Date 27 June 2025 Category City news, Media release Topic City and council The 2025-26 budget aims to reflect the community’s priorities for a liveable, thriving, resilient, creative and inclusive city. Meeting the needs of a growing community, renewing assets, improving amenity and greening the city are just some of the areas of focus of the City of Fremantle’s 2025-26 budget. The new budget, adopted by Fremantle Council this week, balances the delivery of services and facilities for the community today with building a financially sustainable future. The City has allocated $120 million to operational costs for delivering facilities and services to the community and $29 million for capital projects over the next financial year. Approximately 60 per cent of the capital projects budget is for projects outside the city centre, demonstrating the City’s focus on investment in the suburbs. Fremantle Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge said the budget aims to reflect the priorities of the community by creating a liveable, thriving, resilient, creative and inclusive Fremantle. “We are growing as a community. In 2021, Fremantle’s population was less than 32,000 people and we’re heading towards 35,000 in the next two years. That growth has increased demand on our core services and facilities, and we’re responsible for making sure that we meet our community’s expectations for those things. “It’s not a big shiny budget. It’s a sensible budget. It focuses on green, it focuses on clean, and I think that’s where we need to be at the moment,” Mayor Fitzhardinge said. The City continues to navigate the increased costs of project and service delivery, such as construction costs and wages growth. To address these increases, an average rate rise of 5.0 per cent will be applied, which is 0.4 per cent lower than the previous financial year. The income generated by the collection of rates equates to 62 per cent of the City’s total revenue sources in this budget, with a range of other revenue sources such as parking, property, fees & charges and grants contributing to the City’s overall budgeted income. In 2025-26, the City will start collecting for a project to underground the power in South Fremantle and City South via a service charge applied to properties within the project boundary. Council also adopted the Long Term Financial Plan, which provides a 10-year outlook of the financial direction of the City, as well as projects that are being planned in the future, for the community’s visibility. Key budget highlights: • $15.9m towards the operation of our key community facilities including the Fremantle Library, Fremantle Leisure Centre, Fremantle Arts Centre and Fremantle Community Legal Centre *much of which is offset by their generated income and revenue • $11.5m towards parks, landscapes and natural areas • $9.5m towards the delivery of waste and resource recovery initiatives • $5.9m towards the ongoing maintenance of our buildings • $3.2m towards Booyeembara Park Masterplan, golf course, community facility • $2.6m for renewal and upgrade of roads • $2.3m towards the delivery of economic development, tourism marketing and investment attraction initiatives • $2.2m towards community safety • $2.0m towards the delivery of arts, culture and festivals • $1.75m for the Hilton Park Master Plan Northern Zone projects • $1.2m for the Henry St façade upgrades • $1.1m for public toilet facilities at Collie Street • $1.0m towards the delivery of upgrades at Samson Park Image credit: Jessica Wyld
