Fear not! Over 300 green parking bays at Curtin’s South entrance (PL1) have indeed been replaced while the lot is repaved and out of commission until at least August.

The 319 green bays have been replaced with converted bays from nearby zones in the campuses southwest. 154 yellow bays next to the Early Childcare Centre (PH4) have been converted to green, as have an additional 159 bays that lay along the South Oval (PJ2).

These originally yellow zones have in turn be replaced by converting 348 of the 374 white bays in the zone (PJ1) next to the West entrance along Beazley Ave.

Guild President Dylan Botica says while the university has accommodated the students by converting different zones, this has upset some of the faculty and staff as the white bays have been traditionally allocated for them.

“It’s always challenging. There’s a lack of parking available on campus currently anyway, so I think it’s going to be hard for students. But the University has converted some of the white bays that previously students couldn’t park into yellow bays,” he says.

Dylan believes it would obviously be better for students if parking was more affordable. He says there’s no reason for the university to change them back from being green to yellow, but he suspects they probably will.

At the moment green bay zones cost $0.84 per hour with a cap at $4.20 per transaction while yellow and white (only for staff) are both $1.68 per hour and cap at $6.80.

Amarisa, a chemistry student, parks in the green bay’s next to the South Entrance two times a week, but now parks near the childcare centre in the converted green bays (formerly yellow).

She says she was surprised when she arrived one day and spotted the zone under construction.

The second-year student was again surprised when she noticed more green parking near the childcare centre, as there had been no
messaging about the newly converted spaces.

 

Camryn was another student who did not receive any messaging about the repaving of the 319 green bays nor the replacements in other zones.

“We had no idea,” she says, “we rocked up one day and that yellow zone is green now and that car park is blocked off now, like what happened?”

Camryn is a full-time student studying psychology, who also uses the green bay spaces near the South Entrance twice a week. She carpools with her friend, and they are at university from half past seven to five both days, and wants to park in the cheaper car parks.

She thinks she has been quite lucky with parking because of how early she arrives but admits she has heard a lot of frustrations from others.

As the construction is not due to be finished until at least August, Camryn thinks the beginning of next semester will be interesting.

“Everyone comes at the start of semester so it might be a lot harder to find car parks, especially later in the day.”

Curtin parking has not stated whether the newly converted green bays will remain once the construction ends in August.