Language of the Flowers

Executive Producer
Douglas Burton

Writer Director
Don Shepherd

Narrator
Vincent Price

Photographed by
Michael Baker
Richard Malins
Kipling Baker
Douglas Burton

Editor
Alan Cox

A TVW Enterprises
and
Shepherd Baker Studios

co-production copyright 1981

    Douglas Joseph Burton and James Winter Cruthers started their newspaper careers within five years of each other and worked together at the Daily News.

    Later their six weeks together covering the British Monte Bellos Atom bomb in 1952 led to a lasting relationship based on professional respect, flies, heat, beer, dust and deprivation of life’s normal little luxuries. They were in the Pilbara while their team waited patiently or indeed impatiently for the bomb to blast Britain into the planet’s nuclear club. They were good mates in the true Australian way and their special relationship lasted for more than 60 years.

    Now we fast forward to the eighties. Robert Holmes a Court as a one man raiding team was stalking Australian businesses, only the big and successful. He wanted TVW, BHP et al. His launch pad was a relatively insignificant WA minnow, Albany Woollen Mills.

Jim Cruthers was now under immense pressure from Holmes a Court.

    Doug had left WAN after his stellar career and worked at TVW courtesy of an offer from his mate Jim.

    Doug always had a particular love for everything about WA. Many times he used his artistic skills to photograph outback scenes with the skills of some of our nation’s great artists. If anyone needed a lesson on composition then see DJB, his door was always open.

    He had a particular love for the Pilbara and the Kimberley. He particularly loved our wonderful wildflowers from carpets of great colour in the pastoral areas and on to the Pilbara where the landscape, so baked and with its own rugged beauty springs into life again after a cyclonic drenching or even just modest seasonal rain.

    He decided he wanted to make a program for TVW on wildflowers and Jim agreed.

    One day the phone rang and Doug invited Don Shepherd (my then partner) and I to come to the station to have a chat on a project. The “chat” was a working lunch in the boardroom with Jim Cruthers and the deal was done. Thus DJB became Executive Producer of the project, JWC the paymaster and Language of the Flowers was in gestation.

    We needed a ‘coat hanger’ for the program. Don Shepherd researched and found it. A Professor of Biology at The University of Akron in Ohio, Warren Stoutamire also a lover of WA wildflowers researched and wrote scientific papers as well as making many field trips to WA to study….wait for it for “the Pseudocopulation of the Thynnid Wasp with West Australian Orchids”

    For those evolutionists or even the creationists what this actually meant was that a particular WA orchid, the Hammer Orchid had fashioned itself into the spitting image of a female Thynnid wasp. Even weirder was that the new male wasps hatched and started looking for mates before the wingless females hatched. As well there are other orchids using this form of deception.

    The female Thynnid Wasps climb to the top of a single green grass stick and wait for a passing male to swoop, grab them and fly away, mating on the wing and then I assume drop them where the result hopefully is not too much brain damage as the ladies hit the ground.

    But here’s the really weird and super smart part. The orchids have evolved to hijack the male wasps for their own ends. They also sit on top of a single green strand and emit the very same sexual pheromones used by the wasps. Weird?

    The male wasp, attracted by these pheromones, crash lands* into the orchid which has a hinge just under the flower catapulting the unsuspecting male into a large pollen mass, dislodging it at the same time. The male wasp probably thinks “boy that was really good, let’s go again” and armed with a large pollen mass on its head looks for more sex, visiting other orchids, repeatedly crash landing.* Here we have a clear case of a flower hijacking an insect for its own reproductive ends and the male wasp has his way with multiple couplings. It’s the perfect case of a win win.

*crash lands-landing (v): Oxford Dictionary: remarkably similar to WAN photographer Phil Martin’s Dambuster landings in Allied Lancasters as well as several other aircraft during WW2 which were efficiently destroyed (as a consequence of damage caused by enemy fire). Martin always claimed he should have been awarded a German Iron Cross because he wrote off so many Allied aircraft. He once asked his Dambuster Commanding Officer for permission to contact the German High Command to claim his Iron Cross. Permission was refused.

`

    So far so good, now for the filming and of course we needed an internationally known voice so that TVW could on-market the film and recover some production costs. Another ‘win win’.

    At this time some former Hollywood heavyweights had passed their use-by dates and were waiting for the phone to ring but it rarely did. These included stars like James Mason and many others

    The ‘coat hanger’ was a bit spooky and Don came up with Vincent Price as the preferred voice. He negotiated and voila, Vincent agreed to do it at a very modest price! (sorry).

Don then fine-tuned his already good script for Vincent’s voice.

What was absolutely vital to the success of the documentary was to capture on film the “the Pseudocopulation of the Thynnid Wasp with West Australian Orchids”.

    Don organised this and well-known cameramen, Richard Malins ACS and my son Kipling, using the then top of the range equipment. Today, even cave men don’t use it as we are well into the digital age where automation abounds.

They succeeded in spectacular fashion.

    Then we needed wallpaper footage of the world renowned WA wildflowers so Doug called me when we knew the Pilbara was ablaze with colour. We organised a field trip. Arriving at the airport there was Doug and Jim Cruthers.

    Doug, caring for his pal had convinced Jim to take a pause, smell the flowers in the Pilbara landscape. Meanwhile, Lone Ranger Robert stalked Australia’s corporate landscape.

    We flew to Newman where a Landcruiser was waiting and within less than half an hour we were surrounded by a lovely landscape of wildflowers.

    We based ourselves at the Wittenoom pub which provided a picnic lunch complete with a bottle of wine and a few cans of beer (the wine and beer were good the lunch was just OK… fine…hey we were in Wittenoom).

    After an enjoyable morning photographing and looking at the flowers the rules were simple:

Lunch, choose a dry creek under the whitegums, have lunch, a drink and then Jim would just lie down in the creek bed and have an hour nap. This agenda, set by Jim was absolutely not negotiable.

    In the evening we would meet in the front bar of the pub for a pre-dinner drink. One night I was a bit late and Doug and Jim were onto their second beer.

    In those days it was trendy but also convenient for some of us to use a handbag to hold wallet, credit cards and any other small items. As I entered the front bar of the pub, replete with my handbag all eyes fell upon me and there was a distinct audio pause. Quickly assessing the situation, outback front bar, cowboys and other typical outback types, three reasonably well dressed city slickers, one very suspect because of the handbag, I strode confidently towards DJB and JWC proclaiming in a loud voice “Jim I have found your lost handbag” placing it on the bar in front of him. Achievement, all eyes previously on me now swung to Jim.

    Next for me was a field trip with the Professor to the pastoral areas North East of Mullewa so the Professor could investigate the northern range of his sexually charged insects.

    The station owner, dressed as you would expect in moleskins, khaki shirt and a bushman’s felt hat and Blundstone boots escorted us to the wildflower areas on his station. As Professor Stoutamire, on his haunches, butterfly net in hand closely examined some specimens with a magnifying glass the station owner asked me “what’s he doing” to which I replied with a bit of a tease “he’s looking for a wasp having sex with a flower”.

“HE’S EXPLETIVE WHAT?” Again the tease as I repeated my previous line.

“You mean he’s come all the way from America for that, WHAT’S WRONG WITH HIM? He needs serious expletive help” he yelled.

    Back in Perth it was now Post Production time where all the ingredients are melded together and Language of the Flowers was born.

    TVW promoted it as a “special broadcast” aired it on a number of occasions and on sold it for international audiences.

    Production methods and values today are much more sophisticated but remember this was 35 years ago and we were all pleased with what we had achieved.

    Summing up, a good idea from DJB, approved and funded by JWC/TVW, a well made professional television special, a little time out for Jim Cruthers, a win for all involved.

    Footnote1: My first job at WAN was an office boy for Mr Cruthers (as he was then) who had just been appointed Magazines Editor of WAN. His office was in close proximity to the west photographic department which I visited probably too often ignoring some of my office boy responsibilities. My father Bill Baker was a journalist and an editor of the Countryman and I think would have liked me to follow him into journalism. I chose photography and constantly harassed Doug for a cadetship. Once he said “for goodness sake stop nagging me”. A few days later he called me into his office and told me that Mr Macartney had granted me a cadetship which could prove that maybe nagging works a treat!

    Footnote 2: Generally as a news photographer you photograph an event. You don’t compose it. Sometimes however you have an opportunity to compose and then be published. Later in my cadetship I became fixated with a picture composed and taken by Doug in his beloved Pilbara and subsequently published. It demanded publishing.

    It was quintessentially Australian, a creek bed, white trunked eucalypts on either side of the creek. Drovers gently moving their cattle over the dry creek bed. It was an artist or photographers dream composition. Doug had set his easel up in the most perfect place. I asked him how he knew, who taught him this? He thought for am moment and said firstly “I don’t really know, maybe it’s instinctive or it could be a gift” and then graciously added “you have this gift too” Later in my career as a movie cameraman DOP and Director I realised that the gift of composition had been graciously passed on to me. I must add that a WAN journalist turned photographer, the understated Reg Morrison’s feel for the Australian landscape is extraordinary. Doug recognised this and Reg was despatched many times, teamed with another photographer to the North of the state on roving assignments, pictures, captions and stories. I have studied many Australian landscape photographers work and I firmly believe that Reg’s work is absolutely at the forefront of Australia’s landscape photographic artists. As Doug said “you have the gift.” Reg certainly has this indefinable and mysterious gift. His work can be seen on his web site. It’s really extraordinary. http://regmorrison.edublogs.org/

In 1980, the TVW Enterprises net operating profit for the year increased 8.1% to $4,600,000 and they paid a dividend of 30%. But this outstanding success story had attracted the attention of corporate raiders Robert Holmes à Court and Alan Bond.

Sir James Cruthers retired as Chairman and Managing Director of TVW Enterprises in 1981 and Robert Holmes à Court became chairman. The same year President Reagan was shot, a dingo took Lindy Chamberlain’s baby, the ill fated Diana Spencer married Prince Charles and the now retired space shuttle was launched.

Shortly after the Holmes à Court takeover most of the senior executives of TVW started leaving: Howard Shephard (1981), Joseph Sweeney (1981), Max Bostock (1982), Bill McKenzie (1982), Russel Perry (1983), J Barrey Williams (1983), Alf Binks (1983), Ken Kemp (1983), Marion Leyer (1985), and Bob Page (1985).

Sir James with his most capable band of executives and hard working and enthusiastic staff built the company up from scratch to be much diversified and cash rich, with fingers in many pies. Arena and local television productions, live theatre, movie making, a radio network, a lion park, a hard top and drive-in cinema chain, SAS Adelaide, and much more as TVW Enterprises.

There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears invested in the station by the pioneers in the industry which created a bond between not only the workers, but also management. For many staff sacrifices were made in the early days to get the station operational and financially viable. In fact the board considered handing back the licence in the first four months owing to the losses being generated. Many key employees worked extraordinary long hours, sacrificing family life and in some cases marriages to establish the company.

Much changed with the takeover when TVW Enterprises no longer remained a public company. The focus was now on finding other uses for the assets.

The Origins of the Whitfords Broadcasting Network

by ‘Gus Slater

    Thanks to scribes Stan Gervas and Harry Atkinson, coupled with the folk-lore imparted by other contemporary Whitford employees who contributed to my incubation in the broadcasting industry, we have a fairly comprehensive picture, particularly, of Frank Poppa Whitford and his entry into the entertainment-business. We know that Frank and his brother Archer Whitford were entrepreneurial Kalgoorlie boys whose first venture was the short-term hiring of cushions to patrons at the Kalgoorlie outdoor picture-show. That connection with the entertainment industry developed into a business that manufactured the magic-lantern slides for cinema, sold advertising, and eventually led to the Whitford’s involvement in broadcasting.

    I started work as a control-room operator with the Whitford Network at the Radio 6PM studios in St. George’s House, 115 St Georges Terrace Perth in December 1963. I had been spending as much school-holiday time as possible there since 1957.

    By the time I had qualified as a licensed technician and left radio to branch into television towards the end of 1967, I had been subtly indoctrinated with the folklore of that establishment. It was Poppa who, at that time, well into his dotage, personally unlocked the door to my career in broadcasting when he told me; “Go out there, get your TV ticket and, when you’re ready, come back to us”. As it transpired, Mister Whitford sold 6PM to the Packer Empire before I was ready to come back but I will always be grateful to Poppa, Chief Engineer Arthur Taylor and their contemporaries for giving me the opportunity to learn, and to practise the craft that I lived for.

    When I started at 6PM, I became aware that the studios in the basement of Saint George’s House had already undergone several reincarnations. Station legend had it that the Traffic-office that had originally looked into the then record-library through a large, fixed window, had been part of the first Whitford’s Saint George’s House studios. The adjacent tea-room was also rumoured to have been part of that set-up and veterans recounted how the evening announcer was sometimes required to shuttle from one room to the other to provide continuity for separate programs running on 6PM and 6AM.

    By 1957, the station comprised two presentation suites and a concert studio arranged along the rear wall of the building and separated by a control room. All the rooms had long windows that enabled all occupants to see one another. A third presentation suite, out of sight of the control-room, served as a spare in case of breakdowns. It later became the News presentation studio.

    In 1963, 6PM-AM was still broadcasting community-singing every week-day afternoon at one o’clock with a live studio audience. We were still using a commercial magic-lantern to project the lyrics of the songs from the control-room onto a large screen at the far end of the concert-studio. Many of those magic-lantern slides, about one hundred millimetres square and made of two glass plates each about four millimetres thick sandwiching a sheet of cellulose were elaborately decorated. I think it was my Mentor John Stevenson who told me that the illustrated slides were a product of Whitford’s theatre-slide company and that there had been several graphics-artists employed by that operation in its heyday. Legend had it that they worked from premises in William Street, Perth, south of St. Georges Terrace and that the original Whitford’s Broadcasting operation had begun at that William Street site but nobody knew precisely where that was.

    Postal Records, contemporary newspapers and other information at Perth’s Battye Library allows us to form a more complete picture of the beginnings of the network. Whitfords first gained the licence to operate what was then called a B-Class Station at Northam in Western Australia. At that time, the new Whitford Company, Northam Broadcasters Limited had the registered address, 23 William Street Perth. The Postal records of the time identify that as this building, Prince’s Chambers on the western side of William Street just south of the corner of St Georges Terrace. The Elder’s building immediately to its north, stood on the south western corner of William Street and St Georges Terrace.

The ground floor tenants at Prince’s Chambers in 1935 were;  

• Metropolitan Land and Investment Company Limited, agents and accountants.
• Whitfords Limited Estate Agents
• Whitford and Company F. Estate Agents.
• Whitfords Theatre Ads Company Limited, and
• Northam Broadcasters Limited (6AM)

    Pages 4 and 5 of The West Australian newspaper on Thursday 31st of May 1934 contain a feature pointing to the imminent opening of 6AM the following day.

    From that feature, we learn that 6AM operated from studios at Prince’s Chambers and fed its program by “special land-lines” to the transmitter at Reservoir Hill, four miles from the Northam Post Office, (its location to this day) and about a hundred kilometres from Perth. A five hundred Watt (“powerful”) transmitter fed a long-wire antenna suspended between free-standing towers. The founding engineer for 6AM was Wally Coxon who, by then was well established as the most experienced wireless-engineer in Western Australia.

    Postal records also tell us that later, as a consultant, Wally Coxon had his office at the AMP building a little further up William Street on the north western corner of St Georges Terrace.

    The 6AM feature in The West Australian also provides us with some interesting information about staff and facilities. Ned Taylor, a well known funny-man and former 6ML personality became the Breezy-Bird breakfast announcer and Joan Good, shown here “at the announcers’ table” was recruited as the Women’s Session hostess for 6AM’s afternoon offerings.

    The below picture shows Wally Coxon officially handing over the 6AM transmitting station to Frank Whitford. The press reported that 6AM was heard loud and clear throughout the Avon Valley and well down into the Great Southern districts during its pre- opening testing.

    Legend within the network in the sixties held that the call-sign 6AM was chosen because the station was able to be heard in major markets in the mornings. Indeed, it was said that the transmitting antenna was designed and had been oriented to provide a very serviceable signal into the Perth metropolitan area where it was able to compete with WA Broadcaster’s 6IX and Musgroves Limited’s 6ML, and 6PR which was operated by the other prominent Perth music store Nicholsons Limited.

    Others held that the AM in 6AM was chosen because it represented the last two letters of Northam, the major centre in the station’s immediate service area. In fact, prior to the commencement of government-regulated broadcasting, a number of amateur radio operators had been conducting entertainment programs over the air in various parts of Australia. The amateurs were so prolific in some areas that arrangements had to be made for them to time-share the broadcasting channels. One such amateur was a Mister W. H. Willis who operated a station with the call-sign 6AM from Fremantle. It seems that Mister Willis, following in the footsteps of enthusiasts in the United States probably included the letters AM in his call-sign to signify that his transmitter used Amplitude Modulation. I can quite imagine the use of such terminology being part of walking the walk and talking the talk among the early wireless enthusiasts. Somehow, Northam Broadcasters Limited came to an arrangement in which Mister Willis “generously handed over his call-sign” hoping that 6AM Northam would be “as great in its commercial sphere as the AM station in America, which (was) recognised as the greatest amateur station in the world”.

    By 1936, Whitfords had gained a licence for a metropolitan B-class station. B-class stations were so designated because they relied on commercial advertising and subscriptions for their revenue. The so called A-Class stations were responsible for carrying the national radio services and were funded by listener-licence fees.

    Whitford’s Chief Engineer Fred Tredrea was sent to Sydney to investigate the purchase of “high fidelity” equipment for the new station that was ostensibly to serve Fremantle and areas to its south. Radio 6PM opened on the twenty second of April 1937. Its 100 Watt transmitter was located on high ground at the corner of Marmion Street and McKimmie Road in what is now the Perth suburb of Palmyra. Apparently coincidentally, Northam Broadcasters Limited moved its studio operation to Saint George’s House. Although there was mention in the press of a 6PM studio at Fremantle, it is clear that the majority of Whitford’s programming for 6PM and 6AM originated from 115 St Georges Terrace. The press at the time reported that the new station, 6PM could be heard as far south as Albany.

    By 1938, 6KG Kalgoorlie, which had been operated by Goldfields Broadcasters Limited since 1933, had moved its transmitters to Parkeston, about three kilometres east of Kalgoorlie and increased its power to 500 Watts. It had been the advent of 6KG that had inspired the Whitford brothers and brought about their realization that there was money to be made by selling advertising space on the wireless. In 1938, Frank Whitford returned to Kalgoorlie to buy 6KG. Late in 1940, Whitfords extended their radio network further by assuming control of the struggling 6GE Geraldton, owned by Great Northern Broadcasters.

    In November 1940, 6PM’s transmission facility was relocated to Coffee Point at Applecross and its power was increased to 500 Watts. A press advertisement in The Sunday Times on the tenth of November 1940 invites listeners to tune in on Friday nights for a quiz show called The Relax (soap) Kuckoo Kourt. That advertisement concludes: “Have you heard the new 6PM? You must have noticed the difference in the clarity of reception and tone during the last fortnight. The new transmitter at Coffee Point is a grand step forward”.

    During my tenure at 6PM and at the transmitting station at Northam, 6AM relayed 6PM’s programs via landline from Perth for the majority of the broadcasting day. From nine until nine thirty in the morning, from noon until one, and in the evenings between six thirty and seven, special sessions exclusively for Northam Traders and Agencies emanated from the second studio at St Georges Terrace. No doubt special advertising rates were offered during these Northam-splits to maximise the network’s revenue. The cost of relaying program to Kalgoorlie and Geraldton by landline did not fit the business plans for 6KG and 6GE as efficiently as self-contained, local operations. 6KG and 6GE were operated as separate entities and provided a training ground for most of the 6PM/AM announcers but the stations remained part of the Whitford Network, able to be linked together for special events, and they were effectively administered from Saint George’s House.

    The Whitford Network as I knew it was eventually dissolved when Poppa sold 6PM, 6AM, 6KG and 6GE to Frank Packer’s Consolidated Broadcasting System in July 1969.

‘Gus Slater
Perth – January 2013.

Gus Slater is a former Director of Engineering and Technical Operations for Channel 9 in Perth and former Chairman of Directors of Perth Translator Facility Pty Ltd (a joint venture company owned by TVW7, NEW10 and STW9). Gus is a consultant to the broadcasting industry, specialising in sound. The Australian broadcasting industry presented Gus with The Paul Marlan Award for his chairmanship of the industry study group investigating audio-loudness in 2006.

Further reading…

• Whitfords Broadcasting Network
• The Development of Wireless Technology in Australia
• Radio 6PM Reunion
• Radio 6PM Reunion – Video and Photos
• Vale Stan Gervas
• Lloyd Lawson Tribute
• Tribute to Errol Battersby (aka Jim Beam)
• David Farr – TV Pioneer (Career Notes & Press Reports)
• Jeff Newman
• John K. Watts – the “Know All” who became a legend
• Dennis Cometti – One of a kind…
• WA History: from Telegram to TV – Part 3 of 5
• WA History: from Telegram to TV – Part 5 of 5
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 4
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 5
• A time when Ugly Men worked for Charity

• 
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage – Part 1 of 7

Our indigenous brethren relied an oral history, for they had no written language. Yet stories from the Dreamtime can still be recalled today, at least 40 to 60 thousand years after the first native inhabitants populated the land.

One wonders how much the average person living here today of Caucasian origin can recall of their history without reference to a text book?

In Europe, the monuments and buildings chart the happenings of that continent, even though they have been ravaged by wars, the great fire of London and modern day progress.

They have great palaces, cathedrals, bridges, monuments and museums that remain and predate the settlement of our Swan River Colony.

In contrast, much of Perth has changed since the 1960s, with many of the grand buildings and theatres lost to the wreckers ball.

Almost entire streets in Perth have been demolished, with only historic photos left to bear witness.

Nothing was sacred, including the grand buildings built during the gold rush period. Only a handful of St. Georges Terrace buildings have survived, as most of the central business district was decimated. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 could not have done better. Matters of colonial consequence, such as the Pensioner Barracks built in 1863, to our most splendid theatres were lost. Fortunately the Edwardian period His Majesty’s Theatre and the convict built Perth Town Hall escaped, though they were earmarked at one point. The state government saved the theatre in 1977 and public protest saved the Town Hall in 1924. Both decisions were tempered by the mood of the public at the time. Protests are often essential to make things happen, as relying on elected representatives carries no certainty.

Even the historic significance of the Esplanade is lost on the youth, who seem happy for heritage listed sites to be pulled down and ripped up, with ownership of public land vested in perpetuity for the people… then transferred to private hands in the name of progress. The government of the day can in effect undo anything they wish. Heritage listing is irrelevant when using the Esplanade as an example.

Its interesting to dwell on the factors that cause this to be….

    The world is forever in a state of transition, not only with evolving technology but also fashions and the attitudes of people.

    Language, customs and behaviour are continually changing with each generation. From simple things like music as popular tastes moved from Bing Crosby to Johnny Ray to Elvis Presley to the Beatles and so forth.

    School children are now taking ‘Selfies’ of their private parts with their ‘Smartphones’, which then inadvertently become public courtesy of the ‘Internet’.

    Things that were impossible yesteryear are now becoming common. The values of society also change, some for the better and others for the worst. Political correctness often annoys old-times who think society is going soft, particularly when leniency is demanded for serious crimes whilst the victim seems to be overlooked in favour of the perpetrator. Hanging and the birch are long gone in our society, for under an old law a rapist was hung. No doubt this would have saved other victims from repeat offenders. It would have prevented the rape and murder of ABC Radio producer Jill Meagher in 2012, a much loved and wonderful young woman. A crime committed by a perpetrator with a known history of rape and violence. Then the Australian human headline, Derryn Hinch, served a fifty-day prison sentence for breaching a court order for attempting to reveal the extensive record of prior rapes and other violent offences of the accused.

    Though all that is old is not always good, old timers often have warm feelings for nostalgic elements of their past. Mementoes of an earlier era that triggers fond memories of a time when things were simpler, or of moments that were comforting. But as they say, “A person does not really die until the last person who remembers them is gone”. Though books, photographs, sound recordings and moving pictures can convey a glimpse of previous lives. In the same way an era can be conveyed by the artefacts that belonged to that time. The everyday items that were part of that life, items which otherwise change in design or totally disappear with time. That is unless someone has the presence of mind to keep them as a souvenir, as a reminder of a person, place or event.

    Sadly, such souvenirs are not always valued by younger generations and are often discarded for no longer being useful or desired.

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage

• Part 1 of 7
• Part 2 of 7
• Part 3 of 7
• Part 4 of 7
• Part 5 of 7
• Part 6 of 7
• Part 7 of 7

Related topics…

• Keeping our Heritage
• Media City Proposal for former ABC Site
• New Age Museums can dramatically boost tourism
• Demolition of ABW Channel 2 Studios in Perth WA
• AMMPT preserving our broadcasting heritage
• Finding a new home for TV stations and memorabilia
• Saving our Cinema and Television Heritage
• Early History of the Moving Image
• Preservation of our Television Heritage
• AMMPT’s “50 years of television broadcasting in Western Australia” exhibition at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth

• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 1
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 2
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 3
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 4
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 5
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 6

Wireless Hill Future – in six parts

• Wireless Hill Future – Part 1 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 2 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 3 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 4 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 5 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 6 of 6

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage – Part 2 of 7

One very popular museum that deals with the sciences more than history is Scitech.

Meanwhile Parts 3, 4 and 6 will show, that a number of museums with history themes have received a raw deal. The former Telecommunication Museum, the Fremantle Motor Museum, the Fremantle History Museum, the Light and Sound Discovery Centre at Fremantle, Western Power’s World of Energy museum at Fremantle and the Hall Museum collection at Guildford.

So instead of finding a museum that deals with communications and broadcasting under the same roof, one now needs to look further afield to find these exhibits. Fortunately, the Australian Museum of Motion Picture and Television (AMMPT) and a number of other groups came to the rescue of key Wireless Hill artefacts, when that museum charted a different course.

The enthusiast driven museums, such as the RAAFA Aircraft Museum, the Military Museum, and various rural based and private collections are now doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

AMMPT and the members have had great success collecting cinema and television artefacts, but until more recently they’ve been handicapped by a lack of a permanent home.

    Attitudes have changed with regard to Museums. There are now notions that a museum must be a living space, rather that be a simple building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited. A space of adventure where visitors can handle items, see how they work and leave with a sense of experience. Places such as Scitech, the not-for-profit organisation that operates the Scitech Discovery Centre, a permanent interactive science museum, and Horizon, a planetarium, both located in West Perth, Western Australia.

    Scitech’s funding is based upon a blend between State funding (60%), admissions revenue (15%), sponsorship and partnership (18%) and commercial returns (7%).

Basic Admission costs

Adults: $17
Children (4-15 years): $11
Children (3 years and under): FREE

    It is anticipated that the present Scitech and Horizon Planetarium will be demolished when the facility is given a new home. This is expected to take place under one of Premier Barnett’s election promises, where we see Scitech move to Burswood in 2018, for a cost of $15 million.

    The proposed Burswood site is alongside the new Perth Stadium, and at 9,500 square metres, its nearly twice the current size of Scitech’s 5,046 square metre West Perth headquarters. Established in 1988, Scitech is more a science centre for learning with interactive exhibitions, aimed at the youth, than a museum in the old sense. The facility concentrates on increasing technology, engineering, astronomy and mathematics awareness. The exhibits cleverly teach the children about magnets, gravity, electricity, water and other science concepts without them even realising it. Hundreds of thousands of Western Australians visit Scitech each year.

    Elsewhere there are cases of curators of a younger generation, who have ideas about museums that differ from those who lived an era. This relates to story telling and the different perceptions of what is important when it comes to the scope of a subject and the employment of artefacts to convey a topic and its time period. This seems to be the case with the Wireless Hill Museum. For they have decided to no longer maintain the ‘Telecommunications’ theme, but tell the smaller story of the site, which unfortunately has limited surviving relics, other than the buildings. They will now concentrate more on the flora, fauna and indigenous history. Expensive audio visual techniques will be employed to convey the history.

    Old-timers fear that the wider story of broadcasting and communications is being neglected so that more esoteric and politically correct matters can be emphasised. Its now an area that caters more for bird watchers, bush walkers and the customs of the district before white settlement. They are keeping very little of the vast collection of broadcasting and communications gear… and it seems those stories will be avoided if they are not directly connected to the buildings on the site. Should this be the case, then its as if the larger history of radio and television is not important.

    The Telecommunications Museum had earlier fallen into neglect with no rotation of exhibits. Many of the items remained hidden, as there was insufficient room to display them. Then the building was closed, and viewing was restricted to appointment only. Rather than the museum be given better attention, it was decided to disperse the collection and run with the new themes.

    If this trend were to continue in other fields, then things happening today will most likely be deemed irrelevant in 50 years time… or when most veterans in the field are no longer with us.

Meanwhile, many of the larger Wireless Hill exhibits went to other homes as the museum was emptied…

    A large collection of smaller items was auctioned off to help fund the new direction the museum is taking.

    The bulk of these items is represented by a wide range of early radio receivers, wind-up antique gramophones, radiograms and television receivers. In addition, theres vintage telephones, tape and wire recorders and even a pioneering manual telephone exchange. Then theres a wide assortment of test and broadcast equipment. The auctioneer points out that Wireless hill is still keeping a lot of relics, so after viewing the items for auction one presumes that much of it is a culling of duplicate items and equipment in poor condition. Though there’s still a number of unique artefacts in good condition going under the hammer.

    The worry is that the original owners would be disappointed by the outcome if they knew that their treasured items did not find a safe home, after being donated to the museum in that expectation.

    Experience now shows that there is no guarantee that this will happen when people gift their possessions.

    Museums need a charter were their purpose and values do not change. Otherwise it can fracture the trust such institutions need if they wish to attract further items.

    The deed of gift that most museums ask the donor to sign explains this in some detail. In effect pointing out that after donating, a donation cannot be returned, and that items may be dispersed in the future. The items must be freely given with no claims against the museum. Museums now avoid accepting items on loan.

    In the case of broadcasting: the people making today’s decisions were not born when radio began in this State, and were probably too young for the birth of television. Their basis for outcomes will most likely to be academic, rather that based on real connections. Particularly if they have no first hand experience or there are no reliable witnesses or accounts left.

    Hence the importance that everything be recorded while people are still living to insure that the story telling maintains its correct perspective. Its more than just relics, its also what they were used for and by whom.

    Its also important that people with the right disciplines be involved. An architect can’t be expected to report authoritatively if the matter falls into the domain of an electronics engineer.

    If all the relics of an age disappear, then conveying earlier eras will depend on an interpretation, that can be subject to artistic licence.

    With the young generation moving away from conventional media to portable devices and downloading content, one can only wonder if any thought in the future will be given to steam radio and TV?

The Wireless Hill auction took place on Sunday 23rd February, 2014, by Alan Donelly Auctions Pty Ltd at 328 Walcott Street, Mt Lawley (Cnr Mistletoe Lane).

Please click HERE for a catalogue of the museum items that were on sale.

    The huge 10KW Art Deco AWA “Type J50961″ broadcasting transmitter shown above, was on proud display at the Wireless Hill Museum. It had an earlier life broadcasting 6WN at Wanneroo (now Hamersley), before its redeployment to Dalwallinu for 6DL.

    ABC veteran Trevor Kelly was recently involved in the relocation of the transmitter from Wireless Hill to Wubin, a small town located in the northern wheatbelt region, 272 km north-northeast of Perth and 21 km north of Dalwallinu.

    The old transmitter was trucked and reassembled in the Wubin Wheat Bin Museum, in the Shire of Dalwallinu by local and imported enthusiasts.

    Bob Lockley (VK6KW), the President of the West Australian VHF Group, had earlier spent a week at the Wireless Hill Museum pulling it apart. Bob Crowe VK6CG, Trevor Kelly and some very capable Wubin locals put it back together again.

    With the Wireless Hill Telecommunications Museum dispersal underway, the Australian Museum of Motion Picture and Television (AMMPT) stepped in to save another key element of the broadcasting collection, for TVW Channel 7 had donated a range of TV and radio equipment to the museum from the earliest 6ML and 6IX facilities, to Seven’s first videotape machine that was put into service in 1962, prior to Perth Commonwealth and Empire Games of the same year.

    Two of these black and white low band videotape machines were initially purchased by TVW, with many more RCA and Ampex machines to follow over the years as the technology was refined. The vintage machine, that was on display, was responsible for recording the major shows Seven produced during the first decade of television in WA and replayed on Seven the episodes of every popular program recorded locally or interstate. Such shows as Graham Kennedy’s “In Melbourne Tonight”, Brian Henderson’s “Bandstand”, Johnny O’Keefe’s “Sing Sing Sing”, Bobby Limb’s “Sound of Music”, Bob Dyer’s “Pick a Box”, and much more. This machine is a real rarity which provided reliable service over many years during the pioneering era of television in Western Australia. Only one other is known to exist in the World, and that is in the United States.

    The TRT-IB is now being preserved by AMMPT and is currently stored at the former Sunset Hospital facility in Dalkeith. The facility has been sub-licenced from ScreenWest, with AMMPT activities and work on the site agreed to by the Department of Building Management and Works. Given that the museum complies with the sub-licence conditions, then the term of the AMMPT Western Region use of the facility is open ended. However, should ScreenWest not be granted an extension of their licence there is a flow on implication for AMMPT’s sub-licence.

    Under the coordination of AMMPT members Graeme Lacey, with assistance from Keith Rutherford, work is continuing at the Sunset Hospital facility for eventual display of the museum’s national collection items.

    This unique riverside complex is a fine example of a 1904 residential institution, designed to reflect the palliative care needs of inmates of the era, and where the buildings remains intact today. The hospital was closed in 1995, and now several of the buildings are heritage listed. Sunset hospital was classified by the National Trust in 1993 and entered on the State’s Heritage Register in 1997.

    WA Premier Colin Barnett revealed on Thursday 10th January, 2012, that the state government had committed $275,000 to plan for a staged restoration of the 8.5 hectare site, which has essentially been vacant since its decommissioning in 1995.

    Mr Barnett said the government will pay for this by selling a 1,500 square metre parcel of land at the edge of the site on Iris Avenue, believed to be worth as much as $10 million.

    Considerable progress has been made at AMMPT’s Sunset Hospital location. At a December 2013 rent inspection the landlord was impressed with progress made at the facility. Much equipment has been placed on shelves and the technical library moved from ABC veteran Trevor Kelly’s residence to its designated room at Sunset. Trevor now has an onsite computer which will assist in developing the library. Recent appointments to assist museum operations are Ross McDonald as “Accessions Officer” and Graeme Lacey as “Loans Officer”.

    AMMPT Western Region President John Fuhrmann has made it known to ScreenWest that AMMPT is interested in being a user of the major auditorium at Sunset Hospital. The auditorium has a proscenium with retractable screen and a rudimentary bio box. The area has at various times been used for patient recreation, cafeteria and film production purposes.

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage

• Part 1 of 7
• Part 2 of 7
• Part 3 of 7
• Part 4 of 7
• Part 5 of 7
• Part 6 of 7
• Part 7 of 7

Related topics…

• Keeping our Heritage
• Media City Proposal for former ABC Site
• New Age Museums can dramatically boost tourism
• Demolition of ABW Channel 2 Studios in Perth WA
• AMMPT preserving our broadcasting heritage
• Finding a new home for TV stations and memorabilia
• Saving our Cinema and Television Heritage
• Early History of the Moving Image
• Preservation of our Television Heritage
• AMMPT’s “50 years of television broadcasting in Western Australia” exhibition at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth

• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 1
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 2
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 3
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 4
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 5
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 6

Wireless Hill Future – in six parts

• Wireless Hill Future – Part 1 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 2 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 3 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 4 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 5 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 6 of 6

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage – Part 3 of 7

Much of the central business district of Perth has been demolished. William Street has lost many of its old buildings, starting with Temple Court and the Embassy Ballroom, the Capitol Theatre and all buildings up to St Georges Terrace. Then everything on one side of the street from the AMP, Goode Durrent and Murray, Viking House, then the Metro Theatre and the considerable changes resulting from the Raine Square development. The opposite side of the street was impacted by the One40William Street development. No doubt these developments will be welcome by the younger set as they eradicated once attractive structures that had been neglected and lost their original sparkle. Yet the treatment of the Mitchell’s Building is a fine example of how new life can be given back to prestigious looking old facades.

Meanwhile, there are times when the heritage antics of our elected representatives needs greater public scrutiny, as issues often only come to a head around election time. A week is considered a long time in politics, and a reliance on the public having a short memory has allowed governments to give a low priority to matters of our inheritance. Factors related to big business and development at any cost often override the humble issues of the common people, unless their votes be crucial at a given time. Too often worthy heritage related ventures get a raw deal owing to the fickle nature of the people in power.

Casualties include the Fremantle Motor Museum, the Fremantle History Museum, the Light and Sound Discovery Centre at Fremantle and Western Power’s World of Energy museum at Fremantle.

    Not all historic buildings get to be kept, and some that do end up being significantly modified for their new life.

    The 1912 Mitchell’s Building facade was kept whilst the actual building behind it was replaced, yet this restoration tastefully maintained a sense of authenticity.

    In contrast, on the opposite side of the street the replacement buildings are of a modern style, which makes the older facade appear more like a Hollywood back lot set, rather than the grand architecture it once was.

    In 1986, a National Trust classified worker’s cottage built in 1863, originally at 70 Roe Street (eastern corner of Roe and Lake Streets, Perth), was dismantled when the site was being redeveloped. In an effort to retain this important example of urban history, the dismantled cottage was kept in storage by the Perth City Council and relocated brick by brick to the WA Museum site in Northbridge, as an employment project in 1991. It was during this period that Reg Withers was Perth’s Lord Mayor (from 1991 to 1994). In 1993, The Arts Minister Peter Foss (from 1993 to 1999) formally accepted the keys to the cottage from the Lord Mayor and congratulated him and the Perth City Council for their foresight in preserving this important example of urban history.

    The relocated cottage was intended as a local history centre. Instead, the WA Museum used it mainly as office space. It was promoted as a tourist attraction on several websites, including that of Tourism WA. The cottage was flanked by the old jail and the former Battye Library building.

    The cottage was owned by the City of Perth and the Museum agreed to have it rebuilt on its grounds on the understanding that it was a temporary solution, as there were plans to redevelop the site at a future date. It was expected that when a suitable location was found, the City of Perth would relate it once again. But when the time came, the City of Perth had apparently exhausting its options to relocate the cottage, so asked the project team to remove the cottage as part of the Museum’s Francis Street building demolition project, which was completed in October 2011. The Lord Mayor at this time was Lisa Scaffidi.

    Neither the Perth City Council, the Heritage Council nor Tourism WA raised an objection to the demolition of the cottage.

    Some of the cottage’s original bricks were salvaged and may be used to repair the Museum’s Old Gaol building. Both buildings were built in the 1850-60s, with the gaol, built in 1856, being the original building on the Museum site.

    Nowadays, only the dedicated are involved in saving relics of bygone eras, for treasuring the past seems to be increasingly unfashionable.

    Even Fremantle, the bastion of all thing old, evicted the Fremantle Motor Museum from B Shed Victoria Quay. The Museum was established in 1984 with one of the nations rarest collections. Mr Peter Briggs lost millions of dollars establishing the Museum, though the biggest losers were the WA community, the people of Fremantle and the tourism industry, when the Fremantle Port Authority terminate the lease in 2008.

    The historic B Shed then underwent restoration and refurbishment in 2010, and an area of about 600m² at the building’s eastern end now houses a ferry terminal and café with an alfresco deck. The upgrade includes modern offices for the ferry operators.

    Then the State Government evicted the Fremantle History Museum and the Light and Sound Discovery Centre from the former lunatic asylum in 2009.

    As a branch of the Western Australian Museum, the Fremantle History Museum housed exhibitions that reflected aspects of WA history, with a special focus on Fremantle and its communities. Exhibitions were changed each three months. On closure, the objects and artefacts that were on display ended up at the WA Museum’s Welshpool storage depot.

    The Fremantle Light and Sound Discovery Centre was a tourist attraction, which also provided a science experience and learn centre that used historical gadgets to provide a real context learning experience. Richard Rennie, a qualified Science teacher, ran the school programs from the venue, on a cost recovery basis. There was an ever changing variety of exhibitions, with some presented to coincide with anniversaries, such as the anniversary of the introduction of television in Western Australia, the invention of the cinema and of the phonograph. Although the gallery is now closed, Richard Rennie is still doing school holidays programs at the Wireless Hill Museum.

    The last museum related activity to take place at the former Fremantle Lunatic Asylum was the Australian Museum of Motion Picture and Television (AMMPT) exhibition in 2009 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of television in Western Australia.

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage

• Part 1 of 7
• Part 2 of 7
• Part 3 of 7
• Part 4 of 7
• Part 5 of 7
• Part 6 of 7
• Part 7 of 7

Related topics…

• Keeping our Heritage
• Media City Proposal for former ABC Site
• New Age Museums can dramatically boost tourism
• Demolition of ABW Channel 2 Studios in Perth WA
• AMMPT preserving our broadcasting heritage
• Finding a new home for TV stations and memorabilia
• Saving our Cinema and Television Heritage
• Early History of the Moving Image
• Preservation of our Television Heritage
• AMMPT’s “50 years of television broadcasting in Western Australia” exhibition at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth

• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 1
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 2
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 3
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 4
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 5
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 6

Wireless Hill Future – in six parts

• Wireless Hill Future – Part 1 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 2 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 3 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 4 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 5 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 6 of 6

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage – Part 4 of 7

Since the Heritage Council of WA was established in 1990, places of cultural heritage to the State have been entered on a Registry and recognised for their value and importance. This does not mean that the system is infallible, as the ongoing battle over the fire damaged Guildford Hotel will testify in Part 5. Too often the buildings sits idle for years suffering damage by vandals and graffiti artists. Modern bureaucracy still needs a lot of refinement before things happen in a more timely fashion, and demolition by neglect is eradicated from the equation.

Keeping a building to help tell the story of its place in history, and retaining elements that depict what took place, is not necessary a factor in keeping a building, for the structure may be used for totally unrelated activities. For example, the ABC’s former broadcasting studios will be demolished to provide a walkway access to other buildings. There is no guarantee that the architects, academics and business people who make the decisions will share the empathy of those who have fond memories of working there. The ABC left a number of working studios behind with their equipment. Rather than keep this to teach youngsters and show the public where their broadcasting content originated, it seems making it a walkway is the preferred outcome.

By selling off such buildings for different uses can result in much unique and historic infrastructure destroyed in the process. Another example of this is the Western Power’s former Energy Museum should the new owner wish to use the full space for other purposes. Key large exhibits will therefore need to be removed. It certainly reflects the value judgements of the decision makers and their lack of empathy for teaching youngsters about the tram and electricity generating and distribution services of yesteryear.

Western Power’s World of Energy Museum in Fremantle

    There were concerns expressed over the future of the historical artefacts at Western Power’s World of Energy museum in Fremantle when the museum closed its doors in February 2009. Earlier in 1996, there was a big song and dance when the then Energy Minister Colin Barnett said of the World of Energy (formerly Western Power’s Energy Museum), “Its role will be to provide an interactive educational facility which will inform visitors of all aspects of energy in this State.”

    World of Energy’s first corporate sponsor, Western Collieries, handed over a $50,000 grant towards the renovation work.

    Following its closure in 2009, the Fremantle Mayor Peter Tagliaferri said he was saddened because it was WA’s premier energy and environmental education centre.

“These types of attractions are not only good for visitors, but for locals as well,” he said. “The World of Energy, in particular, provided local kids with loads of fun, especially during its school holiday programs.”

    As with the dispersal of Wireless Hill artefacts, consultants were hired to catalogue and assess the collection at the Energy Museum. Meanwhile, the National Trust of Australia WA chief executive officer Tom Perrigo said many of the artefacts at the museum were historically very important to WA, with Western Power spokeswoman Marisa Chapman pointing out the likelihood of key pieces of the collection being donated to relevant museums. Though as the former manager of the museum, Graham Horne said, “To move some of these items would cost huge amounts of money – I would think somewhere around the six-figure mark.”

    The museum was located at 12 Parry Street, Fremantle. It contained everything you would want to know about energy past, present and future with static and hands on working displays, dioramas and hundreds of objects and photographs.

    At least the building is now heritage listed as it played an important part in the development of the City of Fremantle. It was originally constructed for the Fremantle Municipal Tramways and Electric Lighting Board, and was then taken over by the State Energy Commission, now Western Power. They commissioned the heritage assessment as a result of the Government Heritage Property Disposal Process (GHPDP), which ensures government property being sold out of state ownership is assessed for heritage significance. Much like the procedure that happened with the former ABC studios in Adelaide Terrace, before two thirds of the site was demolished, with the ABC radio broadcast studios also set to go, to provide a walkway for the new development on that site.

Former ABC Radio Studios in Adelaide Terrace, Perth

    Approval has been sought by Finbar for the construction of a 38-level Residential Tower, which will be situated to the rear of the retained heritage listed former ABC Administration Building and west of the retained Basil Kirke Studios. A total of 226 dwellings are proposed by the Application, consisting of nine studio, six one bedroom, 141 two bedroom, and 70 three bedroom apartments.

    It is planned for a public thoroughfare to replace the former ABC broadcast studios, the production studio control rooms and the air locks, as anticipated by the the Conservation Management Plan which contains a lot of background to the site and the heritage recommendations.

Areas of former ABC Radio Building deemed significant and to be kept

    Apparently the heritage experts considered that the daily broadcast studios that accommodated the on-air announcers, who presented the thousands of hours of live programs to the ABC’s listening audience between 1960 and 2005 to be insignificant and worthy of demolition. Former veteran broadcaster Jon Juan would probably turn in his grave to learn that his and the entertainment contributions of his many colleagues from these studios is deemed so poorly.

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage

• Part 1 of 7
• Part 2 of 7
• Part 3 of 7
• Part 4 of 7
• Part 5 of 7
• Part 6 of 7
• Part 7 of 7

Related topics…

• Keeping our Heritage
• Media City Proposal for former ABC Site
• New Age Museums can dramatically boost tourism
• Demolition of ABW Channel 2 Studios in Perth WA
• AMMPT preserving our broadcasting heritage
• Finding a new home for TV stations and memorabilia
• Saving our Cinema and Television Heritage
• Early History of the Moving Image
• Preservation of our Television Heritage
• AMMPT’s “50 years of television broadcasting in Western Australia” exhibition at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth

• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 1
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 2
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 3
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 4
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 5
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 6

Wireless Hill Future – in six parts

• Wireless Hill Future – Part 1 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 2 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 3 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 4 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 5 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 6 of 6

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage – Part 5 of 7

Saving an icon seems to be mission impossible for the powers that be, when it comes to the landmark Guildford Hotel, which continues to sit in ruins six years and counting after it was severely damaged by a suspicious fire..

The Guildford Hotel Saga

    The iconic and heritage-listed Guildford Hotel was suspiciously damaged and burnt-out by a fire in September 2008, and since then its ongoing dilapidation has continued to draw the ire of the public and community leaders. The now charred hotel on James Street was built in 1883 and licensed in 1886. The following year the hotel owner built a vaudeville theatre next door. A building that still stands today, but now is a display warehouse for Oriental Origins, a trove of exotic sculpted and crafted objects and furniture.

    A Save the Guildford Hotel rally was conducted in February 2013. The protest was held at Stirling Square, near the Swan Valley icon, and was the third rally since the venue was engulfed by fire.

    Group spokesman Ben Allen pointed out that since the blaze, “Anyone familiar with the situation knows there has not been one bit of restoration taken place.”

    The owners have approval to rebuilt, but they say they will only do so if it is financially viable. Meanwhile the Heritage Minister told the people of Guildford that the State Government can’t do more than they have.

    The Western Australian Labor and Greens parties made election promises at the rally, to fine those who neglect heritage buildings or take the properties off them.

    The Labor party would examine the possibility of purchasing the site if all else fails, whilst the Greens would push for changes to the heritage act that would make owners of neglected heritage buildings liable for fines of up to $1 million.

The Greens proposed that…

Owners of heritage buildings who neglect their properties to hasten demolition will be liable to fines of up to $1 million as part of a package of heritage initiatives to be released by the Greens in 2013.

The initiatives are designed to protect the state’s heritage listed properties by outlawing the practice of demolition by neglect and requiring conservation management plans for all places on the State Heritage Register.

    Meanwhile, the Liberal spokesperson said that could not happen while the owners were working towards redeveloping the land.

    In media releases, BPG Managing Director and The Guildford Hotel Redevelopment Group lead adviser Jeff Braddock said, “While some funds were recouped under the Insurance Policy, these were insufficient to complete the development.”

    Braddock said the priority had been to make the site safe and secure to preserve the façade and salvage as much as possible.

“Professional advice as to the structure and condition of the remaining fabric has been adopted and the building is being closely monitored. The structural engineer has confirmed that the building is not being compromised by the lack of roof cover,” he said.

“We continue to collaborate with Heritage Council, City of Swan and other consultants to produce a sustainable plan for approval that will retain the building façade and iconic bell tower,” he said.

    In 2011, The Guildford Hotel Redevelopment Group submitted a formal application to the City of Swan for the redevelopment of the heritage listed hotel and adjacent land.

    The redevelopment concept comprises a refurbished hotel in its original elegant, neutral‐toned heritage colours, with a wine‐bar or boutique brewery, restaurant, bar area, al‐fresco dining and beer garden. An up‐market liquor store is proposed abutting the south wall of the hotel. Upstairs, the proposal incorporates boutique accommodation and a function room.

    It is proposed that the southern portion of the site comprise a small retail complex that will reflect the architecture of the hotel.

    There was public consultation and approval obtained for the development, after they haggled over the conditions. The owners then marketed the property to attract tenants (deadline for applications was March 29th, 2013). The next stage was to seek finance, then tender for builders and start construction.

    Almost a year later the hotel is still sitting awaiting restoration whilst vandals have begun ripping up the floorboards that the firemen saved from the blaze.

Meanwhile, slogans such as “save me Colin, stop the fires”, “never in Cottesloe”, “white-collar crime in progress”, “WA’s shame” and “enact the law” have appeared on the building’s walls.

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage

• Part 1 of 7
• Part 2 of 7
• Part 3 of 7
• Part 4 of 7
• Part 5 of 7
• Part 6 of 7
• Part 7 of 7

Related topics…

• Keeping our Heritage
• Media City Proposal for former ABC Site
• New Age Museums can dramatically boost tourism
• Demolition of ABW Channel 2 Studios in Perth WA
• AMMPT preserving our broadcasting heritage
• Finding a new home for TV stations and memorabilia
• Saving our Cinema and Television Heritage
• Early History of the Moving Image
• Preservation of our Television Heritage
• AMMPT’s “50 years of television broadcasting in Western Australia” exhibition at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth

• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 1
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 2
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 3
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 4
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 5
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 6

Wireless Hill Future – in six parts

• Wireless Hill Future – Part 1 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 2 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 3 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 4 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 5 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 6 of 6

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage – Part 6 of 7

Some decisions defy logic, particularly when an incredible and irreplaceable collection is offered to the State at a reasonable price, to be rejected, for it then to quadruple in value when it goes to auctioned with keen buyers from all over the world.

In contrast, the current government was happy to spend about five times more to refurbish office space for the Premier and cabinet. At least a heritage building was restored, even if was for the government’s pleasure rather than a facility for the people of WA to enjoy.

This was when the historic Hale House in West Perth was refurbished as part of a $25.5 million project to permanently house the State Cabinet meeting room, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Office of the Premier.

The Hall Museum in Guildford

    One most unfortunate loss for the State was the dispersal of the magnificent Hall Museum collection that resided in Guildford, behind the Rose and Crown Hotel.

Museum Opened in 1978
Museum Closed on December 19th 1993
Auction was conducted over ten days in July 1994

    A exhibition that museum curators, international connoisseurs and art experts from all over the world admired. It is no exaggeration to say that it was the finest collection of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

It consisted of 30,0000 items collected over 40 years by Kent and Evelyn Hall.

    There were many items dating from the Elizabethan era, such as glass and porcelain vases, silverware, paintings and etchings, kitchen ware and ornaments, 18th and 19th century tools, toys and dolls, surgical, optical and scientific instruments, dental and pharmacy, cameras dating back to 1860, French telephones from the 1890s, clocks, stamps and coins, musical instruments, old sporting equipment, the padlock to Ned Kelly’s cell, the Perth Mint’s old bullion scales and coin sorter, rare oil lamps from the second and third century B.C., antique jewellery and furniture, a blunderbuss brought to Australia in 1829, and a book that was one of only three printed in 1789 to relate Governor Arthur Phillip’s voyage to Australia.

    Rather than the government show gratitude for a local keeping this vast, wonderful and unique collection in Western Australia, the hopes of it staying here were lost owing to inaction, regardless of the owner having preferred it remain here. This was because the government did nothing to keep it together, allowing the collection to be spread far and wide.

    The Premier was Richard Court (16 February 1993 – 10 February 2001) at the time the museum closed and when the owner still had hopes that the government might rescue it.

    Paul Ward of Gregsons said that it was the biggest volume auction in the southern hemisphere. It took six months of preparing and cataloguing of 18 hour days, and finally 10 days of selling. Big prices were paid by buyers coming from all over the world. A Singapore syndicate initially bought the lot pre-auction, then took 250 of the pristine and most valued furniture items, before the remainder went to auction.

    This goes to show that the State missed out on a lost opportunity. The government could have picked it up for a bargain compared to the eventual sale price, as many items attracted four times the price of that initially anticipated. For example the Apothecaries Shop attracted a bid of $50,000.

    It demonstrates how poorly these things are ranked by our elected representatives, who obviously were not cognisant of their monetary value and intrinsic worth. Nor must they have been aware of the endless praise given to the over 30,000 artefacts by the 40,000 museum visitors who paid at the door to view them each year. This subject received considerable media coverage over the years, so one must assume the politicians either did not read this, or just didn’t care?

    It appears therefore that museums and heritage are a low priority. Take for example the Francis Street Museum building which was scrapped owing to an Asbestos issue. The building was closed in 2003 with about three million objects moved to the new Collection and Research Centre in Welshpool, where they remain to this day. Since then, the Barnett State Government has pledged to build a new museum at a cost of $428 million for completion by 2019-20. So it will take almost a decade to give Perth the museum space it desperately needs.

    Another point is that the Museum of WA does not have the resources or space to embrace showing artefacts which comprehensively cover everything. The efforts therefore of individual collectors and small museum groups, who cover the niche areas, cannot be underestimated. The problem is the ongoing loss of rare items held in private hands that are not valued by their children, and thus too often get sold off or thrown on the rubbish tip.

We wish to thank Jude Carr, the Local History Librarian at the Midland Public Library and Paul Ward of Gregsons Auctioneers for the kind help provided in telling this story.

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage

• Part 1 of 7
• Part 2 of 7
• Part 3 of 7
• Part 4 of 7
• Part 5 of 7
• Part 6 of 7
• Part 7 of 7

Related topics…

• Keeping our Heritage
• Media City Proposal for former ABC Site
• New Age Museums can dramatically boost tourism
• Demolition of ABW Channel 2 Studios in Perth WA
• AMMPT preserving our broadcasting heritage
• Finding a new home for TV stations and memorabilia
• Saving our Cinema and Television Heritage
• Early History of the Moving Image
• Preservation of our Television Heritage
• AMMPT’s “50 years of television broadcasting in Western Australia” exhibition at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth

• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 1
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 2
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 3
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 4
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 5
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 6

Wireless Hill Future – in six parts

• Wireless Hill Future – Part 1 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 2 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 3 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 4 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 5 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 6 of 6

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage – Part 7 of 7

On a brighter note, it is possible to keep old buildings and merge them with modern developments without totally destroying the heritage elements. Though they may not convey the past history to the fullest, they at least give token homage whilst pleasing the younger generations, business folk and social butterflies with the great new eating facilities supplied.

    A recent redevelopment involves Newspaper House (1932), the Perth Technical College (1910), WA Trustees Co (1925) and Royal Insurance Building (1929), all located together on St Georges Terrace, Perth. They occupy a 60 metre street frontage and adjoin the Old Perth Boys’ School (1854).

    Newspaper House and its news printing halls and presses were constructed for the Centenary of the West Australian in 1932, which was during the Great Depression period.

    Perth Technical College was the first tertiary educational facility in the state and incorporated a School of Mines. It was established pre-World War One and at the end of the Gold Boom.

The Royal Insurance and WA Trustee Co buildings were pre Depression.

    According to the Heritage Council’s assessment, Newspaper House has a distinctive Art Deco influence. The four-storey WA Trustees Building has rendered masonry cladding, finely resolved sandstone and timber framed windows set off with classical pediments and a deep projecting cornice. The Edwardian-era red brick structure of the Perth Technical College is of Federation Gothic style set on a limestone base with sandstone window and door detailing. It features exceptional internal craftsmanship with jarrah timber panelling, art nouveau lead lighting and glass. The Royal Insurance Building has marble entry steps, Donnybrook sandstone facing, steel framed windows and doors, plus wrought iron balustrades.

    The City of Perth announced approval in 2008 for Brookfield Multiplex to develop a 46-storey tower block on the site for BHP Billiton. The approval included strict conditions on maintaining the heritage values of the buildings along St Georges Terrace. The development, was completed in 2012 and named Brookfield Place. The heritage buildings were recycled to provide a range of bars, restaurants, shops and office tenancies.

    The former printing press building (the Print Hall) has been turned into a multi level dining and bar precinct. The venue boasts four levels of culinary and refined drinking options. Courtyards connect all the lower levels of the heritage buildings into a series of alfresco spaces, sheltered from the wind and sun. The podium level and ground floors of the heritage buildings are connected by a series of light-weight linking bridge elements.

    In total, Brookfield Place comprises a net let-able area of approximately 86,000 square metres including over 75,000 square metres in the office tower and a total of 7,126 square metres of food/beverage and retail space.

    Brookfield Place won the Margaret Pitt Morison Award for Heritage, the John Septimus Roe Award for Urban Design and the Ross Chisholm and Gil Nicol Award for Commercial Architecture.

Lamenting the whittling away of our heritage

• Part 1 of 7
• Part 2 of 7
• Part 3 of 7
• Part 4 of 7
• Part 5 of 7
• Part 6 of 7
• Part 7 of 7

Related topics…

• Keeping our Heritage
• Media City Proposal for former ABC Site
• New Age Museums can dramatically boost tourism
• Demolition of ABW Channel 2 Studios in Perth WA
• AMMPT preserving our broadcasting heritage
• Finding a new home for TV stations and memorabilia
• Saving our Cinema and Television Heritage
• Early History of the Moving Image
• Preservation of our Television Heritage
• AMMPT’s “50 years of television broadcasting in Western Australia” exhibition at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth

• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 1
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 2
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 3
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 4
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 5
• Factors that moulded entertainment in Perth – Part 6

Wireless Hill Future – in six parts

• Wireless Hill Future – Part 1 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 2 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 3 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 4 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 5 of 6
• Wireless Hill Future – Part 6 of 6

    Audrey Long (Barnaby) kindly conveyed the sad passing of James Condon (1923-2014) the younger brother of Coralie Condon, who was an actor of great note, performing on the stage, radio, films and television.

    Coralie and James used to talk each night by phone until he had a stroke last year and was placed in high care.

    James Condon was born on September 27, 1923 in Fremantle, Western Australia, and he was still a boy when his mother died, so Coralie helped raise him, whilst their father spent much time in the eastern states.

    James and Coralie where both involved with the repertory theatre in Perth. James’ professional acting career began with ABC Radio in 1942, at Broadcast House in Stirling Gardens, located next to the Government House Ballroom in Perth.

    At 18 years of age, James joined the RAAF Reserve, whilst awaiting call-up, to then serve three and a quarter years in the Air Force, with the rank of Flight Lieutenant, having flown operationally as a navigator with RAF Squadron 547, B24 Liberator, Coastal Command stationed at Leuchars Junction, Fife, Scotland for the last six months of the war in Europe.

    He had been working in ABC radio drama for six months in Perth before being called up for war service, and returned to acting in 1945.

    Then in 1949, He went to London and worked for the BBC in radio and television until 1951. Whilst there, he married his first wife Joan Cranmer and had four daughters.

    The ABC then contracted him at four times the salary he was getting in London. James returned to Perth to work for ABC Radio and continued his stage acting with the amateur Perth Repertory Club. The Rep then evolved into The National Theatre Company at the Playhouse.

    The Playhouse theatre opened on Wednesday 22 August, 1956, with “The Teahouse of the August Moon” written by the American playwright and screenwriter John Patrick, and directed by Nita Pannell. James played the role of Captain Fisby, with James Kemp as Colonel Purdy, Michael Cole as Sakini, Frank Baden-Powell as Capt. McLean, Penelope Hanrahan as Lotus Blossom and Garry Meadows as Sgt. Gregovich.

    James continued working as an actor, scriptwriter and interviewer with the ABC in Perth until television began in Australia in September 1956, following which he moved to Sydney where he scored a lead role in Portia Faces Life, and this lead on to other radio work.

    For more than three decades he worked continuously in television, radio, theatre, film and voice-overs.

    During those years, James met the actress Anne Haddy, firstly as friends, then much later as lovers, and were together since 1974. They married in 1977. In 1985, Anne landed the role of Helen Daniels on Neighbours. James and Anne moved from Sydney to Melbourne for Anne’s part in the show. Her role was the backbone of the Neighbours series from 1985 to 1997. He acted alongside Anne twice in Neighbours – as Douglas Blake in 1985 and again in 1995 as Reuben White.

Anne passed away in 1999 of heart and kidney ailments.

James Condon’s screen acting credits include:

•   
• The Stowaway (1958 Film),
•   
• The Outcasts (1961 TV Show),
•   
• The Story of Peter Grey (1961 TV Show),
•   
• Homicide (1964 TV Show),
•   
• Catwalk (1970 TV Series),
•   
• Number 96 (1972 TV Show),
•   
• Scobie Malone (1975 Film with Jack Thompson & Judy Morris),
•   
• McCloud (1976 “Night of the Shark” US TV Series with Dennis Weaver),
•   
• Prisoner (1979 TV Show),
•   
• Tim (1979 Film with Piper Laurie & Mel Gibson),
•   
• Bellamy (1981 TV Show),
•   
• A Country Practice (1981 TV Show),
•   
• Hoodwink (1981 Film with John Hargreaves & Judy Davis),
•   
• Sons and Daughters (1982 TV Show),
•   
• Carson’s Law (1983 TV Show),
•   
• The Boy Who Had Everything (1985 Film with Jason Connery, Diane Cilento),
•   
• Neighbours (1985 TV Show),
•   
• Backstage (1988 Film with Laura Branigan, Michael Aitkens & Noel Ferrier),
•   
• Trouble in Paradise (1989 TV Movie with Raquel Welch & Jack Thompson),
•   
• A Cry in the Dark (Evil Angels) (1998 Film with Meryl Streep & Sam Neill),
•   
• The Private War of Lucinda Smith (1990 TV Movie),
•   
• The Efficiency Expert (1992 Film with Anthony Hopkins and Ben Mendelsohn),
•   
• Time Trax (1993 US TV Series made in Australia),
•   
• Blue Heelers (1994 TV Show),
•   
• Neighbours (1995 TV Show),
•   
• Kangaroo Palace (1997 TV Movie),
•   
• After the Deluge (2003 TV Movie).

    In addition there have been many stage appearances including a wonderful 1993 production of Madame Butterfly, which was a great success in Melbourne and Sydney before they toured over several months. This was followed by ‘A Flea in Her Ear’ and ‘There’s One In Every Marriage’, at Mietta’s Theatre Restaurant, Melbourne, in 1994. For the 1995 Melbourne International Comedy Festival… James appeared in The Best of British: ‘Rookery Nook’ and ‘When We Are Married’, which were performed on alternate nights at Mietta’s Theatre Restaurant.

    James was one of four actors (aged from 22 to 80) who breathed new life into an epic Australian war poem: Sky Saga. This was about the heroism of World War II Australian airmen. It was written by Sir Thomas White, himself a heroic World War participant who later became federal aviation minister under Prime Minister Menzies and High Commissioner to England.

    In September 2003, this group of actors performed the full (75 minute) Sky Saga for veterans at the RAAF Air Forces Club in South Yarra, where James said,

“You could see the smiles on their faces, these old guys, because they’ve lived it.”

    Sky Saga (the 12-minute version) was then performed by Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir as part of the Spirit of Anzac Day Concert, April 25 2004, at the Melbourne Town Hall.

    James recorded many talking books for the blind. Originally, for the Louis Braille Talking Book Library, then for the National Institute of Library Resources, doing about six books a year. He narrated the 1992 and 1995 TDK Australian Audio Books of the year.

    Aged 90 years, late of RSL Veterans’ Village Narrabeen. James Thomas Condon passed away peacefully on 14th February 2014. Much loved husband of Joan (dec) and Anne (dec). Loved brother of Coralie in Perth and Terry (dec). Wonderful father of Elizabeth, Susan, Catherine and Mary Anne, stepfather of Jane and Tony. Loving grandfather and great-grandfather.

    Relatives and friends are invited to a Requiem Mass at Saint Rose Catholic Church, Collaroy Plateau Sydney on Tuesday 18th February, 2014 at 2.00pm.