$1million grants protect 40 heritage properties

24/8/04
More than $1million in State Government grants will help protect 40 Western Australian Heritage properties.
Heritage Minister Tom Stephens said grants ranging from $3,000 to $107,000 to private owners of properties, would make a real difference to recognised treasures throughout the State.
"Buildings that will benefit include The Rocks in Albany, Glengarry Homestead near Geraldton, the former Railway Hotel in Coolgardie and Subiaco's Regal Theatre," Mr Stephens said.
"Conservation works funded by the program will help replace roofs, restore collapsing verandahs and repair crumbling facades.
"There is even a small grant to fix up the clock at the St George's Terrace entrance to London Court.
"Eighteen of the grants are for preparation of conservation plans, which are essential requirements for future conservation works and access to Heritage Grants."
The Minister said the successful projects were selected from 66 applications for funding for the Heritage Grants program administered by the Heritage Council of WA.
In addition to the 40 successful applicants, the State Government has maintained its commitment to provide $50,000 for the conservation of the Kalgoorlie and Boulder Town Halls.
A full list is attached and more information about the program is available from the Heritage Council of Western Australia at http://www.heritage.wa.gov.au
Minister's Office - 9213 6500
Albany

• Albany House, Albany $5,000 to prepare a comprehensive conservation plan for the pre-gold rush former Union Bank building.
• Hawthorndene, Albany, $4,700 to prepare a conservation plan to the 1892 Victorian Rustic Gothic style stone and iron residence. The place reflects the development of Albany as the principal port in WA in the 19th century, and contributes to the ongoing importance of Albany as a prominent historic town.
• The Rocks, Albany, $50,000 for conservation works including the supply and fitting of windows and doors. The c1884 Victorian style property has been associated with three Western Australian Governors, World War I wounded soldiers, pupils who attended during its time as a girls' school, military staff who occupied the place during World War II, the girls and women who lived there while it was a high school hostel and disabled people who have used it as a holiday venue.

• Hoopers Winery, Bakers Hill, $23,000 to prepare a conservation plan and works for the rare WA example of a 19th century winery which has survived to this day. The place was established in 1885 and operational until 1969-70, was one of the earliest wineries developed in the eastern hills district and one of the longest to remain in operation.

• Prince of Wales Hotel, Bunbury, $9,300 to prepare a conservation plan for the place once owned by the Swan Brewery from 1943 to 1978. It was one of 120 premises the brewery acquired to secure a market for their product.

• Enderslea, Chittering, $25,000 for conservation works of stabilising the structure and restoration of stone walls to the 1853 property where the first grape vines in the district were grown in 1887.

• Former Railway Hotel, Coolgardie, $55,000 for conservation works for the verandah on the 1896 hotel, which is only one of three surviving buildings that represent a fragment of Coolgardie's 23 hotels in the gold boom period.

• Liveringa Homestead Group, the 1904 shearers' quarters, $20,000 for the restoration of stone retaining walls where the first polling station in the area for the Commonwealth elections were held in 1901.

• Old East End, Dongara, $6,400 to prepare a conservation plan for a collection of buildings in the Victorian Georgian style, including a blacksmith's shop, farmhouse, cottage, store and other buildings demonstrating daily life of early settler families of the Irwin District.

• Water Police Station and Quarters (fmr), Fremantle, $10,000 to prepare a conservation plan for the 1903 place, which is closely associated with an important phase in the development of Fremantle, the expansion of the inner harbour and port facilities and the increase in prosperity from the Goldrushes.
• 'Ocean View', 134 Solomon Street, Beaconsfield, $50,000 to reroof the main house and verandah of the former military hospital from 1917 to 1920, then a maternity hospital for the following 20 years.

• Maley's Mill, Greenough, $36,000 for conservation work for the roof gutters and downpipes of the 19th century steam-driven flour mill, which developed in the 1850s and 1850s as 'the granary of the colony'.
• Glengarry Homestead, Moonyoonooka, $56,000 for conservation works to the 1850s property including reproofing with traditional jarrah timber framing.
• Newmarracarra Homestead, Kojareena, $20,000 for conservation works. Its construction in 1910 was an achievement in that it was possibly the largest and certainly one of the finest rural homesteads built in WA at that time.

• Guildford Post Office, $4,500 to prepare a conservation plan for the post office which has been in continuous use since 1897.

• St Werburgh's Farm Buildings, Mt Barker, $20,000 for roofing and brickwork for a rare group of agricultural buildings dating from the mid-1840s. The place was one of the first farming properties established in the Hay River valley area and demonstrates the development of agriculture in the Plantagenet district from the 1840s to 2003.

• Mahogany Inn, Mundaring, $37,000 to prepare a conservation plan and conduct some works for the c1839 place associated with the practice of taking a holiday in the 'hills' which became popular during the first half of the 20th century.
• Mundaring Weir Hotel, $3,000 to prepare a conservation place for the c1898 place which C Y O'Connor, who designed the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, used as his office. It has also become a cultural venue that attracts residents, people from the wider Perth community and internationally acclaimed artists such as pianist David Helfgott, and painter Frank Pash.

• Convent School, Norseman, $10,300 to prepare a conservation plan for the former convent school.

• Bardeen Homestead, Irishtown. $30,000 to stabilise the roofs, drainage and walls of the stables which are part of a homestead spanning from the 1840s.
• Byfield House, Northam, $30,000 for consolidation works including brickwork to the former home of James Byfield, a prominent figure involved with the development of Northam at the beginning of the 20th century. The place demonstrates the wealth acquired by its former owner as a direct result of the gold boom era.
• Curdnatta, Northam, $3,300 to prepare a conservation plan for the place that was designed by prominent WA architect Edwin Summerhayes in 1911.

• Oakabella Homestead, $20,000 for conservation of the stonework in the cookhouse and homestead and blacksmith's shop. The homestead is significant to the settlement and development in the Northampton district in the mid-19th century.
• Willow Gully, Northampton, $27,300 to prepare a conservation plan for Willow Gully Homestead and outbuildings. The 1860s place has an association with the period of convict transportation to WA because it includes the house, cottages, barns servant's quarters, stables and walled gardens, which were constructed by ticket-of-leave men.

• Tobacco Grading Shed, Watermark Kilns Farmstay, Northcliffe, $3,900 to prepare a conservation plan for the grading shed which was built as part of World War II promotion of the tobacco industry.
• Store, Northcliffe, $28,000 for conservation works to a place that was first commercial premises to be erected in Northcliffe and the only remaining commercial building from the original Group Settlement. The place played a central role in the 1990s environmental campaign to save old-growth forests.

• 55 Murray Street, Perth, $51,000 for the reconstruction of the verandah to c1904 photograph.
• Theatre Royal and Hotel Metropole (fmr), $107,500 for urgent conservation works to the north faade and Hay Street Balcony. The place was the first purpose-built theatre in WA.
• London Court Clock, Perth $6,900 to repair the clock and figurines. A special feature of both the St George's Terrace and Hay Street frontage are the clocks which dominated the entrances. Above the St George's Terrace entrance was
  'St. George slaying the dragon'. The dial was a reproduction of La Gross Horage of Rouen. Above the Hay Street entrance, the dial of the clock was a replica of the face of Big Ben in St. Stephen's Tower of the House of Parliament, in London.

• Regal Theatre, Subiaco, $55,000 for conservation works including the reconstruction of the earlier colour scheme and repaint faade of a place that has been used as a regular place of entertainment for nearly 60 years.

• Cygnet Theatre, Como, $4,500 to prepare a conservation plan for the 1938 cinema where the siting and distinctive form of the place has established Cygnet Cinema as a Como landmark.

• Purtell's Buildings, West Perth, $4,800 to prepare a conservation plan.
• Throssell House, Perth, $3,500 to prepare a conservation plan for the former residence of a WA Premier.

• Hasell's Cottage (ruin), $5,200 to prepare a conservation plan to the four-room cottage with a cellar built in 1854 and one of four remaining structures of the original Toodyay township.

• Butterick Building, Wagin, $7,000 to prepare a conservation plan.
• Moran's Wagin Hotel, $53,000 to replace the verandah floor and other work to the hotel that has been used by generations of locals, tourists and commercial travellers who have socialised there since the first hotel was built on the site in 1881.

• Walebing, Moora, $25,000 to replace the roof of the 1851 Walebing Cottage, which is important to the local rural community because of the long-standing use and occupation by the same family and their various family branches in the area. The present owners are descendants of the original settlers.

• Levi Wallis' Cottage, Walliston, $20,000 to make the stable safe and other conservation work to the place which has the development of the orchard industry in the Kalamunda region and demonstrates a way of life associated with settlement in Walliston c1915.

• Old York Hospital, $50,000 for roofing repairs to the c1850s hospital which is part of a heritage precinct and tourist destination. Old York Hospital has been used to provide low-cost accommodation for schools and special interest groups.
• Korrawilla, Greenhills, $33,000 to conserve the farmhouse and stables which show the substantial agricultural settlement in the relatively remote pastoral area east of York in the 1860s.

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