DERELICT police quarters on Queen Victoria Street are a “disgrace” according to North Fremantle residents campaigning for their restoration. 

The 1898-built quarters had been held under the Department of Communities but were transferred to Lands, Planning and Heritage “recently”, according to North Fremantle Community Association convenor Gerry MacGill. 

Mr MacGill says the quarters are an “important” symbol of the “streetscape of our original town”, which was cleared in 1966 for highway widening to service the expanded port. 

“These quarters are a precious remnant of the container port’s expansion, when the wharves were created by moving the rail line and bridge east, then John Street and Tydeman Road re-routed north as a double carriageway, wiping out 300 homes, a substantial railway station and land, and half the thriving North Fremantle town centre,” Mr MacGill said. 

• The old police quarters in North Fremantle have been crudely boarded up. Photo courtesy North Fremantle Community Association

Remnant

“A coherent community that existed both sides of the rail line and south of Tydeman Road disappeared, along with many businesses, churches, beautiful buildings, and some of the most historic sites in the suburb. 

“Their conservation, restoration, and return to use as a valued element in the streetscape of the North Fremantle Town Centre is absolutely essential.”

In a letter to the Association this week, Mr MacGill says the quarters have been “virtually abandoned” by the government and Heritage Council, given its vacant and derelict state. 

“They have fallen into a state of total disrepair and are now crudely boarded up with plywood sheets and corrugated iron to prevent the intrusion by the squatters who have been their sole inhabitants for decades,” Mr MacGill said. 

“They are a disgrace to the government that owns them and to the Heritage Council which has a duty to protect them.” 

The Chook spoke to a Department of Housing and Works spokesperson who says the Quarters are set to be sold into private ownership. 

“The Department of Housing and Works is currently in the process of listing 213, 215, and 217 Queen Victoria Street, North Fremantle, the Police Quarters, on the market for sale,” the spokesperson said. 

“They will be sold with heritage agreements in place as well as being subject to a heritage conservation management plan. 

“Due to their age, these properties are unsuitable for use as social housing.” 

Mr MacGill reckons the government “didn’t have any money” to restore the quarters hence why they are being sold, which he says is cause for concern. 

“They’re going to put them up on the market in their present condition, so our worry is this isn’t a good way to deal with it,” Mr MacGill said. 

“You don’t want to [be] putting them out for the highest bidder, it has to be a carefully managed process. 

“There’ll be a legally binding heritage agreement to go with it, but we want to see [it] managed properly.”

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER