Perth built a 61,000-seat stadium on an old rubbish dump with no car park
Perth Stadium sits on reclaimed flood plain in Burswood, partly on land that served as the city's municipal rubbish dump until 1971. Planners deliberately built no car park for its crowds of more than 60,000; fans walk over a footbridge across the Swan River from the city or arrive by train.
The venue, home to the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle in the AFL and the Perth Scorchers in cricket's Big Bash, took years of false starts. A government taskforce reported in 2007 in favour of a new 60,000-seat stadium, and the state first chose Kitchener Park next to the old Subiaco Oval, planning to demolish Subiaco and build in stages. When Colin Barnett's government took office, those plans were scrapped in February 2009, and Australia's failed bid for the 2022 World Cup cost a potential 250 million dollars of federal money.
In June 2011 the government picked the northern part of the Burswood Park golf course instead. The land was already state-owned, free of surrounding development, and had room for a six-platform special events railway station. It was not an easy site. Next door, a cement works had operated from 1927 and James Hardie from the 1920s until 1981, and an environmental report found asbestos waste and cement kiln dust in the ground. Officials said the contamination was harmless while left undisturbed.
Costs climbed steadily. The Barnett government first spoke of about 700 million dollars for the stadium plus 300 million for transport, while newspapers soon predicted close to 1.5 billion. By October 2017 the reported bill was 1.6 billion, roughly 1,500 dollars for every Western Australian household, and an inquiry in 2018 put the full cost with transport at 1.8 billion.
Built by a consortium led by Multiplex, the stadium officially opened on 21 January 2018. It holds 61,266 people including standing room, stretching to 65,000 for rectangular-field sports, making it Australia's third largest after the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Stadium Australia.
Source: Perth Stadium
