EAST FREMANTLE is reviewing its local heritage list, as it faces the all-but certain likelihood it will soon cease to exist as a municipality.

The town council is keen to review its municipal heritage inventory and create a town planning scheme heritage list ahead of amalgamation with Fremantle.

The list will guide planning and development in the town both before and—the council hopes—after amalgamation.

Councillor Cliff Collinson’s house in King Street was built in 1910 and is on the list already. He says the mix of old and new is what makes East Fremantle so special and it’s important to preserve history, even if it’s not of statewide heritage significance.

“I don’t think the list will change too much,” Cr Collinson told the Herald.

“My house is a category A house so I am not worried about it, it becomes borderline with the B and C categories.

“Personally I would like to save all the categories, I think Cs are still part of our heritage too, but unfortunately we are losing them under the current system.”

A member of the council planning committee, he says applications still come in for the demolition of turn-of-the-20th-century weatherboard workers’ cottages.

“To me these are the ones I feel most upset about losing,” he says. “If we update everything and get the lists upgraded there is much more protection against people who want to demolish.”

Town mayor Jim O’Neill says the lists help the council decide what’s most important. All owners of properties on the lists, or proposed to be on them, will be advised.

by CLARE KENYON