Hot springs wellness retreat planned for prime location on Perth’s Swan River

Plans for a $25 million luxury spa and wellness retreat development on the site of the historic Dalkeith Hot Pools on Perth’s Swan River have been revealed.

The proposal from Tawarri Hot Springs, whose main shareholder is Melbourne-based property and investment company PGA Group, aims to attract bathers back to a world-class wellness retreat on prime riverbank real estate next to the Perth Squadron Flying Yacht Club on the Esplanade along the shores of the Swan River.

The proposal will use a bore and geothermal heating out of the Yarragadee aquifer to fill the pools, with groundwater to be injected back into the water source.

The development, designed by Plus Architecture, would feature indoor and outdoor pools, saunas, a two-storey treatment centre, a restaurant and café.

Designated as a strategic tourism attraction by the Western Australian Government in 2019, the Hot Springs project would have a capacity of about 135 patrons and would contribute an estimated $9.5 million into the state’s economy every year.

Annual patronage, based on pre-COVID-19 assumptions, projects upwards of 140,000 annual visits with Urbis noting that almost two-thirds of facility users are expected to be Perth residents.

Advising that the development would attract high-value travellers to Perth, Tourism WA Chairman, Nathan Harding stated “the development is located on a brownfield site which has been subject to commercial activity for over 60 years, and builds upon the rich history of the site, which included the community use of hot water pools in the area.

“Tourism WA supports the Tawarri development and hopes that Department of Planning Lands and Heritage (State Development Assessment Unit) will recognise its tourism value, in addition to the public benefit for such a development activating this important part of the Swan River foreshore.”

Tawarri Hot Springs currently to be negotiating a sub-lease for the site with the City of Nedlands, according to a planning application filed with the State Development Assessment Unit, which is set to run for 21 years.

The original Dalkeith Hot Pool came about after a bore drilled into the Yarragadee Aquifer in 1908 burst in the early 1920s.

Limestone walls were built around the resulting hot water spouting out to the surface to create a pool which had a notorious reputation in the 1930s and 1950s for night-time nude bathing.

The pool was closed after 1950s and its structure removed in the early 1990s.

Tawarri is a Noongar word for ‘evening breeze’.

Public consultation for the development is open until 22nd March.

Images: Concept for the $25 million Tawarri Hot Springs project (top) and promotion of the facility says it "will not be an exclusive club" (below). Credit: Supplied.