Old Cable Station

Statement of Significance

1.Symbolic of a period in Australia's International Communications when the submarine cable system was pivotal to the business community and a major artery for the Australian press. The alternative being the fortnightly mail steamer. Later, in the period covered by this building, as an alternative to, and complementary of, the Beam Radio service.
2. Significant as a way of life no longer practiced. Note - There are still submarine cables but of a different technology.
3. A purpose built cable station complex, only one of two in Western Australia and of a limited number in the remainder of Australia. The Broome station was a palatial iron structure being constructed in 1889 and being converted for use as a courthouse in 1921.
4. Significant as a landmark on the coastline at Cottesloe.
5. Designed by Samuel Rosenthal, a prominent Perth Architect.

Physical Description

The buildings forming the cable station before its conversion to the McCall Centre were the Main Building, the building at the rear, and the house on the southern side. These remain and are shown in solid lines on the attached plan drawings.
The main building is well proportioned with influences of classical proportioning. It faces west and has a verandah at the upper level running around the west and north elevations. The front facade is almost symmetrical with a portico balancing each end of the composition. The verandah along the north elevation is the element which creates the asymmetry of the front.
The overall composition shows influence of British Colonial Architecture. The Main Building is largely intact. The walls are of brick with limestone foundations at the front with limestone arches forming the lower level front elevation. The brick infill panels to the arches were
replaced as part of the alterations in 1972. Windows in the main are fenestrated types sash hung.
In the conversion to the McCall Centre the timber floor to the verandah was replaced with re-inforced concrete, various openings were made or alternatively bricked up, new partitions constructed, timber work to the fireplace removed and the opening bricked up, and various alterations made to accommodate the toilets.
The dwelling at the side has been extensively added to at the rear, the verandah at the front would seem to have been enclosed unsympathetically, and various alterations made internally. The walls are of brick.
According to the West Australian in 1926, the house was to house the one permanent "mechanician". In later years it is reported to have been the residence of the caretaker and gardener. The engine room at the rear which housed the auxiliary generator has been added to and largely enveloped by the covered ways. The walls are of brick. The original concrete floor and engine plinth were removed in 1972.
All buildings have grey black tiled roofs. It would appear that all the buildings were retiled in 1972.
The Air Raid Shelter on the coastal strip immediately opposite the cable station was built by the Commonwealth Government and was reputed to be the strongest shelter in Australia being made of reinforced concrete with the roof allegedly five feet thick with three feet walls. It had an entrance at each end, i.e. one at the north and one at the south. It was filled in with limestone rubble sometime after 1953.
Some 25 metres south of the Vlamingh Memorial (Air raid shelter), a plaque has been erected by the Overseas Telecommunications Commission commemorating the activities carried out by the station.
The cables are steel wire armoured, lead sheathed and according to the West Australian of 1926, india rubber insulated. The place is significant not so much for the buildings themselves but as a group of three structures
forming the cable station.

History

Assessment 1996
Construction 1926
Architect Samuel Rosenthal
Builder; SIngleton & Pitman
Alterations/additions 1972. Architect S.B.Cann, Principal Architect Public Works Dept.
Extent of Assessment (ie: specific elements included in assessment)
1. Telegraph building, walls and roof of engine room, original part of residential building.
2. Air Raid Shelter under the Vlamingh memorial.
3. Submarine cables under the road between the basement of the station and the high water mark.
4. Memorial Plaque
There does not appear to be a comprehensive local history of the operations of the Cottesloe Cable Station. Sufficient is reproduced here for the purposes of this classification.
In 1901 the Eastern Telegraph Company laid a cable from Cottesloe, W.A. to Mauritius via Cocos and thence to the Cape. The cable to W.A. opened on the 1st Nov 1901 and the following year was extended to South Australia. The transmission was done in a building at the corner of St George's Terrace and Barrack Street. Prior to this time "cables" were sent via Broome and Darwin with indeterminate delays in transit.
In 1926 a new submarine cable was laid by the Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph company allowing transmission at up to 15 to 20 times the rate possible through the old cable.
The Cottesloe Cable Station was built to coincide with the installation of the new cable and an upgrading of operation technology. While the business office remained in Perth the new building housed the relaying and transmission equipment and technical staff. Messages sent over the recently instituted Beam Radio Service would be received in Britain practically instantaneously with the sending of the message. Messages sent over the cable system up to that time had to be received and manually retransmitted at intervening stations because of the inherent nature of the
cable system putting the service at some competitive disadvantage to the Beam service.
The regenerating equipment housed in the new building in conjunction with similar equipment in other intervening stations allowed messages to be sent from Wellington, N.Z. to London with no intervening manual labour and with negligible time delay. The Cable Station continued to operate until the late 1960's, coming under the control of the Imperial and International Communications Company (Name change to Cables and Wireless Limited 1933/34) in 1929 (with the merger of the Eastern and Pacific Cable Companies and the Marconi Wireless Company), and
then of the Overseas Telecommunications Commission on the 1st April 1950. (The Overseas Telecommunications Commission was formed in 1948 to control the Australian end of all international cable and wireless traffic to and from Australia).
The Cottesloe-Adelaide cable failed in 1946 after 44 years of service and was abandoned due to the cost of repairs and the availability of alternative links. The cable to South Africa and Singapore via Cocos was abandoned in 1966. The submarine cables appear to remain in situ apart from the section across the
beach, being cut off at the start of the sand hills, with the ends emerging from the sea lying loose on the beach. The cables emerge in the basement of the station.
In its later years the station was also used for the reception and retransmission of radio messages.
It was normal practice in Cables and Wireless for the cables to be terminated in a cable hut immediately opposite the station, before entering the building. This was not the case for Cottesloe. During World War II, an air raid shelter was built immediately below where the Vlamingh Memorial now stands and in fact is still there. In the event of the destruction of the station, operations were to be resumed in the shelter.
With the closure of the cable station, the building came under the control of the West Australian Government and in 1972 was altered and added to for the purposes of the McCall Community Welfare Centre.

Uses

Historic Themes

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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.