The year 1998 was the year the Adelaide Crows won their second consecutive AFL premiership, Aussie rockers Powderfinger released their album Internationalist, setting them on the path to global stardom, mobile phones were the size of house bricks, The Wiggles’ first self-titled television series aired on Channel 7 and the likes of Good Will Hunting and The Wedding Singer were playing at movie theatres.
It was also a big year for the northern corridor of Perth as the City of Joondalup became a city in its own right on 1 July 1998.
The Joondalup story, in fact, began more than four decades earlier in 1955 with the Plan for the Metropolitan Region Perth and Fremantle, Western Australia also known as the Stephenson-Hepburn Report.
In the late -1970s the Joondalup Centre Act was proclaimed, and the Joondalup Development Corporation (JDC) established.
The JDC’s task was a complex and ambitious one: Deliver on the vision set out by Sir Charles Court for a satellite city on the shores of Lake Joondalup that would become the civic, cultural and economic capital of Perth’s northern corridor. Five members were appointed to the JDC on 25 February 1977.
At that time, aside from the then City of Wanneroo Administration building (1979) and Wanneroo Hospital (1980), Joondalup was all but bushland.
Joint Commissioners oversaw the City in its first 18 months and the city’s first council was established in 1999 with John Bombak the inaugural Mayor of Joondalup.
Under the banner Creating the Future, the council had its first formal sitting on 12 December 1999.
Fast forward 25 years, and what is Joondalup now? Joondalup is recognised on the international stage for its liveability and healthy lifestyle opportunities and for being home to an engaged and connected community. The Joondalup city centre is the heartbeat of the northern corridor of Perth with 13,000 businesses delivering more than $6.9b in economic activity.
