Forrest Place is a pedestrianised square located within the central business district of Perth, Western Australia. The street was created in 1923, and has a history of being a focal point for significant political meetings and demonstrations.
Forrest Place is a pedestrianised square located within the central business district of Perth, Western Australia. The street was created in 1923, and has a history of being a focal point for significant political meetings and demonstrations.
Forrest Place connects Perth railway station on Wellington Street with the Murray Street Mall, outside the Carillon City shopping centre. It is 150 metres (490 ft) long, [1] and is paved and landscaped as a pedestrianised square, with seating, public artwork, and trees. The eastern side of the street is lined by shops from the Forrest Chase shopping complex, while the historic General Post Office and Commonwealth Bank buildings are located to the west. [1]
Forrest Place is used in many ways throughout the year, including cultural displays, children's activities and parades, and contains the City of Perth visitors centre. [2]
Nearby transport facilities include Perth railway station and Perth Busport, and Perth Central Area Transit (CAT) buses run along Wellington Street,
Named after Sir John Forrest, [3] the first Premier of Western Australia, Forrest Place was for most of its history a roadway between the Perth railway station and Murray Street.
It was originally a plot of land issued to Patrick Farmer in 1840. Prior to Forrest Place's construction, an arcade between Wellington and Murray Streets existed on the site known as Central Arcade. [4] It was considered an "unhealthy" establishment, which led to its demolition. The construction of Forrest Place deemed to have "changed the face of Perth". [5]
Prior to the building of the Forrest Chase complex (containing Myer and numerous other retail stores), the central building on the eastern side of Forrest Place was the Padbury Buildings (built in 1925 [6] and demolished in 1986–1987). While the buildings on the east side have changed a number of times in the street's 82-year history, the General Post Office (completed in 1923 [7] ) and the Commonwealth Bank building (completed 1933 [8] ), both designed by John Smith Murdoch in the Interwar Beaux-Arts style and faced with Donnybrook stone, have endured significant change around them.
In the 1940s returned soldiers marched through Forrest Place. [9] It was a meeting place and focal point for political meetings in the 1950s through to the 1980s; [10] considerable use was made of the steps of the Post Office being above the roadway level.
An attempt to defuse the political nature of the space and ban meetings in Forrest Place was carried out by Charles Court, on 18 November 1975, when his government used Section 54B of the Western Australia Police Act to ban meetings. [11] [12] Considerable numbers of demonstrations resulted from this ban, [13] which was later repealed by the Public Meetings and Processions Act of 1984. [14]
In 2013, the history of protests held at Forest Place, and the responses by authorities, was the subject of a presentation by Murdoch University Adjunct Associate Professor Lenore Layman. These events are considered by Layman to be part of an "alternative history of Perth" that isn't so sedated. [15] In 2017, in a chapter in the book Radical Perth, Militant Fremantle Layman develops an argument that Forrest Place was a location of conflict over the usage of the space as a place for freedom of speech, association and peaceful assembly. [16]
With the 2021 AFL Grand Final being held at Perth Stadium because of a COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne, in lieu of the traditional AFL Grand Final parade a "people's parade" was held at Forrest Place allowing fans to celebrate the game (but without the clubs in attendance) on 24 September 2021, the day before the final. [17] The premiership cup presentation also took place at Forrest Place the day after the final following the Melbourne Football Club's victory over the Western Bulldogs, with the winning team in attendance. [18]
Forrest Place became a large paved area with the closing of the roadway in the late 1986. [3] [19] It still links Perth railway station on Wellington Street with the Murray Street Mall, with the bollards near the "Grow Your Own" public artwork (nicknamed "The Cactus") blocking vehicular access to the north. [20]
Bunbury is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, approximately 175 kilometres (109 mi) south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's third most populous city after Perth and Mandurah, with a population of approximately 75,000.
Armadale is a suburb of Perth within the City of Armadale, located on the south-eastern edge of the Perth metropolitan region. The major junction of the South Western and Albany Highways, which connect Perth with the South West and Great Southern regions of Western Australia respectively, is located within the suburb. It is also the terminus of the Armadale railway line, one of five major railway lines to service Perth.
The La Grange expedition was an expedition in 1865 to the vicinity of Lagrange Bay in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Led by Maitland Brown, the expedition initially searched for three settlers who had failed to return from an earlier exploring expedition. The three men were eventually found dead, having been speared and clubbed to death by Aboriginal Australians, some apparently in their sleep. Between six and twenty Aboriginal Australians were subsequently killed by members of the expedition in a controversial protracted fight that is often now referred to as the La Grange Massacre.
Murray Street is one of four main east-west roads within the Perth central business district (CBD).
Civil disturbances in Western Australia include race riots, prison riots, and religious conflicts – often Protestant versus Catholic groups.
St Georges Terrace is the main street in the city of Perth, Western Australia. It runs parallel to the Swan River and forms the major arterial road through the central business district.
Forrest Chase is a major shopping centre in Perth, Western Australia located in Forrest Place.
Wellington Street is the northernmost of the four primary east-west streets in the central business district of Perth, Western Australia. It is 3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi) long, stretching from Plain Street in East Perth to Thomas Street in West Perth.
Boans was a department store chain that operated in Perth, Western Australia between from the late 19th century to the late 20th century.
Sir Russell John Dumas KBE, CMG was a public servant and engineer who led several large works projects in Western Australia.
London Court is a three and four-level open-roofed shopping arcade located in the central business district in Perth, Western Australia. It was built in 1937 by wealthy gold financier and businessman Claude de Bernales for residential and commercial purposes. The arcade runs between the Hay Street Mall and St Georges Terrace and is considered an important tourist attraction in the City of Perth. It received a National Trust of Australia classification in 1978 and was recorded in the Register of the National Estate in 1982. The Heritage Council of Western Australia included it in the State Heritage Register in 1996.
The General Post Office is a heritage landmark building in Perth, Western Australia. Located on the western side of Forrest Place in the city's central business district, its imposing stone facade is in the Beaux-Arts style. The building was completed in 1923 after almost a decade of construction, which was protracted by World War I and the resulting shortages of construction materials. At the time of its opening, it was the largest building in Perth.
Burtville is an abandoned town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located 29 kilometres (18 mi) south east of Laverton.
The former Plaza Theatre is located at 650–658 Hay Street, Perth, Western Australia. It was the first purpose-designed Art Deco cinema in Perth. The Plaza Theatre opened in 1937 and was built for Hoyts Theatres Ltd.
The Esplanade Reserve in Perth, Western Australia, was a heritage listed public space between Perth Water and the Perth central business district. The public space was resumed by the Western Australian state government in April 2012 as part of the Elizabeth Quay redevelopment of the Perth waterfront area.
Trinity Church is a Uniting church located at 72 St Georges Terrace in Perth, Western Australia. Commenced in 1893, the former Congregational church is one of the oldest church buildings in the City of Perth, and one of the few remaining 19th-century colonial buildings in the city.
The lanes and arcades of Perth, Western Australia are collectively becoming culturally important to the city.
Padbury Buildings is the name for a range of existing and former structures found in various localities in Western Australia. The Padbury family, mainly Walter Padbury, had a range of buildings, some of which now are heritage listed.
The Padbury Buildings was a building complex in Forrest Place in Perth, Western Australia. It was located the full length of Forrest Place between Wellington Street and Murray Street. They were constructed in 1924–1925.
Media related to Forrest Place at Wikimedia Commons
