Albany architects win jetty contract

An Albany-based architecture firm has been awarded more than $300,000 to design a replacement for the 83-year-old Esperance Tanker Jetty.

The Shire of Esperance Council last week awarded H and H Architects the $334,800 tender ahead of seven other submissions.

The decaying timber jetty was saved from demolition when the former heritage minister Albert Jacob issued a conservation order in 2016. H and H Architects director Julie de Jong said the firm was thrilled to receive the contract and bring local expertise to the design.

“We’re excited to be working on the project with the Shire and the community and (it) will be a collaborative process ... we will bring our experience, being heritage architecture, to a sensitive design,” she said.

“We are looking at a replacement jetty that will have an extended design life and replace what (the) community has lost over (the) last few years. It won’t be a tanker jetty but primarily a heritage and a recreational jetty.”

In consultation with the Shire, the Jetty Replacement Working Group and the Heritage Council of WA, the firm will be required to meet specific design requirements stipulated by past council decisions, including a preference for the jetty to be 400m long.

“The first stage is developing concept design ... that meets the recreational needs of the community and the heritage needs of the State Heritage Office,” Ms de Jong said.