City backs Anzac Centre: waiting for Feds, State, RSL

A five-year business model for the Anzac Interpretive Centre was endorsed in-principle by Albany City Council at a special council meeting on Tuesday night.

The meeting went behind closed doors — despite protest from Councillor David Bostock — because the plan is yet to be endorsed by State and Federal governments and the RSL.

Under the plan, the City would run the centre as part of a rejuvenated Princess Royal Fortress precinct, with the WA Museum responsible for the centre’s content.

The City would contribute $250,000 per year for the running of the precinct, the same amount as it already contributes.

However, it would also need to raise $100,000 in sponsorship and fundraising.

City chief executive Graham Foster said the revenue figures generated were “extremely conservative”.

“We hope that it won’t cost any more than it’s already costing us,” he said.

“There are other obligations put on the City and we would be expected to raise donations or contributions to $100,000 a year and we are told that should be quite easily achieved.

“We will be putting it on the RSL to raise funds through a Friends of the Centre, which should contribute up to $30,000 a year.”

The business plan sets out a “conservative” visitor count of 47,500 people in the first year — the same number predicted to attend Whale World — and 233,000 over five years.

The plan states that if the 47,500 visitors stay an extra night, $5.6 million would be injected into the Albany economy.

The precinct will have free entry, including to the Wesfarmers-funded commemorative walk and lookout, cafe and parklands.

“It calls for free entry to the whole site; we would eventually like to see it as something like King’s Park, where people can come and have picnics and not be charged an entry fee,” Mr Foster said.

“They’ll be charged a fee to go into the interpretive centre and an entry fee to a couple of other features we’ll have around the place, walking tours thing like that.”

Revenue would be raised through visitor charges, merchandise, lease fees and commission from the cafe, function centre and Anzac-themed guided tours.

For the first year of the precinct, $829,085 worth of revenue is predicted, with $4,081,224 over five years.

Expenses include curation and public programming, technical content, onsite visitor monitoring, building maintenance, operating costs, staffing and marketing.

Site clearing works finished two weeks ahead of schedule last month.

Construction on the building is due to start in November with a completion date set for August next year.