The Cloisters, Perth
Encyclopedia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. It is a two-storey dark coloured brick building, which terminates the vista at the top of Mill Street and is a landmark in the rise of the street to the ridge of the plateau.
The Cloisters is one of a small number of remaining convict-built colonial buildings of the mid-nineteenth century in the central area of Perth.
History
It was designed by Richard Roach JewellRichard Roach Jewell
Richard Roach Jewell was an architect who designed many of the important public buildings in Perth during the latter half of the nineteenth century....
for Bishop Mathew Blagden Hale and constructed in 1858 as a secondary school for boys. It was established and funded with a grant from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and Bishop Hale's own donation. The school was called the 'Perth Church of England Collegiate School' (colloquially known as 'Bishop Hale's School'), and was the first secondary school established in the Swan River Colony
Swan River Colony
The Swan River Colony was a British settlement established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. The name was a pars pro toto for Western Australia. In 1832, the colony was officially renamed Western Australia, when the colony's founding Lieutenant-Governor, Captain James Stirling,...
.
The architectural style of the building was derived from St. James's Palace
St. James's Palace
St. James's Palace is one of London's oldest palaces. It is situated in Pall Mall, just north of St. James's Park. Although no sovereign has resided there for almost two centuries, it has remained the official residence of the Sovereign and the most senior royal palace in the UK...
, Hampton Court, parts of Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, and Fulham Palace
Fulham Palace
Fulham Palace in Fulham, London , England, at one time the main residence of the Bishop of London, is of medieval origin. It was the country home of the Bishops of London from at least 11th century until 1975, when it was vacated...
. The Tudor embellishments tied the structure to the history of the English monarchy (the head of the Church which Hale served) while signifying the power and authority of England under which government the colony was founded, the gothic features signifying the moral and temporal authority of the Church. Students at the school included John Forrest
John Forrest
Sir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....
, who became the first Premier of Western Australia
Premier of Western Australia
The Premier of Western Australia is the head of the executive government in the Australian State of Western Australia. The Premier has similar functions in Western Australia to those performed by the Prime Minister of Australia at the national level, subject to the different Constitutions...
and then Federal Treasurer
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer of Australia is the minister in the Government of Australia responsible for government expenditure and revenue raising. He is the head of the Department of the Treasury. The Treasurer plays a key role in the economic policy of the government...
, Alexander Forrest
Alexander Forrest
Alexander Forrest CMG, was an explorer and surveyor of Western Australia, as well as a politician.-Early life:Forrest was born at Picton, near Bunbury in Western Australia, the son of William and Margaret Forrest...
who become the Lord Mayor of Perth, Stephen Henry Parker, Sir Edward Wittenoom
Edward Wittenoom
Sir Edward Charles Wittenoom KCMG was an Australian politician, member of the Western Australian Legislative Council for thirty four years.- Early life :...
, Frank Wittenoom
Frank Wittenoom
Francis Frederick Burdett Wittenoom was an explorer and pastoralist in Western Australia...
, Maitland Brown
Maitland Brown
Maitland Brown was an explorer, politician and pastoralist in colonial Western Australia. He is best remembered as the leader of the La Grange expedition, which searched for and recovered the bodies of three white settlers murdered by Indigenous Australians, and subsequently killed a number of...
, William Samson
William Samson
Dr. William Byars Samson is a Scottish astronomer, academic, computer scientist and a researcher in the fields of Astronomy, Databases, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life....
, John Bateman, Fredrick Brockman, George Roe and Augustus Roe.
In 1865, administration of the school was taken up by the Anglican Church. In 1872, the boys school activities were relocated in another building further east on St. George's Terrace and the building was used as a Girls School. In 1879-80 additions were constructed on the western side of the building (comprising further classrooms and dormitories above). By the late 1890s, the school closed due to declining student numbers and the construction of government funded schools. The Diocesan Trustees, divided the building in half with brick partitioning and rented out the two sections as private residences, The eastern half of the building became a boarding house and, in 1904, was first referred to as The Cloisters. The western side of the building was used as a college for the clergy, established by Archdeacon Charles Lefroy and, by 1909, this portion was known as St. John's College. The western half continued to be used as a theological college until 1918, when the whole building was used as a hostel for the recently established University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...
.
During the late 1960s the owners made plans to demolish the Cloisters, and redevelop the site. Fortunately the Cloisters was saved by a business deal. The developers had to restore the Cloisters to its original splendour, in exchange for being allowed to construct a bigger building behind it.
In 1971, The Cloisters was restored and adapted for use as a commercial outlet at a cost of $100,000, incorporated into the project was the retention of the nearby Port Jackson Fig tree
Port Jackson Fig
Ficus rubiginosa, the Rusty Fig, Port Jackson Fig, or Little-leaf Fig, is a tree in the family Moraceae that is native to eastern Australia...
(which was planted in 1887 by a tenant of the Cloisters). The building and the facades were retained and restored, albeit with plate glass windows to the openings of the cloisters. The interior of the building was gutted to create additional office space.
The building was first classified by the National Trust in 1973 and together with the Port Jackson Fig was placed on the permanent state heritage register
Heritage Council of Western Australia
The Heritage Council of Western Australia is the Government of Western Australia agency created to identify, conserve and promote places of cultural heritage significance in the state.It was created under the Heritage of Western Australia Act...
on 20 October 1995. With the construction of the Mount Newman Mining Company offices in the early 1980s behind The Cloisters the area is now known as Cloisters Square.
Current uses
It is currently part of the BHPBHP Billiton
BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...
Iron Ore's office complex and is occupied by Landgate
Landgate
Landgate, formerly the Department of Land Information , the Department of Land Administration and the Department of Lands and Surveys is the statutory authority responsible for Western Australia's property and land information.-Current activities:Landgate maintains the official register of land...
, Australia Post
Australia Post
Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
, Ticketmaster7 and a small cafe.
Further reading
- Oldham, R. 'School Architecture in Western Australia' in The W. A. Teacher's Journal (June, 1966)
- Pitt-Morison, M. 'Settlement and Development. The Historical Context' in Pitt-Morison, M. & White, J. (eds) Western Towns and Buildings (University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, 1979)
- Stannage, C. T. The People of Perth. A Social History of Western Australia's Capital City (City of Perth, Perth, 1979) ISBN 0-909994-86-2