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MRREC has a twenty year lease on a wonderful site at 41 Clarke Road, Margaret River, opposite the south end of Station Road.

The site includes the historic former railway goods shed which is listed on the municipal heritage inventory. The shed was built in 1926 and is one of the few intact remnants of Margaret River's important railway heritage.

After an extended period of neglect, the much-loved shed is looking tired. But we have plans!

Over the last two years we have worked hard to distill our ideas into an exciting design and to attain planning permission. Now we are finally ready to build.

The primary elements of the project are:

• new composting toilet facilities
• a new disabled access ramp
• new rain water tanks
• internal lining and insulation
• structural rectification
• shipping containers for storage

These will help the facility achieve fire, health, safety, security, access and environmental performance standards in line with MRREC's ethos of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It will house meeting spaces, a reference library, a research area, a projector for film screenings and presentations, educational material, sustainability information and displays.

The project will enable us to expand our operations, showcase sustainable building features and provide an attractive, family-friendly meeting space for the community to come together on environmental issues affecting our area.

The facility is not just for MRREC use; it will also be used by the Margaret River area's many other environmental organisations as well as other local community-focused groups.

We are brimming with further ideas for the future of the site, which include:

• complete rehabilitation of the remnant native bush land on the site
• a nature playground
• a bush tucker garden
• site-specific sculpture and land art installations
• a trail head for the Wadandi Track (which passes the site) including interpretive information.
• going off-grid with solar panels and battery storage
• enhancement of a former gravel pit to become a seasonal pond that connects to the adjacent Montessori pond.

MRREC recently celebrated 20 years of passionate advocacy and protection of the area's amazing and vitally important natural environment. Our vision is that the building renovation and future site works will secure and strengthen MRREC and the local environmental movement for many years to come.