Albany 2026: Loving life and loving Albany, Dennis Wellington was a ‘passionate driving force’ as city’s mayor

Dennis Wellington, who was 12 years a mayor and more than two decades a councillor, is one of the people who has done most to shape 21st-century Albany.

A plain speaker who set great store on speaking the truth, Mr Wellington was the heart and soul of the city just when it needed a bit of both.

Elected to the council in 2001, he stepped down as mayor in 2023 having won three full terms and held the top job for longer than anyone else.

He is on the move, but only to a home he built a while back in his own backyard because he still loves the town in which he was born.

He and partner Fran are downsizing, which doesn’t seem quite right for a man whose outlook is still the big picture, with Albany always centre frame.

He’s concerned about how rising house prices will affect young people, electric vehicles with no spare tyres and worries for the future of retail as “anything not coming out of China is too expensive”.

He can quote stats and facts off the top of his head, funnelling the news into his brain, assessing how it might impact the city he’s a part of and having it ready to go, just in case anyone asks, or the Advertiser comes calling.

He is convinced the city has a bright future and is not worried about it growing; in fact, he positively wants it to grow.

However, Mr Wellington reckons there is one infrastructure item Albany needs as a tipping point — a private hospital.

“As far as growing the city, the break-even point would be a private hospital,” he said.

“That’s something we need to look at — we have 80 doctors here for 40,000 people when the standard is 100 for 100,000, so we are looked after as far as health is concerned.

“We have education covered because we have good schools, a college and a university.

“You can even study to be a doctor down here now.

“But at the moment there are opportunities elsewhere for the private health companies and Albany is seen too much as a risk, but a private hospital would cement that growth.”

He is a forward-looking man so it’s hard to prompt him to look back at his time in office and blow his own trumpet.

However, he does offer one item in the basket marked “achievement” and another in the “regret” section.

“The biggest thing that I liked during my time was the redevelopment of the Centennial Park sports fields,” Mr Wellington said.

“As players, we used to run out on to the cabbage patch and have the water seep over our boots.

“Now there are 1400 kids playing soccer and 1200 playing footy on grounds actually worth playing on.

“The best thing was it cost $40m and the town contributed just $4m because we pumped the State and Federal governments for the money.”

A super cricketer and footballer himself, offering sporting opportunities to young people was always going to be on his agenda.

And the regret?

“The City of Albany council offices should not be on North Road, they should be in the CBD, but we lost that battle,” he mused.

“But there’s not much else to be negative about.

“There’s record grain going through the port and the town is attracting tourists.

“When the whaling stopped, everything changed and Albany became a place to live, to go on holiday, to get out of the heat.

“We don’t suffer the extremes of heat and don’t get the disasters of elsewhere — bar cyclone Alby in 1978 — so it’s somewhere great to live.

“I just like the town and love living here.

“We just need to make more blocks available for building, because people want to come.”

He’s supportive of the job being done by his successors in the city council chamber but was surprised at them rejecting the code of conduct mandated by the State Government.

The code says councillors should stick to the facts when speaking at meetings or publishing content on social media — and the former mayor has no problem with that.

“There’s a few out there gilding the lily; the code is there for a reason and it’s reasonably easy to work with,” he said.

“People have different opinions but it’s important to deal with the guidelines and do what’s reasonable.

“There’s not a lot wrong with the truth.”

Rebecca Stephens, the former Albany MLA, probably best summed up Mr Wellington’s contribution when she gave a statement to the WA State Parliament on October 12, 2023, acknowledging his retirement as mayor.

She said he had been “the passionate driving force” behind numerous, transformative projects.

“During his tenure, he led Albany through the Anzac Centenary commemoration project, the redevelopment of Centennial Park sporting and recreation precinct and upgrades to Middleton Beach–Binalup, and he has laid the groundwork for the upcoming Albany Bicentenary celebrations in 2026,” she said.

She then addressed him personally.

“You always led with the attitude, ‘is it good for Albany?’, and, if it was, you championed the issue,” she told Parliament.

“Our thriving regional city has been forever changed because of the impact of your dedication and leadership.”