Araluen Botanic Park

Child Places

• 15623 Young Australia League Grove of the Unforgotten, WW1

Statement of Significance

Araluen is an attractive botanic park, featuring a diverse range of exotic plantings, garden structures and buildings, which combine with the natural bushland setting to produce pleasing environs.
The individual buildings make references to domestic craftsman- style architecture popular during the late 1920s and the 1930s, and with their honest use of rustic materials and homely expressions, complement the setting of the park.
The place is significant for its association with Hugh Buckingham who took up the land in 1907, with the Young Australia League and its founder, J.J. Simons, and with various benefactors such as T.V. Healy, who financed development of the camp.
The place is highly valued by the community, as evidenced by he many visitors, by the generations of young people who have camped there over the years, and the strong public support which influenced the Government to purchase the park to secure its preservation.
The place is representative of parks established in the 1930s for recreation and holiday accommodation.

Physical Description

Araluen comprises a botanic park covering approximately 59 hectares, which straddles the valley of Stinton Creek and consists of bushland, exotic plantings and a number of buildings and built landscape features. The creek within the park flows through a steep valley containing remnants of the natural vegetation. A number of timber-framed bridges have been constructed over the creek, to allow visitor access throughout the grounds, and the use of rough timber and stone is continued throughout the park, in the construction of the various pergolas, walkways and buildings. The significant landscape structures include ‘‘Bennet Bridge’’, ‘‘The Grove of the Unforgotten’’ (1933-34), ‘‘The Mackintosh Pergola’’ (1934), the ‘‘Memorial Pergola’’ (1940), and the ‘‘Swimming Pool’’ (1941) and Pergola (1951).
Some of the significant buildings include ‘‘The Round House’’ (1931), the ruins of ‘‘Shepherdson Bungalow’’ (1931), the ‘‘Totterdell Bungalow’’ (1931), the ruins of ‘‘The Log Cabin’’ (1932), ‘‘The Aspro Bungalow’’ (1932). ‘‘Chalet Healy’’ (1937) and the ‘‘City of Brisbane Bungalow’’ (1937).
Exotic plantings include many ornamental trees, flowers, ferns, conifers and the annual show of tulips.

History

In 1929, J.J. (John Joseph) Simons purchased Canning Lot 523 in Roleystone from Hugh Buckingham for use as a country retreat for the Young Australia League (Y.A.L.). Simons named the property 'Araluen'- an Aboriginal word meaning ‘‘running waters’’- after a poem by Henry Kendall.
J.J. (‘‘Boss’’) Simons (1883-1948) was a successful businessman as well as a promoter of activities for young people. He was the long-time managing director of Western Press Ltd., and, with Victor Courtney, had established the weekly Call newspaper in 1918 and the Mirror in 1921. In 1935, he purchased the Sunday Times. In addition, he was involved with the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) the Australian Natives’’ Association (ANA), and the Western Australian Trotting Association (W A T A). In 1921, he won the Legislative Assembly seat of East Perth for the Labor Party. Simons was also an executive member of the New Settlers’’ League.
In 1905, Simons founded the Young Australia Football League to promote Australian Rules football and sporting tours for boys. This proved so successful that, in 1909, the League was expanded and renamed the Young Australia League (Y.A.L.), and, after World War One, interstate branches were also established. The Y.A.L. was promoted as an ‘‘independent, patriotic, non-political and non- sectarian’’ organization, whose motto was 'Love, Service and Tolerance'. A major aim was to ‘‘educate youth through travel’’ and to that end it organized many tours in Australia, Great Britain, and North America. It has been estimated that in Simon’’s lifetime, 50,000 young people toured with the Y.A.L. Other activities of the League included debating, band music, sport and theatrical performances.
The work of landscaping and constructing the paths and roads began during Easter in 1931 and continued for several years. It was largely carried out by working parties of Y.A.L boys on weekends and holidays. Much of the stone used to construct the steps and the foundations of the buildings is likely to have come from the Canning Dam site, only a few miles away, when the granite rock face in the valley of the Canning River was blasted away.
After the Young Australia League acquired ‘‘Araluen’’, well-known architect, William G. Bennett, who had been a member of the League from the age of sixteen, was involved in the design of many of the buildings established at the site. The first building to be erected was the Roundhouse (used as accommodation for Y.A.L. boys and officers), made from the sides of barrels, which after its destruction by fire, was replaced by the present rectangular stone building in 1931, added to in 1941.
Another building designed by Bennett was ‘‘Chalet Healy’’, situated on the site of the old Buckingham Mill, and originally built as a 'tea garden' and to provide guest room accommodation. ‘‘Chalet Healy’’ was officially opened by the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir James Mitchell, on 19 June 1937, before a crowd estimated at 200. The ceremony received considerable publicity in the West Australian.
In 1932, the Rustic Entrance, a timber archway over the road, was constructed at the southern end of Araluen, and, in 1933, work began on the ‘‘Grove of the Unforgotten’’ to commemorate Y.A.L. boys
146 killed in the Great War. It was originally planned to have 89 steps and the same number of pine trees, planted in the shape of a lyre, to commemorate the 88 Y.A.L. members, and one for the ‘‘unknown soldier’’.
On Mother’’s Day in 1940, the Rose Pergola, designed by Bennett and built by Jack Italiano, was opened by Lt Governor, Sir James Mitchell, as a memorial to Mrs. Margaret Simons, mother of J.J. Simons. In 1941, a natural rock wall swimming pool- popular for many years- was constructed on the creek at Araluen. A pergola near the pool, with plaques on each of the supporting timber pillars commemorating prominent people associated with the Y.A.L., was built in the 1950s.
After Simons’’ death in 1948, the running of ‘‘Araluen’’ was in the hands of the executors of his estate, who formed a trust for the site’’s management, the following year. By 1962, it was estimated that 21,000 youngsters had stayed at Araluen, which continued to be used as a youth camp by the Y.A.L (from the 1950s for both boys and girls) and as a popular public picnic spot.
Without the ongoing fundraising and personal financial support of J.J. Simons, ‘‘Araluen’’ struggled with increasing management and maintenance costs, resulting in the decision to log timber growing on the site. In 1985, with continuing financial difficulties, the Y.A.L. decided to sell part of ‘‘Araluen’’. Since that time, it changed hands several times, coming onto the market again in February 1990.
There was widespread concern that foreign investors or developers would purchase it, and restrict public access to the site or otherwise destroy the heritage value of the place. To counter this possibility, local resident, Noelene Drage, took up an $8,000 option to take the land off the market until Government or public help could be enlisted. On 14 May 1990, 170 people attended a public meeting, at which a steering committee was formed to purchase the property, with the hope of Government involvement in this acquisition. The next month, the Minister for Planning and the Arts, announced that the Government would negotiate to buy ‘‘Araluen’’, and vest the property in a suitable body for the ongoing maintenance and development of the park. The Araluen Botanic Park Foundation, which was formed as a result of the public meeting in May 1990, took over management of the site in September 1995, under a lease with the Western Australian Planning Commission.

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