Wandi growth divides suburb as traffic rises

Wandi residents have “seen the writing on the wall” as the area develops and grows, but residents have hesitations about the change.

Kwinana City Council approved a detailed area plan for the Honeywood Estate in Wandi at a meeting last week, adding another residential area to the suburb, which was once exclusively a special rural area.

The move also effectively divides the suburb into old and new Wandi.

Wandi Progress Association committee member Rod Cocks, who has lived in the area for 30 years, said the addition of the estate was not without its hiccups but was generally accepted by the community.

“Everybody on the progress association can see the writing on the wall,” he said.

“The people who are close to Honeywood aren’t that happy with it, obviously because of the increase in traffic and the noise.

“But the people through the other parts of Wandi — it isn’t really affecting them at this stage.

“We’ve got a good relationship with Honeywood, we’ve supported them with a few things and they’ve supported us, so our relationship with them as an association is good,” he said.

Mr Cocks said residents were concerned about more through-traffic, vandalism and hooning.

“We’ve been getting approached by people from Honeywood about using the tennis courts and joining the play group and that sort of thing.

“Having people move into the area is going to help the groups already here,” he said.

“What is affecting a lot of the locals though is the through-traffic, the rat-runs.

“That’s creating a few problems and you only have to go to the corners to find the burn-out marks.

“So that’s snuck into the area,” Mr Cocks said.