Doubts over film studio location, cost

Mark McGowan has confirmed the state's new film studio might not be built in Fremantle after a range of issues were found at the proposed Victoria Quay site. 

Before the 2021 election, the Labor Party promised a film studio would be built and selected Home Fire Creative Industries, owned by property developers Ben Lisle and Adrian Fini, as the preferred proponent.

Mr McGowan committed $105 million to build a film studio and screen production studio and $20 million for a screen production fund to attract filmmakers.

While the project was accounted for in the state budget, no further details about the film studio have been released to the public.

On Saturday, media reported that the project was suffering cost blowouts and that the site chosen was not suitable.

In response to the reports, Mr McGowan admitted the Victoria Quay site posed problems but said the state government was committed to the project.

“It’s under a market-led proposal so it’s currently undergoing negotiation with the proponents. But the Victoria Quay site has a range of problems that weren’t originally identified and obviously the cost of construction has gone up significantly over the course of the last year or so,” Mr McGowan said.  

“The government remains committed to it, it’s a great project but we have got to look at alternative sites but there may well be some activity that occurs in Fremantle.

“It’s a very old site, it’s not a greenfields site, it’s a brownfields site so originally we thought it was suitable but further inquiries has shown that it has a range of issues that may be insurmountable so we are examining other sites as well.”

Liberal Party WA leader David Honey said the lack of transparency from the state government on the changes to the project was disappointing.

“They were promoting it, they were saying this was a done deal, this was going to go ahead, 500 jobs, all of the movies we were going to see in Western Australia, yet the whole thing falls over,” he said.

Home Fire Creative Industires said it would not be providing a statement because the market-led proposal process was ongoing.