WA has an abundance of natural resources and enormous opportunities to help meet global demand for technology, manufacturing, agriculture and industrial production.

Companies seeking to unlock these valuable projects however face significant challenges; from uncertain global capital markets to the need for flexible development approvals, access to serviceable land and innovative workforce incentives.

Realising State significant processing, production and mining developments, on time, in budget and with a meaningful ESG impact, demands careful forward planning that is responsive to the local context and investment needs over the project lifecycle.

Workforce accommodation is one of these critical, costly, and sometimes overlooked, infrastructure inputs. Initially, accommodation may be required for temporary workers engaged in ‘start up’ construction and commissioning activities. Over a project’s lifecycle however, accommodation needs change, moving towards more permanent housing solutions for the operational workforce and their families. At the project end, the infrastructure investment may repurposed to help meet future community needs.

The search for cost efficient and location appropriate workforce accommodation is not new. The issue has waxed and waned with the ‘booms and busts’ of the resource sector and occurs across the country, from WA to Queensland. Solutions have proved difficult - even more so post Covid, given limited housing stock and available construction trades in a tight rental market.

Workforce accommodation is also a complex land use, raising issues around appropriate location, design, operational management, social impact, servicing and sequential land use and development needs.  

At Element Advisory, we are reimagining workforce accommodation as a high quality land use that can attract talented workers in the short term, later transitioning into a conventional residential neighbourhood and sustainable and socially integrated long term investment for the local community.  

In February 2023, the WA State Government released its response to the State Infrastructure Strategy – Foundations for a stronger tomorrow. The State Government supports most of Infrastructure Western Australia’s recommendations, including the need to ensure State regulatory, planning and approvals systems do not impede the delivery of private sector investment in energy sector projects.

High quality workforce accommodation is absolutely necessary to attract high quality staff and unlock WA’s economic development potential in a competitive market environment. However, it requires a fine balance between temporal industry needs, the local context, the planning framework and important social and environmental values.    

Contact our experienced team to find out how we can help you find your creative solution.

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Banner image credits (left to right): Shane McLendon, Shutterstock / vanitjan, Derek Sutton, James Baltz and Jason Bennee