WA Sheep Farmers Reveal 160-Townhouse Proposal

First generation merino farmers Marianne and Hugo Bombara are planning a 161-townhouse development on one of their many properties near Perth. 

The 4.84ha site at 21 and 31 Johnson Road, Bertram, is 14km west of Rockingham, 500m from the Kwinana Train Station and across the Kwinana Freeway from Costco Casuarina and multiple new projects.

The site is 35km south by road from the Perth CBD.

The proposal, valued at $51 million, comprises a mix of one to four bedroom townhouses as well as 39 four-bedroom townhouses with a self-contained “Fonzie” apartment above the garage.

The Cameron Chisholm Nicol designed-townhouses have lot sizes between 101sq m to 255sq m and outdoor areas.  

Also planned is the conversion of a subdrain into a stream lined with native plants and leading to a communal space designed by Josh Byrne & Associates landscape architects. 

This townhouse project is not the first for the duo, who proposed a three-apartment scheme at Nedlands designed by the same architects in 2023.

They have been active in the development sector for two decades, acquiring properties around Perth and nearby rural area.

Sheep farming is a newer venture for the Bombaras, who moved from Perth to Dinninup, about 290km south of the Perth CBD, in 2020 to start a shearing business with 1000 wether lambs. That has since expanded to 12,000 head.

▲ A rendering of the townhouse scheme proposed for the Bertram site.

A planning report by Element for the Bertram proposal said a draft Local Planning Strategy had been introduced for Kwinana by the state government in mid-2023 but was yet to be adopted by the WA Planning Commission.

“It identifies that the city needs to accommodate an additional 15,000 dwellings by 2035 and that these dwellings should be in proximity to a range of facilities, designed to provide housing choice and a high level of amenity,” the report said. 

“The subject site is nominated as being ‘Future Urban’ and in ‘Planning Area 2–Freeway Interchange Planning Investigation Area’ under the LPS.”

A neighbourhood shopping centre was greenlit in May 2024 on the other side of the nearby Costco site. It includes 2549sq m of retail and a service station that sold for $3.3 million a few years earlier.