Perth's Building Sector Moves to Fix a Costly Digital Filing Problem This Week

Perth's metropolitan planning and construction sector is grappling with a measurable backlog this week after it emerged that duplicate images embedded in project documentation have slowed assessment times at multiple local government authorities, with Stirling and the City of Perth among those actively reviewing their digital submission pipelines.

The issue is not new, but it has sharpened considerably in 2026. A sustained surge in development applications — driven by the federal government's housing targets, the ongoing Metronet corridor rezoning along the Yanchep line, and AUKUS-related industrial expansion near Henderson and Rockingham — has pushed submission volumes well beyond what legacy document management systems were designed to handle. When applicants upload the same rendered elevation or site photograph multiple times inside a single PDF package, automated systems flag the file for manual review, adding days to an already stretched queue.

What Happened This Week

Staff at the City of Stirling's planning counter on Inspired Path, Mirrabooka, flagged the problem formally in internal workflow notes circulated on Tuesday, July 1. The City of Perth's development services team, based at Forrest Place, followed with its own internal review notice by Thursday. Neither council has yet issued a public statement, but the practical effect was visible: applicants contacting both offices this week were advised to resubmit documentation using single-instance imagery before their files could be assessed.

The underlying trigger is a combination of factors. Building designers and drafting firms, particularly smaller practices operating out of Osborne Park and Malaga, have been using automated export settings in programs such as Revit and ArchiCAD that duplicate reference images across multiple drawing sheets before compiling a final PDF. When that PDF lands in a council's Objective or Authority planning platform, the duplicate-detection algorithm holds the file. One Osborne Park drafting firm told The Daily Perth this week — without being identified because they were not authorised to speak publicly — that a single residential DA lodged last month contained the same roof plan image inserted eleven times across different sheets.

The Western Australian Planning Commission's ePlanning portal, which handles state development applications and scheme amendments, reported a processing adjustment notice in late June. According to the WAPC's published processing schedule for the July quarter, standard residential applications are currently benchmarked at 28 business days. Duplicate-flagged files sit outside that benchmark and restart the clock once corrected versions are lodged.

What Developers and Designers Need to Do Now

The practical fix is straightforward but requires deliberate action before submission. Design practices are being urged by local government planners to run a preflight check — using tools built into Adobe Acrobat Pro or specialist PDF optimisers — that strips repeated image objects and compresses the final file below the 50-megabyte upload ceiling that most WA local government portals enforce. The City of Joondalup updated its DA lodgement checklist as recently as March 2026 to include a file-size and image-duplication clause, and planning staff there said this week that it has materially reduced their re-submission rate.

For applicants already caught in a re-submission loop, both Stirling and the City of Perth are advising direct contact with the relevant planning officer rather than waiting for an automated status update. Delays at this stage carry real financial consequences: with Perth's median house-and-land package sitting above $720,000 in the outer northern corridor and construction finance costs running at current Reserve Bank settings, every additional week of DA assessment can add several thousand dollars in holding costs to a project.

Industry body Planning Institute of Australia's WA chapter, headquartered in West Perth on Thomas Street, is expected to circulate updated guidance to members before the end of July. For now, the bluntest advice from council staff this week is the same as it has always been in document management: submit once, submit cleanly, and check the file before you click send.