Two Rocks Town Centre and Marina

ARCHITECT: Forbes and Fitzhardinge

YEAR: 1975

ADDRESS: Enterprise Avenue, Two Rocks

Sun City emerged after the acquisition by Bond Corp in 1969 of nearly 20,000 acres of land and marks the beginnings of his now fabled efforts, over two decades, to vie for the coveted America’s Cup. As Sun City was being slated as Perth’s next premier tourist resort and coastal subdivision, Bond was preparing for a second Cup challenge in the marina he built here.

Using the first America’s Cup challenge as a promotional device for his real estate investment at Yanchep Sun City, Bond Corp commissioned architects Forbes and Fitzhardinge, led by Tony Brand, to design the Two Rocks Shopping Centre and Tavern. Designed in the “ tradition of Mediterranean villages,” [1] Forbes and Fitzhardinge’s pedestrian friendly limestone town centre won various design awards during the late 70s.

Two Rocks was Bond’s earliest foray into the mass housing market and coincided with the implementation of the state government’s Corridor Plan of 1970 that permitted the stretching of Perth’s suburban landscape to this point 70km north of the CBD. Famously unable to sell sites in the windswept landscape, Bond had the dunes painted green - transposing the tone of a more marketable British garden suburb ideal into thesand.

Having originally overestimated the market potential, Bond sold out his interest to a multi-billion-dollar Japanese corporation which, after waiting for Perth’s property market to catch up, proceeded to resuscitate the housing enterprise and continue to develop the region at an extravagant pace.

[1] The Architect 1979, pg 13.

Mindarie Keys

ARCHITECT: James Christou and Partners (Resort)

YEAR: 1984

ADDRESS: Ocean Falls Blvd, Mindarie
 

Planned to be completed in time for the 1987 America’s Cup defence in Fremantle , Mindarie Keyswas not opened until 1988 after delayed approvals from the state Government. Nevertheless, the over scaled housing and joint harbour developments emergence lies in the context of the yacht race, that catalysed the opening up of more tracts of land for suburban development.

Mindarie is named after the Noongar word meaning “the place near which is held a ceremony,” and was an early colonial site of a large limestone burning industry, of which the kilns remain. Quarries here supplied Perth and Fremantle and played an integral role in provided lime for Kalgoorlie ‘s gold mining industry up until 1948.  

After failed sales Mindarie Keys was purchased by a consortium of developers, including Fini Group in 1996 who revived sales and initiated further expansion south and into the marina’s hinterland.

Hillarys Boat Harbour

ARCHITECT: James Christou and Partners (Sorrento Quay)

YEAR: 1985

ADDRESS: 86 Southside Dr, Hillarys

Hillarys Boat Harbour was proposed concurrently with Mindarie Keys, however unlike the marina north, it was completed in time for the Cup Defence in 1987. Marked out as the limit for coastal settlement in 1955 in the Metropolitan Region Scheme, Hillarys remained a small scale coastal fishing town until in 1967 when the Catholic School Sacred Heart was relocated here from an inner city suburb. (This desire for a ‘pioneering’ outer location forms a thread in the history of catholic education in the state).

The biggest expansion came in 1971 with the implementation of the Corridor Plan. With it came Whitfords Shopping Centre – developed by R7I Bank, who in 1984 went on to jointly build with Bond his namesake tower (now 108 St Georges Terrace). When it opened in 1978, Whitfords was the largest regional shopping centre in the northern suburbs, and is currently undergoing major redevelopment.

Note as you drive through Whitfords the names of the surrounding streets, which rattle off the army of colonial explorers that helped open up the rest of the country for European exploitation: Padbury, Dawes, Baxter, Eyre, Forrest and countless others identify the cul-de-sacs, crescents, closes and loops of Perth’s northern garden suburbs.

Scarborough Beach and Observation City

ARCHITECT:  Robert Cann & Associates

YEAR: 1986

ADDRESS: 148 The Esplanade, Scarborough

Bookending the northern suburbs stretch of this tour are two of Bond’s major, though not entirely successful, business ventures at Yanchep and Scarborough, Perth’s original beachfront holiday, and later entertainment, district. At the Scarborough end of the Avenue, Bond’s Rendezvous Observation City tower complex by Robert Cann & Associates has sat forlornly since 1986, anticipating the strip development that Bond promised but could never deliver.

Built to accommodate a project influx of tourists for the Cup Challenge, the tower is now set into a wider scheme of redevelopment thanks to the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority’s (MRA) massive investment in the foreshore that will see the initial spark of Bond’s vision generate the strip that never was. 

New apartment buildings have sprouted in the last year, including a recently announced, 40-storey twisting twin tower proposal by Hillam Architects for Chinese developers 3 Oceans Property. Bond’s influence remains tangible as the MRA adopts one of his old tricks: the green dune. Another has emerged. This is the most recent, but certainly not the last, in a fascinating series of projects ‘greening’ Perth’s metropolitan beaches. Sunset Hill is the aptly named, westward-looking grassy knoll that now foregrounds the Rendezvous.

Challenge Stadium

ARCHITECT: Robert Cann and Peter Hunt in Association with Daryl Jackson

YEAR: 1986

ADDRESS: 100 Stephenson Ave, Mount Claremont

After the City Beach detour down Challenger Drive, Challenge Stadium is passed on your right. Opened in 1986, the stadium is home to the Western Australian Institute of Sport and was designed by the same architects who did Observation City, alongside local Peter Hunt and Melbourne architect Daryl Jackson. (bridge to sport tour here.)

Bond Tower and the Palace Hotel

ARCHITECT: Porter and Thomas (hotel) and Cameron Chisholm and Nicol (tower)

YEAR: 1897, 1988

ADDRESS: 108 St Georges Terrace, Perth

The driving leg of this tour terminates at a site that draws together two of the state’s significant real estate investor developers. Here we can transition from Alan Bond to John De Baun, of whom with equal levels of opulence and grandiosity, had a significant impact on the shape of the urban realm in Western Australia, albeit funded by mining not yachting.  (Booms and Busts link here.)

Bond’s namesake tower was funded through a joint investment between R&I Bank and Bond Corp. Designed by Cameron Chisholm and Nicol the tower negotiated De Baun’s Palace Hotel by splitting the plan and utilising a 45 degree L-shape to create an internal atrium space that connected William Street and St Georges Terrace. Although situated in the heart of the CBD, Bond retained a connection to his yachting heritage by stipulating that all offices should face the river and look back toward Fremantle where he lost the Cup Defence. The view was complemented by the acquisition of Van Gogh’s Irises that hung briefly in his penthouse.

Endeavour Shed

ARCHITECT:

YEAR: 1987

ADDRESS: 1 Mews Rd, Fremantle

It is fitting to begin the Fremantle leg of this excursion with an unassuming building that encompasses two avid British born sailors of whom were both agents of globalisation. Captain James Cook; the first to map out the coastline of eastern Australia and much of the Pacific and Alan Bond who, through his own yachting exploits was able to chart out a recasting of Fremantle’s image and project it to a global audience. Like Cook’s original Endeavour in 1778, Bond’s earliest Cup defences were scuttled in Newport, Rhode Island but his win in 83 saw international focus projected onto Fremantle for the challenge in 87.  

The Endeavour Shed was built in 1988 to house the construction of the replica HMS Endeavour that was commissioned in anticipation of Australia’s bicentennial celebrations. Bond Corp sponsored the work of the boat building team, overseen by John Longley who had been involved in the making of Australia II (the ship that won the 1983 challenge and is now on display in the Maritime Museum).  Eventually Bond’s financial support folded and an all to familiar situation emerged when the Japanese Yoshiya Corporation took the reigns.

The replica was launched in 1993 and is now berthed alongside the Australian National Museum in Sydney Harbour. From this colorbond shed here you can see Challenger Harbour, the next stop and a major infrastructural change made to the port city during the preparation for the cup.

Challenger Harbour

ARCHITECT: James Christou and Partners (master plan and apartments)

YEAR: 1984

ADDRESS: Mews Rd, Fremantle

Challenger Harbour was constructed specifically to house the 12m class yachts that raced in the 1987 cup. It was built on the site of the old Fremantle Long Jetty, of which remnants can still be seen in Bathers Bay.  

Fremantle Trades Hall

ARCHITECT: Joseph Francis Allen

YEAR: 1904

ADDRESS: 6 Collie St, Fremantle

Occupied by the The Rajneesh Sannyasin community of Fremantle from 1981-1985. The 'Orange People' ran the vegetarian restaurant Zorba the Buddha on the ground floor and used the building as a residential commune and meditation centre until 1985. Aga Khan, a Persian royal billionaire of whom had a large stake in the America's Cup race, bought the Trades Hall in '85 and converted it into an upmarket Italian restaurant and convention centre. 

Oceanic Hotel

ARCHITECT: ?

YEAR: 1898, 1982, 2005.

ADDRESS: 8 Collie St, Fremantle

Formally known as the Welsh Harp Inn and the Collie Hotel, the building was adapted as a boarding house in 1952 housing around thirty pensioners and low income earners.  The former hotel was purchased in 1981 by wealthy York farmer, investor and sannyasin convert Kerry Marwick who established it a Rajneeshi residential commune, forcing the previous occupants out of the building.  It was then converted by the Rajneesh into 6 luxury apartments for sale and rent in 1982 and renamed Rivendell. The existing Rajneesh lodgers moved into the Trades Hall across the road. In 2005 local architect Michael Patroni made additions to one of the units receiving an RAIA (WA Chapter) Residential Award in 2006.

The Norfolk Hotel (fmr Odd Fellows)

ARCHITECT: George Alfred Davies (original) and Summerhayes Way and Associates and Martin H. Grounds  

YEAR: 1887, 1929, 1985, 2002

ADDRESS: 47 South Terrace, Fremantle

Originally built in 1887 by George Alfred Davies, who was Fremantles Mayor in 1887, the Odd Fellows hotel embodies the economic mingling of the various agents influencing the shape of Fremantle over the period of Cup defence.

From 1952, private owners and companies bought, sold and managed the Odd Fellows Hotel. Major additions and alterations costing $500,000 occurred in 1985 in were initiated by developer Wayne Donaldson, and a small syndication of partners, who were also responsible for the refurbishment of Fremantle Markets. With the vision to create a courtyard pub “of an English public house scale,” Donaldson engaged the sannyasin building company Sahajam Rajneesh Builders to complete the work on a cost plus basis.[1]

Much of the building was demolished to create the street fronting courtyard, which indicated a departure from the obsession with hotel restoration at the time. The hotel was eventually renamed The Norfolk and sold for $1m to Brewtech who also owned the Sale & Anchor. The courtyard was extended in 2002. 

[1] Peter Moran, “The Norfolk Hotel,” The Architect 1989, no. 1 (1989), 22.

Sail and Anchor Hotel

ARCHITECT: Frederick William Burwell and Michael Patroni

YEAR: 1903, 1984

ADDRESS: 64 South Terrace, Fremantle

Designed by Frederick William Burwell, who fleeing the depressed economic conditions of Melbourne in the 1890s, migrated to Western Australia in search of gold boom related work. Burwell ran an office in both Perth and Fremantle and designed many notable commercial structures around Fremantle, including the Masonic Temple on Marine Terrace.

In 1984, the Freemasons' Hotel was sold to Brewtech Ltd who also bought the Norfolk Hotel down the road in 1985 in anticipation for the America’s Cup Defence.

Michael Patroni, now spaceagency, was commissioned to restore and adapt the decrepit hotel. The major restoration and upgrade of the hotel saw the Freemasons' converted into the first boutique pub brewery in Australia changing it's name to become the Sail and Anchor Hotel. The verandah and balcony was reinstated in 1986 in the second stage of works that concentrated on the upper levels of the building. The refurbishment was awarded multiple Design Awards in 1985.

Cleopatra Hotel

ARCHITECT: J.H. Eales

YEAR: 1907

ADDRESS: 24 High st, Fremantle

The Cleopatra Hotel provides the convergence to point to explore the increasing occupation Fremantle’s West End by Catholic business ventures in the wake of post-America’s Cup Fremantle. The site of the Cleopatra has been a hotel since 1850 and like many of Fremantle’s pubs was owned by the Swan Brewery and renovated in 1985 for the Cup Defence. Called the Auld Mug Tavern during the period of Cup prosperity, fire destroyed the top floor in 1988.

The hotel came up for sale 2001 and was bought by The Edmund Rice Centre (affiliated with Notre Dame University) in Nov 2001. The Cleopatra Hotel is now student housing, as is much of High streets historical fabric. Preserving the public quality of Fremantle's West End was an issue for residents with the concern that a large number of public buildings, many of which were empty hotels and restaurants, being acquired by a single private user would sever the connection of the fabric to the broader working city.

Notre Dame Campus

During the 1980s much of Fremantle's West End was adapted to become Australia's first private Catholic University. The emergence of private tertiary education institutions followed a broader trend in Australia during the late 1980s. In 1987 Bond Corporation, in conjunction with a Japanese entity established Australia's first private university - Bond University - on the Gold Coast in Queensland. 

Planning for Notre Dame began in the mid 1980s and was again backed by another Western Australian entrepreneur; Catholic businessman Denis Horgan. Using money borrowed from Catholic ministries and a 30 million dollar loan from R & I Bank, Horgan began purchasing Fremantle properties, ranging from hotels, warehouses and parking lots. These buildings were seen to hold potential for educational purposes, as Peter Tannock explains "although many of the old buildings were derelict or in poor repair, they held the promise of development as large-space educational facilities. Many were also relatively cheap to purchase, because there were few other obvious alternative uses for them in the then depressed post-America’s Cup Fremantle real estate market." (Peter Tannock, The Founding and Establishment of the University of Notre Dame Australia: 1986-2014 (2014), 5.)

Attracted to what Rev. Edward Malloy, President and founding figure of Notre Dame from 1987 to 2005, described as the prevailing "pioneer spirit," in a "land of entrepreneurs and risk-takers," Fremantle's "Bohemian quality," and recent America's Cup upgrades to the heritage fabric provided the ideal scaffold for the insertion of a private campus. There were also preliminary proposals to move to a new undergraduate campus with permanent residential boarding from scratch at a site at Alkimos Beach (now a major housing subdivision, driven through on the first leg of this tour) some 50km north of Perth after the university had established itself in Fremantle.

Notre Dame School of Medicine (fmr Fowler’s Warehouse)

ARCHITECT: Frederick William Burwell (1900) and Marcus Collins (1990s)

YEAR: 1900 and 1990s

ADDRESS: 38-40 Henry St, Fremantle

Today Notre Dame exists in a large percentage of the West End's renovated heritage buildings, with the additions of two major buildings designed by Marcus Collins who also coordinated the refurbishment and interior fit outs of the existing fabric utilised by the institution.

The School of Medicine and St Teresa’s Library adjacent are examples of Collin’s successful refurbishment of the existing Victorian and industrial fabric.

 Notre Dame St Teresa’s Library

ARCHITECT: Marcus Collins

YEAR: 1990s

ADDRESS: 32 Mouat Street and 35 Henry St

Adaptive reuse of 1960s warehouse building to house the University Library.

 Notre Dame Tannock Hall

ARCHITECT: Marcus Collins

YEAR: 2010

ADDRESS: Cnr Cliff and Croke St

Listen to Marcus Collin’s discussing the design of Tannock Hall below.

 Notre Dame Health Sciences and Research Building

ARCHITECT: Marcus Collins

YEAR: 2008

ADDRESS: Cnr Phillimore and Henry St

The first new building on Notre Dame’s Fremantle Campus.

Maritime Museum

ARCHITECT: Cox Architecture

YEAR: 2002

ADDRESS: Cnr Phillimore and Henry St

The Museum is home to the winning America's Cup yacht, Australia II.