A briefing on the two Cockburn Road landholdings that have been hard to reach, and the relationship routes that are most likely to actually open a conversation.
The Read
These aren't real-estate listings. They are family businesses that happen to sit on strategic dirt.
Both sites are held by long-tenure operating businesses, not by property holding companies marketing land. That is why cold-calling office reception has gone nowhere. There is no agent waiting for a call. The owner-decision-makers are running fleets, refineries, and family enterprises, and they will engage only if someone they already trust opens the door.
The pathway in is relational, not transactional. Nicole already orbits both, through Westport, Infrastructure WA, Fremantle Ports, and the WA industrial network. The brief below maps the people, the warm-introduction routes, and the language that fits a long-tenure family business considering its next chapter.
Property One
Westmore Seafoods
Westmore Sea Foods
Cnr Rollinson Rd & Cockburn Rd · Naval Base / North Coogee · WA 6163
Operating · Family-held
Operating entity
Westmore Sea Foods. Western Australian commercial fishing and processing business. Vessel operations out of Point Samson and Shark Bay. Processing facilities in Fremantle and Shark Bay. Registered corporate address: 1 Darkan Ave, North Coogee.
Site use
The Rollinson Rd / Cockburn Rd corner is understood to be a processing, logistics and / or freezer site supporting the operating business. It is not a publicly marketed site.
25+ years across WA seafood: retailing, wholesaling, processing, vessel operations. Oversees fleet ops across WA and NT and the processing facilities. Active in industry leadership (Seafood Industry Australia). The conversation about future site use begins and ends with Toby.
Nicola Cottington
Office Administration
Gatekeeper for the head-office inbox. Useful for confirming the right contact pathway, not for the substantive conversation.
Jason Wortley
Manager · Fleet Operations
Operational lead, useful context if a site-level conversation eventually opens.
Recommended pathway in
01
Warm intro via Seafood Industry Australia. Toby Abbott is connected through the national industry body. Nicole's policy and infrastructure footprint reads cleanly to that network, and an SIA contact making the introduction lands better than a direct LinkedIn approach.
02
Fremantle Ports / WA Fishing Industry Council route. Westmore is a long-standing local operator and overlaps with the people Nicole worked alongside on Westport. A single phone call to the right person there surfaces who already has Toby on speed-dial.
03
Direct contact (LinkedIn or office line) as a fallback. Frame the conversation around long-term land use in the Westport corridor and how WABi's footprint relates to the working harbour, not "we want to buy your site." A family business respects the question before it respects the offer.
Property Two
Lake Deborah Salt · WA Salt Group
WA Salt Group · WA Salt Supply / Western Salt Refinery
185 – 187 Cockburn Road · North Coogee · WA 6163
Family · Established 1944
Operating group
WA Salt Group, comprising WA Salt Supply, Western Salt Refinery, WA Salt Koolyanobbing, and Quality Salt Company. Established 1944 by three Lister brothers: Arthur, Jack and George. The Cockburn Road site has been the packaging and distribution facility since 1969. Lake Deborah, near Koolyanobbing, is the salt source ~500 km north-east of Perth.
Site use
Packaging, refining, warehousing and distribution facility for the group. Office hours 8.30am – 5pm, warehouse 7.30am – 4pm. An active industrial site, not a marketed property.
Second-generation Lister. Long-serving managing director and current chairman. Any conversation about the site's future runs through Frank. A family-owned business of this tenure makes strategic decisions at the principal level. Never at the GM tier.
Lelio Gaudieri · gatekeeper
Chief Executive Officer
CEO and (historically) Financial Controller. He is the route to Frank. A well-framed conversation with Lelio about industrial transition in the Westport corridor opens the door upstairs.
Andrew Smith
General Manager
Day-to-day site operations. Useful only for site-level or technical questions once a relationship is open.
Recommended pathway in
01
Westport / Fremantle Ports network. WA Salt Group is a heavy user of the working harbour: bulk salt export and inbound logistics. They have known orbital relationships with the people Nicole worked with as Westport Chair. One phone call there reveals who personally knows Frank Lister.
02
CCIWA / WA industrial peer group. A multi-generational family-held WA manufacturer of this scale sits inside a small peer network. The introduction reads better when it travels along that network rather than landing cold from outside it.
03
Direct outreach to Lelio Gaudieri as the working pathway to Frank. Frame the conversation as a long-horizon strategic question about the Cockburn Coast precinct and Westport land transition, not a transactional approach. A 1944 family business respects the long question. It does not respect a short one.
The Strategic Context
Both sites sit inside Nicole's natural territory.
The corner of Rollinson and Cockburn, and the 185 Cockburn Rd site, both sit within the Westport corridor and the Cockburn Coast precinct that Nicole has chaired and reviewed at policy level. That is a genuine advantage. The owners of these sites are precisely the kind of long-tenure WA operators who will recognise the names Westport Taskforce and Infrastructure WA before they recognise WABi.
The lead is Nicole's chair history, not the WABi pitch. The pitch follows once the question is welcome.
Practical implication: the first call should not be about the site. It should be a conversation that the owner finds useful to them: about long-term land use, port logistics, succession planning, or industrial transition. WABi enters the conversation only once a relationship is open.
Honest gaps
What this brief cannot tell you.
Legal title ownership
The operating businesses identified above run the sites. The legal title (who owns the actual land) may be held by a separate family trust, a holding company, or an associated entity. The only way to know with certainty is a Landgate certificate of title search at the two addresses. That returns the registered proprietor in 24 hours for a small fee (~$30 per title). I'd recommend ordering both before the first outreach call.
Owner-side appetite
Neither site is publicly marketed. Whether either family is genuinely open to a conversation about future use is unknowable from public information. It can only be tested through the relationship pathway. This is precisely why Nicole's network is the right instrument, not a buyer's agent.
What if the first call isn't about the site, but about the future of the corridor?