important to visit different cultural institutions to ascertain what is necessary to build a major cultural institution here in Perth,” he said.
“The Aboriginal Cultural Centre is currently in project definition planning with a final report due for consideration in the second quarter of 2025.”
The minister said “key objectives” of the junket were for the himself and members of the project steering committee to research other indigenous cultural institutions.
He said that included how they functioned as major visitor attractions, funding and operational models, partnerships between governments and their indigenous peoples and how indigenous culture could be integrated into the design.
Federal Perth MP Patrick Gorman has previously said the centre could rival the Sydney Opera House — drawing international, as well as interstate, visitors.
“I’d like to see us do something that is big enough, that it really becomes the Sydney Opera House of the west coast of Australia,” Mr Gorman said in 2020.
While the centre is no longer predicted to be open in time for Perth’s 200-year history celebrations, an “Indigenous art museum” was the most popular response, with 52.8 per cent support, when the MP surveyed constituents on what Perth should do to recognise the bicentenary.
https://thewest.com.au/politics/state-politics/wa-aboriginal-cultural-centre-opening-pushed-back-to-2030-c-16975771
