TL;DR: The noise from Bunnings Subiaco has increased over the years to highly annoying levels for residents. What to do about it.
Bunnings Subiaco is on the border of residential space. They have a right to operate their business but the noise that they create has increased over the last few years and the times at which they make that noise has spread to earlier and later hours in spite of polite and receptive conversations with store management and complaints to the City of Subiaco.
In 2012 I moved into an apartment that is right across the road from the back of Bunnings Subiaco. I knew that there would be noise from Bunnings - after all, they have a stock yard there and it was clear during my research that forklifts, trucks and other equipment would be in use to move goods around.
Bunnings needs to carry on a business and this all seemed entirely reasonable. Mitigating this was Bunnings opening hours: 7AM to 7PM every day except Thursday (7AM to 9PM). These were circumstances which were acceptable.
Over time, those circumstances have changed. Opening hours have expanded (without any notice to the local community) to be 6:30AM to 9PM on weekdays and 6:30AM to 7PM on weekends and public holidays.
In 2023 and 2024 some days have seen trading until 10PM (again, no notice was given). This has meant increased activity in the stock yard which well after 9PM which is impacting the lives of residents living nearby due to the noise such activity creates. I cannot tell you how noisy it is when pallet jacks (that have metal wheels) are being moved around on quiet nights - it's a harsh, loud noise which is quite jarring.
Despite conversations and complaints to both Bunnings and the City of Subiaco, there continues to be work happening in the yard before 7AM (the earliest being 5:15AM which is not an isolated incident); and after 9PM (the latest being 10:30PM which is also on multiple occassions).
You can imagine the effect this has on quality of sleep.
This is not helped by apartment balconies being a place where noise is easily collected and transmitted inside the dwelling[1].
Even quiet sound is easily heard and can disturb sleep or get to annoyance level especially with prolonged exposure.
This is not the only Bunnings-related noise challenge residents of the street are facing.
Bunnings has a public address (PA) system that plays music into the garden centre which is located next to the stock yard. Music played into this area and store announcements were (when I moved in) barely noticeable and not worthy of comment.
In December 2020, the store installed a new PA system. That night (due to a programming error) the music was left on all night. Coupled with the music being far louder than the previous system - enough such that it is audible even with all windows shut[2] - this caused a significant disruption to sleep that night.
A conversation was had with the manager the next morning; apologies issued; the system fixed.
Except that it wasn't - this happened again three times again in 2022. The volume of the music and announcements has not been reduced.
And while the COVID pandemic is now behind us, it should be noted that there were several occassions during that time where the in-store COVID announcements were played at approximately 15 minute intervals, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
To add insult to injury, it's not possible to contact Bunnings or the City of Subiaco out of hours to have these things remedied. Security for the store do not have the access to the store to fix things like music playing all night; and in any case (as they have pointed out) it isn't a security problem.
Thankfully, the music only comes on at 7AM (9AM on Sundays) and is turned off at 7PM. But it remains on during public holidays such as Christmas Day and Good Friday when the store is closed. The music also plays from 7AM on Anzac Day when the store isn't open until midday.
Again, it is at a volume where it can be heard inside the apartment with the windows closed - opening windows during the day to receive airflow results in a highly unpleasant tinny music experience. Not to mention that songs are repeated on a regular basis and they are not the songs I would generally choose to listen to.
Even though music is not played early or late, store announcements are sent to the garden area from store opening (6:30AM) to closing time (9PM or 10PM).
And while some of the store closing announcements are quite amusing (the store has been congratulated for this) it is jarring to be woken from sleep at 6:40AM to hear a call for someone to go to help a customer with gas bottles or to go to the front counter.
Another incident in 2023 was when workmen started using grinders and drills on the roof of the store at 7AM on a Sunday morning.
Thankfully a call to the store delayed further work until 9AM but it shows a lack of judgement and consideration to have authorised the work in the first place.
Conversations after such events are always accompanied by apologies and understanding - after all, everyone can completely appreciate that if they were living here and had to put up with such things then it would absolutely be quite trying.
Because the store is now open at 6:30AM there are trucks delivering goods to Bunnings queued up in the street before that time, waiting to be promptly handled at opening time.
Large delivery trucks are invariably (by their very nature) noisy and their engines are left running while they are waiting. When reversing, they have beepers which are normally audible from some distance away.
And because there is a second yard accessibly to customers that has an entrance on Roydhouse St there is a fairly significant amount of early morning traffic (generally 4WD vehicles) that use the street in order to pick up supplies as early as possible.
Both are a source of unwelcome noise and disruption at an early hour.
Update December 2024: For the first time since the new audio system has gone in, there was no music on Christmas Day! Thank you to the people at Bunnings for doing this. It was so pleasant to be able sit outside and enjoy the day without the AM-quality music playing. Most excellent!
Update Easter 2025: But there doesn't appear to be too much forethought happening in the store because the music played all day on Good Friday. I must remember to reminder them to shut the system down when their store is not open - but I also don't see why that is the responsibility of nearby residents who would like some peace and quiet.
None of these examples are intended to point to any malicious behaviour on the part of Bunnings or their staff.
But collectively (as a team and an organisation) they are a bad neighbour. As a team they can improve their relationship and reduce the production of the noise from the store, making the lives of local residents much better.
Admittedly, residents of the street have chosen to live where we are - mainly because it is convenient to many amenities and rated as one of the most walkable suburbs in Australia. But this does not excuse Bunnings from their responsibilities to their residential neighbours.
I don't believe that these changes are unreasonable - they are a balance between Bunnings carrying on a viable business and residents having quality of life that doesn't include unnecessary noise pollution.
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