Margaret River Rural Hamlets Strategy,
Western Australia

As part of a wider peri-urban planning strategy for the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River, Common Ground was asked to prepare a comprehensive design guide for alternative rural development models.

Developed by the Common Ground team in close collaboration with local planners, the guidelines provided for sustainable rural living that would not only enhance and protect rural character, productivity and ecological value, but also create economically sustainable rural settlements with higher levels of residential amenity.

The proposed ‘Rural Hamlets’ provided land owners, planners and developers confidence that the strategies and policies were not only workable, but that they were desirable.

Such was the success of this work that the Guidelines and Development Policy formed by the Shire were adopted by the State Government’s Department of Planning.