FREMANTLE’S West End is a step closer to being added to the state’s heritage register.
The State Heritage Office sent letters to 400 landowners and tenants this week saying it intended to list the area bounded by Market and Collie streets, Marine Terrace and a line roughly following the railway tracks from Bather’s Beach back to the train station.
SHO executive officer Graeme Gammie told the Herald listing strengthens the precinct’s heritage protection as development assessment panels must abide by heritage council recommendations (DAPs, which have the authority to approve major developments, can ignore the advice of local councils like Fremantle).
Mr Gammie says the West End stretches across 200,000sqm and includes 250 buildings, making it the largest-ever addition to the state register, and notes it is long-overdue.
“It’s a no-brainer,” he says. “The West End has such an important story to tell about the state’s early history and development, and displays the exuberance of the gold boom era when Fremantle was a thriving port town.”
• Fremantle mayor Brad Pettitt and WA heritage council executive officer Graeme Gammie say listing the West End is a long overdue no-brainer. Photo by Steve Grant
Mr Gammie says the main benefits of listing are statewide recognition of the West End’s cultural significance, access to grants and a business advantage for proprietors savvy enough to research their building, rustle up a story about a ghost and talk up their heritage cred.
Fremantle council recommended the listing and mayor Brad Pettitt says it will build on the vibe that’s developed along High Street. “I think the West End is the most vibrant and dynamic precincts in the city,” he told the Herald.
With negotiations firming for Notre Dame to re-open many of its High Street buildings’ ground floors to retailers, the mayor reckons the West End’s future is bright. “Inclusion on the state heritage register would not only provide the recognition the area deserves, it can also help unlock further potential for economic growth in a place that was the epicentre for commerce for much of Fremantle’s history.”
The mayor says businesses such as the National Hotel and Bread in Common demonstrate how sensitive adaptations can offer a business edge.
But the Fremantle Society is unhappy the council ignored the recommendation of its own West End committee to include Kings Square, the Fremantle Prison and the train station in the listing.
“Fremantle council have chopped that area in half and put at risk the future of what is Fremantle’s greatest economic asset — it’s heritage,” society president John Dowson told the Herald. The society resolved at a meeting Tuesday night to ask the SHO to review the process.
“While heritage listing shows the importance of a place, it matters little if the State Heritage Office are weak and do not support the heritage values ascribed,” says Mr Dowson, an award-winning historian-author and former deputy mayor. “State Heritage Office weakness was shown when they approved the overscaled ING proposal for Victoria Quay, despite the area being listed by them as a heritage precinct since 1999.”
Mr Gammie says the heritage council conducted its own inquiry into the West End listing, and came up with the same boundaries as Freo.
He says owners’ consent will be vital to convince WA heritage minister Albert Jacob to approve the listing. If all goes to plan the West End could be listed by August.
by STEVE GRANT
