Threat to Dave's childhood home 10/11/07 Claremont Post

[BriBri]

In case you didn't hear... Cresy has wnotrher 12 months to demolish the Cliffe.

The Council decided that on September 14th, just a couple of days before the privileges committee handed down their report. (Even though the permit was valid until March 2010).

Go figure?

POST Newspaper 24 October 2009 - Letters
Why extend Cliffe’s Demo Licence?

Brian Waldron
Woolloomooloo, NSW

I was shocked to read, in the minutes for the shire of Peppermint Grove’s September meeting, that an extension to the demolition licence for The Cliffe had been granted.

I can reluctantly accept that the council’s October 2008 meeting may have been guided by Parliament’s decision to remove The Cliffe from the State Heritage Register, but I expected the September 2009 meeting would have been guided by the council’s own Cliffe Future Options Study.

The report from Ian Hocking and Associates found that, unlike the assertion by former Heritage Minister Michelle Roberts and Premier Colin Barnett that the house was dilapidated beyond reason repair, The Cliffe was indeed structurally sound and in good shape for a house of its age.

The findings of the council’s report were more in line with advice Ms Roberts had received from the experts in the Heritage Council, and at odds with the opinions of those within the Parliament.

Shire president Brian Kavanagh was reported in the POST as saying that Parliament got it wrong when it removed The Cliffe from the heritage list.

Given the information that has come to light since the initial council decision in October 2008, I find it hard to accept, as the council has, that:
•   There has been no change to the status of the building; and
•   As all previous conditions of planning consent have been fully satisfied it would be appropriate for the council to grant further planning consent for the demolition of the building.

What was the purpose of the Hocking Report if not to better inform and improve the council’s decision-making in regard to this historic home?

Why did the council feel obliged to make this decision on September 14, when the owners of The Cliffe hold a demolition licence valid until March 2010?

Was that something to do with the council elections in October?

Why is it acceptable to allow for the demolition of a category 1 building when there are no plans for the redevelopment?

[Urpal]

This seems strange to me. Has the committee formed to look at preserving the Cliffe now completed its role? Has this extension to the demolition licence come as some form of "trade off" to allow more time for preservation negotiations to proceed?

Am I being an eternal optimist (against all the evidence that confirms good grounds for cynicism)?

[BriBri]

They finished their gig in about May this year, and presented their report.  It was published by the Shiore in July.  It cost them a reported $55,000.  It's out there, it's public.  Their meeting on 14 September was at the beginning of the week before the privileges committee handed down their report.  The local government elections weren't held until 17 Octobver, and the existing licence was valid until March 2010.

Call me a cynic, but I think there is probably an as eyt unknown reason why the owner wanted a renewal of his licence in September..  Wish someone would tell the WHOLE story.

[BriBri]

I was almosty getting to the end of my piece of string.  I didn't know what else we could do.

Then today in the POST Newspaper I read that the Peppermint Grove Shire is going to start talking to the Heritage Council and Mark Creasy about retaining the house and restoring it.

And what made them start thinking?  The petition!!

So good on everyone who signed up.  Those 1200 souls are worth their salt.  Hopefully this new press interest will encourage some more Perth people to get on board.

I also had a call from a journalist from the West Australian on Tuesday, and there may have been an article in the Wednesday or Thursday edition.  I can't see it on-line, but if anyone in the West has a copy, I'd love to know what it says.

A copy of the POST artcile is available here...

http://savethecliffe.info/gallery/zp-core/plugins/zenpage/admin-edit.php?page&titlelink=Press-1-January-2010-to-date

[Urpal]

That's excellent news BriBri. The Cliffe continues to occupy my mind without really knowing what more to do about it. I noticed the other day though that the Shire of Peppermint Grove now give the issue some prominence on their website homepage (though don't know how to spell it) which of itself seemed to suggest some ground for optimism:

http://www.peppermintgrove.wa.gov.au/

Actually I've got a little local story from here in Didsbury Manchester which also continues to trouble my (narrow) mind which might be instructive to the good councillors and people of Peppermint Grove on the "You Don't Miss Your Water Til Your Well Runs Dry" front.

I've recently moved house. Across the road there used to be a beautiful 30s Art deco cinema. Here's a pic:





I used to often walk by and think "Wow, what a great buidling. I'd love it to re-open as a cinema. It'd be great to see inside".

About ten years ago during the resi property boom without a whimper the building was demolished to be replaced by this:



Since I've moved I've found out a few things about the old cinema:

1. It was a TV studio in the Sixties/Seventies and the home of ABC Weekend TV (No, not you Australian Broadcasting).
2. The Beatles made their first ever live TV appearance there in 1963.
3. Hughie Green's Opportunity Knocks was broadcast from there
4. It was used as the local Polytechnic Drama School's base in the Seventies/Eighties.
5. Amongst others Steve Coogan, Rick Mayal and Victoria Wood were students there and presumable learned their craft treading the boards of this place (Steve Coogan's "Bag of shite" character Paul Calf  was apparently based on a regular in the pub opposite (no, not me urpal )).

We now have a multiplex cinema locally, which whilst popular is a giant tin shed unlikely to ever rank as a "Palace of the People". So there you go. I think that is its own lesson in the importance and value of heritage and how you can't get back what's lost in the tide.

[geoffm]

cheer up Urpal.Look on the bright side.At least the traffic lights still there.And its green

[Urpal]

Shame it wasn't on red when the bulldozer arrived, but well spotted geoff.

Here's a little something from this week's local paper on the very subject that shows I'm warming up a little 

http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk/news/s/1193046_stop__in_the_name_of_love

[BriBri]

More new, but uinlike most news, this is old news.  I've been given some old press artiucles from 1995 around the time that Mark and Sharon Creasy bought the Cliffe.

Make sure you read the article from 11 July 1995 for anarchitect's opinion on the state of the ho0use then

http://savethecliffe.info/gallery/pages/Press-1995

[Urpal]

Make sure you read the article from 11 July 1995 for anarchitect's opinion on the state of the ho0use then

Would that be a fan of Einsturzende Neubauten?

Nice work BriBri.

[Urpal]

Any new or reawakened members visiting here over the next day or few might be interested in signing the petition to save the house that was David McComb's childhood home and the birthplace of The Triffids, which is presently subject to a demolition order.

Not wishing to bore anyone with the politics, so here is what you need to know.

To see the house as it was then take a trip over HERE and press "slideshow".

To see how the house looks now take a trip over HERE and do the same.

Here is the place where you place your name and e-mail address (subsequently verifying by a one-click link on the auto-email generated):

http://savethecliffe.info/

The place is called The Cliffe in the suburbs of Perth WA. It was unquestionably one of the first residential buildings of significance built in suburban Perth (to give fellow Europeans an idea of relative scarcity, the population of Perth today is circa 1.5 million, but in 1891, just before The Cliffe was built, it was circa 16,000 and families were bigger and non-bourgeois houses a lot smaller in them days). It was legally protected by listing for many years, but in the past couple of years that protection has disappeared. The current owner has a demolition order from the local authority. In fact, he now has a second one just granted.

[Urpal]

The place is called The Cliffe in the suburbs of Perth WA. It was unquestionably one of the first residential buildings of significance built in suburban Perth (to give fellow Europeans an idea of relative scarcity, the population of Perth today is circa 1.5 million, but in 1891, just before The Cliffe was built, it was circa 16,000 and families were bigger and non-bourgeois houses a lot smaller in them days).

Yep, you read that right – there were only SIXTEEN THOUSAND people living in Perth in 1891. That’s just a little over five times the number of people at the Barbican gig! Now, assuming that average households these days consist of about a 3 people and in 1891 the average was more like 5 occupants per “home”, that would mean that in 2010 there are in the region of half a million homes in Perth compared with about 3,000 in 1891 (and most of those would have been concentrated in the city centre).

The Cliffe was built in the mid-1890s. This auction sale plan shows the street scene around The Cliffe in 1915:



I count eight buildings between Forrest Street and Airlie Street (formerly Harry Street) fronting The Esplanade at the time, and only 19 in the "block" of which Stirling Highway is now the outermost limit - one being the local RC church and another a hotel. That “snapshot” was taken 20 years after  the Cliffe was built. The population of Perth had increased more than tenfold between times to approaching 200,000. Backward projecting, I don't think it'd be idle speculation to suggest that The Cliffe may have been one of only two or three buildings in that zone back in the 1890s. I haven’t been able to locate an earlier street map to verify this – it seems that historic Ordnance Survey sheets or the closest Australian equivalent don’t exist(?) (bloody primitives! )

Here's a google aerial view of the same area today:

Modern aerial view

It’s a whole lot “busier” isn’t it? I haven’t attempted to count them, but we’re looking at hundreds of homes in the same zone shown on the 1915 auction drawing. Based on a walk around the block on Google streetview I believe that of the 19 buildings shown on the 1915 auction plan very few beyond the RC church and The Cliffe still remain undemolished - I couldn't spot a one that didn't look post 1930s and most were rather more "bang up to the minute" than that.

The present Premier of WA, Colin Barnett, when airing the Grievance which resulted in de-listing of The Cliffe stated:

“As a layperson, I can say that the house is certainly interesting but that it is not of high heritage value”

He said much the same thing in the subsequent Parliamentary debate which resulted in removal of The Cliffe from the state heritage register, again placing careful "layperson" and "high" qualifiers in his sentence construction.

Speaking as one “layperson” to another, I’d have to respond that history should be the ultimate determinant of heritage value and here the historical facts seem to pretty well speak for themselves. The Cliffe is of unique construction (a leading 19th century timber merchant’s demonstration piece for the virtues of Jarrah), it is one of the earliest residential buildings of any consequence in the area and it is one of the last surviving historical-geographic locators which remain.  So how much more “heritage” do you need to be than that to escape the wreckers ball in the state of WA?

[BriBri]

Report in today's POST Newspaper....

POST Newspapers 8 May 2010   
New push to end Cliffe saga

Peppermint Grove wants to solve its heritage headache over The Cliffe.

Shire president Brian Kavanagh said he would seek a meeting with the property’s owner, Mark Creasy, and shire CEO Anne Banks-McAllister in the next two weeks.

Mr Kavanagh said he believed a sympathetic new owner was the only way the 1894 Bindaring Parade jarrah homestead could be saved.

He said Mr Creasy could be persuaded to sell the house at the right price.

“The shire doesn’t have the funds for this but we would be willing to work with someone who wanted to buy the house to restore it,” he said.

Last August the shire resolved to back a report that found the property had significant heritage value and should be repaired and restored on site.

Its heritage protection was removed in 2008 after 14 years of lobbying by Mr Creasy.


The SAVE THE CLIFFE petition is sent to the Council and the WA Heritage Minister whenever another 100 new siugnatures are added.  It has stopped 18 short of 1,300.  It would be great to get another 18 signatures before the next Council meeting on the 20 May.

[BriBri]

In March I asked a number of questions of the Shire fo Peppermint Grove about the Cliffe.  Last Monday those questins were finally answered.  You can read questions and answers here...

http://savethecliffe.info/gallery/news/News-Peppermint-Grove-Council-17-May-2010

[BriBri]

Hey - Someone got a letter pubished in the POST newspaper about the Cliffe

Read it here...
http://savethecliffe.info/gallery/pages/Press-1-January-2010-to-date

THe on-line petition has now reached 1,300 signatures.  So we now have to push on to 1,400

[BriBri]

Another letter innthe POST newspaper today.  This time we also goit the cartoon on page two.  Couldn't manage to post the cartoon on the Save The Cliffe.info site, but hopefully I can get it here...

The POST Newspaper – Letters - 26 June 2010
Welcome to Bananatown Shire

Brian Waldron
Woolloomooloo, NSW
 


While I can understand Terry Walsh’s frustration (“New home sparks heritage fall-out”, POST, 19/6), I am deeply concerned that the Holy Dollar is destroying WA’s heritage.

And Peppermint Grove seems to be a great example of all that is going wrong.

Has it really come to the point where the chic way to improve the value of your real estate investment in the shire is to demolish your own home?

The Heritage of Western Australia Act 1990 was intended to protect the heritage and history of WA for future generations.

The mandated municipal heritage inventories, introduced under the Act, sought to provide protection through local government authorities.

It is clear that Peppermint Grove’s municipal inventory offers little, if any, protection.

Councillor Rachel Thomas is perhaps a bit misleading when she says that while Category 2 houses have been demolished, Category 1 houses have not.

While not yet demolished, just up the street The Cliffe is a Category 1 building currently subject to a demolition permit issued by the council.

If the shire is serious about heritage, then it needs to incorporate its heritage inventory into its town plan.

If it is more interested in maintaining property values (and presumably rates revenue), then I suggest it issue demolition permits to all ratepayers so that all can compete equitably in the property market.

That sounds crazy to me but, given the Peppermint Grove real estate market, it might be a reasonable thing.

While we’re at it, why not replace the suburb’s famous peppermint trees with verge plantings of bananas?

Not only would you enjoy the edible fruit and flowers, but the shire could be renamed Bananatown.

Then we could erect a sign on Richardson Avenue, saying:

Welcome to Bananatown,
Where everything is upside down
Buy a house, knock it down
Wear your wallet as a crown.


Nah... couldn't