British Empire and Commonwealth Games Village Precinct (fmr)

Child Places

• 26266 Beecroft Park

Values

Aesthetic – planning and residential architecture in the early 1960s.

Historic – VIIth Commonwealth Games; the development of City Beach.

Rarity - residential development in Western Australia provided by the government for sporting purposes.

Physical Description

Few houses extant in each Street. Yolande Place is the most intact with most of these houses on the northern side.

Single storey buildings with asbestos skillion rooves and salmon brick or white painted brick walls. Use of aluminium posts and window/door frames. Concrete fencing. Elevated places have perhaps two stories (for eg Pandora Drive). Most extant houses have native plantings.

There is some questions about whether the Boulevard Shopping Centre is the original Village shop complex.

The ‘central spine’ of parklands has been retained.

History

In the 1950s Perth was successful in being selected to host the 1962 VIIth Empire Games (now known as the Commonwealth Games). City of Perth Mayor Harry Howard was responsible for the proposal for the Empire Games bid and Town Clerk W. A. McI. Green played a significant role in the design of the sporting facilities.

The City of Perth allocated an area of land for the construction of the Games Village in City Beach. The village was to be located close to the Perry lakes Stadium, also constructed for the 1962 Empire Games. The Stadium was, when constructed, a world-class athletics facility. The Village has been described as the main impetus for the development of City Beach. Although the first residents were there in the 1930s, there was little substantial development until the 1960s.

A competition to design the layout of the village was won by Mr K Thomas and Mr H Walker. Various changes, however, were made to the layout of the Village before it was constructed. The Village consisted of two areas of housing around a central spine which incorporated an area of natural vegetation, recreation hall, dining rooms, administration building and shops.

A second competition was held to design the Games Village houses and forty West Australian architects submitted a total of 166 designs. Silver, Fairbrother and Associates won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. The Village was constructed using a selection of approximately six of the competition designs.

Immediately after the Games the Dining Rooms, Recreation Hall and Administrative buildings were dismantled and the area on which they had been built were converted to park. Initially it was proposed that the Games village would be handed to the State Housing Commission for disposal at the completion of the Games. The houses of the Games Village were renovated where necessary and sold for the government through the Rural and Industries bank. Six months after the last athletes moved out, all the houses were occupied.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity- High
Authenticity- Moderate

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

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