Crawley Edge Boatshed | |
---|---|
General information | |
Status | Constructed |
Location | Crawley |
Town or city | Perth |
Country | Australia |
Coordinates | 31°58′24.7″S115°49′35.6″E / 31.973528°S 115.826556°E |
Construction started | 1930s |
Owner | Nattrass family |
The Crawley Edge Boatshed, commonly referred to as the Blue Boat House, [1] is a boathouse located on the Swan River at Crawley in Perth, Western Australia. A well known landmark, [2] the boatshed was built in the 1930s, and since the 1940s has been owned mainly by the Nattrass family. [3] [4]
The boatshed was originally built in the 1930s. It first came into the hands of the Nattrass family when Roland and Joyce Nattrass purchased the land behind it in 1944 as the site for their family home. The real estate agent insisted the boatshed be purchased with the land for an additional five pounds. [5] [6]
In 1972, Roland Nattrass gave the boatshed to Ron Armstrong, a patron of the Perth Sea Scouts. A slightly larger boatshed was built around the original. In the 1990s, ownership of the boatshed passed to Barry Kollman, a sailor from the Royal Perth Yacht Club. [5] [6]
In 2001, the boatshed was put up for sale and purchased by Peter Nattrass, son of Roland Nattrass and Lord Mayor of Perth at the time. [5] [6] The boatshed had become very run down by that time. Faced with government threats to demolish and remove it, the family began to rebuild it. At the suggestion of a family friend, the local federal member of parliament Julie Bishop, the boatshed was repainted in a bold blue colour. [7] On 6 February 2004, the refurbished boatshed was re-launched by Perth yachtsman Jon Sanders and Perth sailor David Dicks. [5]
It was also given a facelift in late 2015, which included repainting the exterior and replacing the wooden jetty with a new one with steel pylons. [4]
In the 21st century, the boatshed has become an Australian icon, and star attraction for tourists visiting Perth from Asia. [7] As of June 2019 [update] , the hashtag "#blueboathouse" had thousands of Instagram posts to its name. [7] A CNN article published that month claimed that the boatshed was the most photographed travel attraction in Perth, ahead of Elizabeth Quay, Cathedral Square and the Bell Tower in Barrack Square. [8] [9] Another article published that month, on the website The Conversation, claimed that the boatshed had become Perth's second-most popular spot for tourist selfies, and that social media publicity about the boatshed had generated global awareness about Perth potentially worth millions of dollars. [10]
According to Tom Nattrass, images of the boatshed have been used in marketing material for Singapore Airlines, Qantas and in Japanese advertisements. [7] In March 2019, a group of tourists queuing up to take selfies at the boatshed included a woman from Singapore who told The West Australian , "Everyone from Singapore that visits Perth gets a photo here, it's all over social media." [11] One visitor from Thailand told ABC News in June 2019 that young couples from her country would travel to the boathouse to participate in pre-wedding photoshoots. Another visitor, from Malaysia, said that she had travelled to Perth specifically to take a photo with it. [7]
At a meeting of the City of Perth held on 28 May 2019, the Commissioners of the City resolved, due to the increase in visitors to the boatshed, the nearby Eliza statue and the Old Swan Brewery, to spend AUD 400,000 on a new "stand-alone" solar-powered toilet at Quarry Point, between the boatshed and the brewery. Construction of the toilet was due to be completed by August 2019. [9] [12]
In mid-July 2019, the boatshed was temporarily and controversially wrapped in red plastic sheeting, as a tribute to the Manchester United football team, which was visiting Perth to play two friendly matches. [13] [1] On 14 July 2019, three of the team's players, Tahith Chong, Axel Tuanzebe and Joel Pereira, visited and were photographed at the wrapped boatshed. [14]
Tourism in Singapore is a major industry and contributor to the Singaporean economy.
Tourism in Australia is an important part of the Australian economy, and comprises domestic and international visitors. Australia is the fortieth most visited country in the world according to the World Tourism Organization. In the financial year 2018/19, tourism was Australia's fourth-largest export and over the previous decade was growing faster than national GDP growth. At the time it represented 3.1% of Australia's GDP contributing A$60.8 billion to the national economy.
Exmouth is a town on the tip of the North West Cape and on Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia, 1,124 kilometres (698 mi) north of the state capital Perth and 2,060 kilometres (1,280 mi) southwest of Darwin.
Pemberton is a town in the South West region of Western Australia, named after original settler Pemberton Walcott.
Crawley is an affluent western suburb of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia. Whole area is part of the local government area of the City of Perth and previously shared between the City of Subiaco and City of Perth. It is about 5.8 kilometres (4 mi) from the Perth CBD via Mounts Bay Road.
A boathouse is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats stored are rowing boats. Other boats such as punts or small motor boats may also be stored.
Tourism in Sydney, Australia forms an important part of the city's economy. The city received 12 million domestic visitors and 4.1 million international visitors in year ending June 2019. The most famous attractions include the Sydney Opera House, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Other attractions include the Sydney Mardi Gras, Royal Botanical Gardens, Luna Park, the beaches and Sydney Tower.
Peter Christopher Roland Nattrass is a Perth-based Australian gynaecologist, businessman, and politician. He was the Lord Mayor of the City of Perth from 1995 to 2007.
Trayning is a town in the north-eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, 236 kilometres (147 mi) east of the state capital, Perth, on the Nungarin–Wyalkatchem Road. At the 2006 census, Trayning had a population of 122.
Eliza is a bronze sculpture located in Matilda Bay on the Swan River in Western Australia. The sculpture and plinth are mounted on a steel pylon 15 metres (49 ft) off the shoreline and depicts a woman about to dive off a wooden platform. It commemorates the old Crawley Baths which were a prominent Perth landmark during the early to mid 20th century. The sculpture is 2.2 metres high. The artwork has its own lighting from solar panels.
UNSW Rowing Club in Sydney, Australia is a varsity rowing club of the University of New South Wales and was founded in 1952. It has occupied its current boatshed at Huntley's Cove on Tarban Creek on the Parramatta River since 1974. The club has a varsity and masters focus.
Winthrop Avenue is a major north–south road in the Perth suburbs of Nedlands and Crawley. For most of its length, the road travels alongside the south-western edge of Kings Park, connecting Thomas Street with Stirling Highway, Mounts Bay Road, and the University of Western Australia's Crawley campus. It is the southernmost section of State Route 61, which links Crawley with West Perth and Yokine.
A selfie is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.
Ryan Marc Edwards is an Australian professional football player who plays as a midfielder for Spanish club SD Amorebieta.
Popeye is the name given to a series of motor launches which take paying passengers on pleasure cruises on Torrens Lake, in the North Parklands of Adelaide, capital of South Australia. It is one of the city's "top tourist attractions".
Tricia was a female Asian elephant which resided at Perth Zoo in Perth, Western Australia. She was born in 1957 in Vietnam and was transported to Perth in 1963. Tricia was named after Tricia Reschke, the Miss Australia from the previous year. Tricia's health began to decline in 2016 and significantly worsened in 2022. She lived to be one of the oldest Asian elephants in the world.
Rue Crémieux is a one-block pedestrian street in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, originally built as workers' housing. The street has been widely recommended to tourists for its quaint painted housefronts, and has become a popular destination for filming and for social media photos.
Marianthus coeruleopunctatus, commonly known as blue-spotted marianthus, is a species of flowering plant in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a twining shrub or climber with narrowly elliptic leaves and pale blue flowers sometimes with dark blue spots or lines, arranged in branched clusters.