Point Heathcote Lower Land

Statement of Significance

Point Heathcote Lower Land, the level ground adjoining on the northeast and east sides of the former Heathcote Hospital located on the high ground at Point Heathcote, comprising a level cleared sports field created from land filling the former river marshland with some remnant indigenous vegetation and mature introduced tree species generally exotic, is a place of considerable cultural significance for the following reasons: the place has direct associational value with the extant former Heathcote Hospital complex located on the high ground
to the west of the Lower Land; the place retains its transformed characteristics whereby the original river marshland was cleared, filled, levelled and developed as a sports field for use in association with the Heathcote Hospital; the place is historically important for its original association through use by Aboriginal people, and subsequently from the 1840s with European settlers who used the land for grazing and who acquired parts of the subdivided Point Heathcote site, and for acquisition by the State Government in the 1920s for establishment of The Point Heathcote Reception Home opened in 1929; the place is historically significant for its association with Captain Stirling in 1827 and Captain Fremantle in 1829, both visiting the site in the process of exploration for European settlement; the place is of social importance for its original use by Aboriginal people and subsequently by white settlers, by the patients and staff of The Point Heathcote Reception Home and Point Heathcote Hospital, and most recently since closure of the Hospital for management by the City of Melville and use of the land in conjunction with the Heathcote Hospital buildings as a place for passive recreation and public access.

Physical Description

Point Heathcote Lower Land is an element of the original The Point Heathcote Reception Home opened in 1929. Preparation of the Lower Land was a deliberate exercise to create a recreational sports ground incorporating a cricket pitch, and later three associated buildings which are no longer extant. Those later buildings were located in the northeast corner of the Lower Land and were constructed for use as rehabilitation buildings, dating from 1939-49 and 1950-69. A proposed pavilion to be erected in the northwest corner of the sports ground does not appear to have been built.

A Public Works Department Drawing 24429 dated 4 January 1926 described the Lower Land as ‘Future Cricket and Sports Ground’. It is that open sports ground ringed with tree planting to most of the perimeter which survives as a level area, turfed, and retaining a concrete cricket pitch in the centre of the ground. The turf and the cricket pitch are now in a deteriorated condition.

Preparation of the site by clearing and levelling, has removed the indigenous landscape. At the northern edge a section of river marshland and paperbarks appears to be the sole remnant of early original landscape. The perimeter of the Lower Land, and in particular at the northeast, southeast and southwest corners, contains stands of indigenous tree species and a predominant number of introduced trees, all generally mature and some in distressed condition. An 1827 record by Charles Fraser, Colonial Botanist of New South Wales, who visited the Point Heathcote site with Captain James Stirling in 1827, noted the ‘magnificent Banksias and Dryandras, a remarkable species of Grevillea, a species of Leptospermum, and a great dwarf species of Calytris'. Few of these trees are present on site, and some species not at all.

The dominant species on site are now peppermints, she-oaks, two conifers, wattles, sugar gums or lemon scented gums and other indigenous eucalypts, tuart, zamias, liquidambar, London plane, oleander, flame, box, paperbark and considerable introduced grasses and weed infestations. In the carpark area there are olives, cape lilacs, oaks and other exotic species.

The planting in the northeast corner indicates a more sophisticated garden development incorporating a wide range of introduced exotics, in association with the buildings that formally were located in that area.

A gravel carpark in poor condition is located at the northeast corner of the Lower Land, adjacent to Duncraig Road.

The embankment which divides the Lower Land from the high ground along the western end retains some indigenous tree growth, generally Banksias and zamia palms, and weed infestation.

A cyclone mesh fence extends along the northern boundary between the level ground and an introduced pedestrian/cycle path.

History

The Beeliar Nyoongars used Point Heathcote as a camp site and hunting ground. The Aboriginal name for Point Heathcote is 'Goollugatup', the place of children.

Point Heathcote was the landing place and campsite of Captain James Stirling in an exploratory expedition in 1827, an expedition to determine the potential for settlement for a townsite. Later in 1829 on 2 May, Captain Fremantle visited the Point Heathcote headland on his exploration of the river lands. Point Heathcote was a serious consideration for settlement.

The Lower Land at Point Heathcote would have been part of that investigation, in the context of the landform of the Lower Land in the early 19th century possibly as a river marshland with indigenous woodland, below the prominence of the high ground as a landmark part of the Point Heathcote site. The landform of the Lower Land and of the embankment at that time is conjectural. Charles Fraser, Colonial Botanist of New South Wales, who accompanied Stirling on his 1827 exploration, commented favourably, somewhat enthusiastically, about the indigenous landscape on the site, including presumably the landscape of the Lower Land which bordered the river foreshore to the west, the north and the east. Fraser also noted the abundance of fresh water on the beach, sourced by scratching the sand close to the surface.

Records indicate that settlement at Point Heathcote was slow to establish, on the grounds of a fear of attack from Aborigines who inhabited the site as well as apprehension about fire in an isolated site well away from the settlements at Fremantle and Perth. The headland was part of the traditional lands of Midgergooroo and his son Yagan, whose presence at the site continued into the 1830s. The Lower Land and its potential as a food resource and close association with the river would have been important to the Aborigines.
From the 1840s until the mid-1890s, the Point Heathcote site was used by European settlers for grazing of horses and cattle.

By the mid-1890s, as a consequence of improved communication and transport in the Colony, the pattern of land use changed dramatically. Subdivision for residential development ensued.

• Lionel Lukin (1801-1863) a farmer and pastoralist was the first settler to be granted 300 hectares at Swan Loc. 61, later extended to 440 hectares in 1841.
• Alfred Waylen (1805-1856) bought Swan Loc. 61 in September 1842 when Lukin mortgaged his holding and failed to meet repayments. Waylen from Capetown had an inn and was Director of the Agricultural Society in 1841.
• John Wellard (1825-1885) bought the property from Waylen in 1856 for grazing purposes. Wellard was a surveyor, storekeeper, hotelkeeper in Fremantle, Chandler & partner with William Padbury.
• Silas and George Pearse (1808-1866 and 1839-1914) purchased Lots 61 and 74 at the time of Wellard’s bankruptcy in 1865. The land continued to be used for grazing. The Pearse’s were ferrymen in Fremantle and dairy farmers with a large business as butchers. Both were prominent in civic affairs and Local Government.
• William McMillan bought the land in 1886 and sold on to the Western Australian Land Co. Ltd. in 1892.
• Alexander Matheson bought Swan Loc. 61 and the nearby Swan Locs. 73 and 74; the land was then subdivided in 1896 by the Melville Park Estate Co. of which Matheson was a Director.
• The Christian Brothers in 1909 showed interest in acquiring the land, without resolution until 1918. Between 1923 and 1927, the Christian Brothers’ land was bought by the State Government, together with other smaller lots in private
ownership.

The Point Heathcote land was promoted in 1920 by the Melville Roads Board and local members of Parliament to Premier James Mitchell for purchase by the Government for use as a pleasure resort. Subsequently in 1926, The Point Heathcote Reception Home was designed by the Public Works Department under the jurisdiction of Government Architect W. B. Hardwick, to address overcrowding at the Claremont Hospital for the Insane, and to provide treatment and care for patients with mental disorders who were considered to be recoverable, as opposed to the senile, epileptic or mentally deficient. The institution was opened in 1929 and continued in operation as a place of peace and tranquillity until closure in 1994.

The Heathcote Hospital, in its entirety of buildings on the high ground and the sports field on the Lower Land, was vested in the City of Melville for management as a place of community use in the late 1990s. The Lower Land has remained in that management, but not refurbished for the proposed recreational use pending the completion of a Management Plan by the City.

Condition

Deteriorated.

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.