Thirty residents and businesspeople in Mount Lawley have united to form an action group to help preserve the character of the popular Beaufort Street retail strip.
Thirty residents and businesspeople in Mount Lawley have united to form an action group to help preserve the character of the popular Beaufort Street retail strip.
The 'Beaufort Street Network' joins Fremantle's 'High Street Fashion Collective' and 'Windows on William' in Northbridge as locally driven initiatives aimed at making their vicinity more vibrant while retaining a point of difference.
The network, which involves local small businesses and residents on and around Beaufort Street, plans to keep control of the uniqueness of a strip increasingly coveted by developers.
Civil servant and small business owner John Carey, who is also secretary of the group, is behind the Beaufort Street Network.
Mr Carey said local businesspeople, customers and residents were passionate about Mount Lawley and its unique high street feel.
"It's a special strip in terms of retails, lifestyle and the type of people who are interested in going there.
It's the nearest thing we have in Perth to Brunswick in Melbourne," he said.
Creating the Beaufort Street Network would draw businesses and residents together to find and implement ideas on how to retain the feel of the area and improve it, according to Mr Carey.
The network, which was started earlier this year, will become an incorporated association in the next couple of months, and aims to attract private funds to finance projects.
According to the group's chair, Planet director Haydn Robinson, the street art will be the first area to develop, as it is already giving the area a unique quirkiness.
"We all agreed on the same thing; we want to get some more street art happening to get the tone before the area gets too Subiaco-like...some of us are ready to spend money on it," Mr Robinson said.
The network is also hoping to print a map of the area listing all the one-off small businesses on the strip.
Mr Carey said other issues the network wanted to highlight to local council included traffic flow and congestion.
It's a fine line, though, and Mr Carey said he recognised that making the strip more attractive might play against the area's "alternative identity".
"Our work could push the rents higher as the area becomes trendier, but owners have to be aware why Beaufort Street is popular," he told WA Business News.
"If they get 15 franchises in, people will stop going there." The Beaufort Street Network has core group of 30 businesspeople and residents, which includes Scott Taylor, owner of Beaufort Street Merchants, and Elaine Macleod, who runs jewellery store Behind the Monkey.
