Interview with Jeremy Dawkins

Jeremy Dawkins has spent a good deal for his professional life thinking about Australian cities, especially Fremantle. Perhaps it’s not to be marvelled at.His Great Great Grandfather, John Septimus Roe, produced the very first town plan for Fremantle, at the request of Governor James Stirling, following the founding of the British Swan River Colony in 1829.His Great Grandfather, CY O’Connor, designed and constructed Fremantle’s famed Inner Harbour in the 1890’s.Between 1982-1988, Jeremy wrote the planning scheme and led the revival of the Fremantle City centre during the period of the America’s Cup and the Bicentenary. Then in December 2003, Jeremy was appointed chair of the Western Australian Planning Commission(WAPC) Board. At the time of that appointment, Jeremy was Associate Professor in Urban Management at the University of Canberra’s Centre for Developing Cities. In 1998 he was appointed Sydney Harbour Manager, created by the New South Wales Government, as a three-year innovation in governance – and developed the structures and directions used for planning and managing Sydney Harbour. These days, while maintaining a real interest in things Fremantle, he is based in Sydney and is the Convenor of the Committee for North Sydney.Jeremy Dawkins kindly agreed to sit down with our Editor, Michael Barker, to discuss Fremantle, planning, and the direction of planning practice in Western Australia, including the prevalence and operation of JDAPs, or Joint Development Assessment Panels, before which he has tendered his expert testimony recently in the Old Ford Factory site case. It’s a must-listen-to podcast. Everything from JS Roe, CY O’Connor, Convicts, Gold, the America’s Cup and the evil of too much discretion in planning approval processes.Support the show