Traffic on Parkin Street in Rockingham is driving residents to the brink and with upgrades to HMAS Stirling as part of the AUKUS pact, they fear it’s only going to get worse.
Ian and Rosemary Saggers say the thousands of cars and trucks that pass their home daily are affecting their health.
Mrs Saggers, who has never smoked, battles emphysema and bronchiectasis, while her husband has sinusitis.
The pair loved living in the area for 20 years but are now ready to move.
Mr Sagers has a litany of horror stories about houses with structural damage, destroyed kerbs, burst water mains and even gas lines that have caught fire.
They claim it is because Parkin Street was never intended to bear the brunt of defence traffic to Garden Island.
More than 50 years ago, land was reserved for a “Garden Island Highway”.
In 2015, an independent report outlined the traffic impacts associated with HMAS Stirling at Garden Island.
The assessment showed that failing to build the Garden Island Highway would result in the road network operating at the limit of its capacity and “peak traffic movements to Cape Peron had the potential to adversely impact the function of the surrounding local road network”.
This was before AUKUS, a tri-nation defence partnership that will see submarines from the US and UK rotate regularly through HMAS Stirling on Garden Island from 2027.
This move is expected to bring about 700 submariners and their families to live in and around Rockingham.
Mr Saggers is concerned that someone will be killed crossing Parkin Street long before the traffic peaks.
“The other day I found a lady with a walker stuck in the gutter and she’s crying her eyes out and cars are coming for her,” he said.
“And she couldn’t get out. She couldn’t walk, but I managed to get her up and on.
“Then I realised who she was; when they first put the roundabouts in, a car hit her walking across the road and made her a cripple … so the danger is there.”
There are even international concerns about local infrastructure.
In March, the US Arms Control and International Security Under Secretary Bonnie Jenkins expressed her hesitancy about Australia’s preparedness for AUKUS over the infrastructure needed to get the WA bases and community ready for nuclear-powered submarines.
City of Rockingham councillor Peter Hudson said he had been approached by locals with traffic concerns.
“Increasing traffic in our local community isn’t a new ‘hot-button issue’ in Rockingham, but the impacts of the increased use of local roads for defence purposes certainly are,” he said.
“I’ve lost track of the number of residents who have expressed their anger and frustration to me about how little investment in infrastructure Rockingham gets. It frustrates me as well; this extends to the roads and housing up to Garden Island.”
Mayor Deb Hamblin confirmed the city had received complaints about traffic issues on Parkin Street.
“The existing issues related to traffic accessing HMAS Stirling are well known to the city and it has (and will continue to) communicate the need for regional transport improvements,” she said.
Ms Hamblin said the city was pushing the State Government to complete a feasibility study to ascertain whether the unconstructed part of the Garden Island Highway could be built within the land dedicated for that purpose.
The city is also in the final stages of a transport needs study for Cape Peron.
“The transport needs study will identify all improvements required to the local road network within Cape Peron and external connections into Rockingham such as Parkin Street based on current and future traffic numbers arising from the growth of HMAS Stirling through AUKUS,” Ms Hamblin said.
“Additionally, a key component of the study is to determine the potential need and timing for the construction of the highway.”
Local MP Madeleine King said she was determined to ensure Rockingham “gets all the benefits of AUKUS”.
“This will mean local road and transport routes will be upgraded to improve traffic flows for the community,” she said.
“As the local Federal Member, I would expect at the very least the Defence Department and all AUKUS participants ensure they respect and respond to the understandable concerns of the local community that have been very supportive of HMAS Stirling since it was commissioned in 1978,” she said.
An Australian Defence spokesperson said they recognised the importance of adequate transport planning and local road upgrades in line with the increase in activities at HMAS Stirling.
They said they were working closely with the city and State Government on traffic studies.
But it’s too late for Mr Saggers, who says the studies should have been completed years ago.
“We’ve been driven out,” he said.
The State Government was contacted by the Sound Telegraph but did not provide a response.
