Sacrifice of heritage--a Perth tradition
Reflections by Brian Jenkins
for 'Waltzing Moderne', journal of the Art Deco Society of WA, July 2000The gold rushes of the 1890s fuelled stylish development of commercial and public architecture in Perth and Fremantle--structures which remained largely intact until the 1970s, when high-rise developers and speculators began the replacement of many beautiful buildings, such as the Hotel Esplanade.
So there is nothing new about the familiar partnership which has evolved between State government and favoured developers, a theme which continues to outrage heritage-conscious citizens and against which there has been found to be no protection in changes of government.
Not all progress has been bad news. A significant profit-rush was seen in the period between the wars, based on the automobile trade and on the new entertainment technologies of radio and the movies.
This was when the Art Deco hotels, cinemas and picture gardens sprang up in Perth and bigger country towns. The rapacious Kalgoorlie gold entrepreneur Claude de Bernales is remembered as the developer of the Piccadilly arcade and cinema.
Almost forgotten is the annihilation of Perth's formerly thriving live theatre industry. The 1927 Western Australian Post Office Directory lists 23 entries under 'Theatres'. In the 1947 edition, there appears instead a direction 'See Picture Theatres', under which there are 109 listings.
There seem to have been few controversial demolitions during this exciting period, though many actors and musicians were obliged to find new employment.
Discovery of petroleum and iron resources in the 50s and 60s triggered a real estate 'gold rush' which resulted in the replacement of most of the earlier built heritage of St George's Terrace by the present wind tunnel of concrete, steel and glass monoliths. This frenzy continued into the late 1980s and was halted only by the bankruptcies of fraudulent entrepreneurs and the discrediting of their 'WA Inc' government collaborators.
Resulting from the destruction of the Esplanade Hotel, the old Barracks and many other treasures, there was public pressure for heritage legislation. This was at first fobbed off by the establishment of a token Heritage Committee with an impotent advisory function. Some positions on this were given to estate agents and developers.
In 1985, heyday of the notorious 'WA Inc' developments, several important heritage buildings including the Palace Hotel were targeted for destruction, arousing vehement public anger and protest when it was realised that there was a patently unsavoury relationship between government and certain favoured developers.
A protest group known as the Castle Keepers insisted on meeting with the Heritage Committee and found on it the representatives of several interests which had plotted the demolition of the 1910 Technical School building on St George's Terrace. One was an eminent estate agent who had assured the Perth City Council that the Heritage Committee would not oppose the demolition. Another was a senior officer of the National Trust who had promised the Trust's complicity in return for guarantees of property and a substantial public works programme. However, such was the tide of public opinion that the Government ignored the Committee's recommendation and allowed the building to remain unscathed.
Legislative changes have taken place to improve the integrity of the Heritage Committee but the fact remains that its recommendations have no real force and are regularly ignored or overturned by the State Government.
We are now in the midst of a new 'gold rush' based on suburban sprawl and our subservience to petroleum-powered motor vehicles. This has resulted in the compulsive road building which overrides all other planning considerations, producing the current freeway and traffic tunnel programme costing a billion dollars.
It recalls the jubilation of oil company executives two decades ago when Sir Charles Court's government closed the Perth-Fremantle passenger railway, an action which required a change of government to be reversed.
In so-called free-enterprise economies, the availability of government largesse invites a seamy relationship between large contractors, bankers and the government controllers of public policy and funds. The dealings are kept at arm's length by the appointment to advisory positions of mutually agreeable interested parties who may be ex-politicians or professionals in real estate or planning.
The fact remains that the preservation of built heritage continues to be at the whim of ministers who continually ignore the advice of their own expert advisers and community demands for more transparent treatment of the issues.