Coode Street Jetty

Physical Description

The Coode Street Jetty is situated at the northern end of Coode Street in South Perth. This jetty was built in 1990 and is a simple timber deck construction with timber piles. The current jetty is in a different location and of a different design to the original jetty.

History

Prior to the construction of a jetty at this site in 1896, this location was regularly used as the landing site of boats for locals and visitors, including visiting clergy.

Erected in 1896, the Coode Street Jetty was an important transport link to the Perth central business district. A map of South Perth produced by Real Estate Agents, Owtram and Purkiss in 1902, shows Coode Street Jetty as was one of three jetties on the south side of Perth Water, the other two being at Queen Street and Mends Street.

In the early 1900s, boat building was a common local industry along the South Perth foreshore. One prominent local boat builder was A S Pritchard, who had a boat shed and residence in Swanview Terrace and hired out boats from the Coode Street Jetty.

A ferry service between Perth and Coode Street, South Perth was first operated by W F Tubbs. The service was not a success and local residents, Rowland Pennington and Fred Bailey, formed a public company, the River Ferry Company, to try and bring some regularity to the system. Two sailing boats the Mary Queen and the Gladys were allocated to the service but the venture did not succeed. More successful was Roland Pennington’s kiosk which provided refreshments to commuters from an iron-clad kiosk set up by the Penningtons on their property on the corner of Coode Street and Suburban Road (now Mill Point Road). Each time a ferry docked, the kiosk was opened to provide such things as locally grown bananas split lengthways and filled with fresh cream.

In 1904-6, a successful Swan River ferrying service was established by Jack Olsen and Claes (Harry) Sutton. This service including regular ferries to Coode Street. The fleet included the well-known ‘Val’ boats, such as Valfreda, Valthera, Valdemar and Valkyrie I and II were named in honour of Olsen’s and Sutton’s Scandinavian links. To enable the regular service to Coode Street, the jetty was modified in 1903 and in 1907. A 1916 timetable for Valdemar and Valdura showed a regular service to Coode Street ,seven days a week with costs for gentleman at 21 shillings per quarter with ladies being charged 12 shillings and sixpence per quarter. The Sutton and Olsen families continued the ferry service until 1935 when the business was sold to Nat Lappin who formed the Swan River Ferries Company. In contrast to the Coode Street ferry service, the government-operated Mends Street service raised many complaints.

The Coode Street Jetty was used by Chinese market gardeners who occupied land on what is now Sir James Mitchell Park from the 1880s. At weekly intervals, the market gardeners packed their fresh produce on carts to take them across the Causeway to the James Street Markets in North Perth. Often on Saturday nights the hard-working gardeners would go by ferry across to Perth and have a night out on the town. They returned by the 11.30pm ferry and were back working by 6.00am the following morning.

Until the 1940s, the South Perth foreshore was an irregular alignment with shallow reed beds on the waters edge. The state government, with local governments support, began a program of dredging and filling along the foreshore. As part of these works the Coode Street jetty was rebuilt out into the river on an alignment with Coode Street, where previously it was located to the east of Coode Street. It was proposed by the South Perth Road Board that a dredged pool located adjacent to the jetty prior to reclamation should be retained for swimming and boating. However the reclamation works meant this was not viable so the proposal did not proceed.

A decline in passenger numbers led to the private Coode Street Ferry service transferring to the State transport system and the completion of the Narrows Bridge in 1959 was an additional factor in the decline the popularity of the ferry service.

Since the 1960s, the future of the ferry service to Coode Street has a been regularly discussed. For a short period the ferry service between Barrack Street and Coode Street (via Mends Street) was suspended, and despite the rebuilding of the jetty in 1990, services were not reinstated. The new jetty was located west of the original jetty and did not have any building material from the earlier structure.

In c1997, private company Captain Cook Cruises took over the contract for ferry services in Perth Water and as part of that served a limited ferry service to the Coode Street Jetty was offered. However, the ferry service to the Coode Street Jetty ended on 1 May 2005 due to lack of regular demand. At that time, the primary service to Mends Street had an average of about 24 passengers per trip, while the average number of patrons using the Coode Street stop was just three passengers per trip, consequently the service to the Coode Street Jetty was dropped.

The jetty remains in situ and is used for passive recreation, fishing and by private boat owners as a location for short term berths and dropping and retrieving passengers.

Integrity/Authenticity

High / High

Condition

Good

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