Charles Veryard Reserve

Statement of Significance

The Smith’s Lake area has considerable historical significance as it represents a lake, the margins of which were used for farming, market gardening and dairying, before being filled and redeveloped as a park. The Charles Veryard Reserve has considerable social significance for its public accessibility for open space purposes and its long term associations with the North Perth Cricket Club and Old Modernians Hockey Club. The adapted Change rooms and Social Rooms are of much lesser significance.

Physical Description

The Reserve is a large well drained and grassed open space suitable for organised sporting events, which do not require spectator facilities. The single storey brick building shows two definite periods of development in the original c.1970s brick and gable roofed pavilion and the more recent hipped roof facility with surrounding verandahs. The recent extension is symmetrical, but located off centre to the original building. It has perimeter glazing, above a face brick upstanding wall. The verandah is supported by slender steel columns and has an expansive concrete floor. Grassed sports fields

History

Smith's Lake was known to Aboriginals as Danjanberup. Farming, market gardening and dairying were carried out around its edge following European Settlement in 1829. It originally covered a larger area than it does today, but in the 1920's the Claisebrook drain was extended and the amount of surface water decreased. Between 1914 and 1937, the City of Perth acquired much of the former lake areas for redevelopment as parks and recreation areas. However, Smith's Lake was the last to be fully developed. It remained as 'swamp land and high reeds' (Harold Lee) and the area was still being used for market gardening in the 1950s. John Gooey had a house and a market garden on the edge of the lake and south of his was another. There was also one where Barnett Place is now and a fourth in nearby Howlett Street. George Gooey, one of John's sons, ran a vegetable delivery round in the area and local schoolboys often helped him on Sundays. The vegetables were carried in a four - wheeled canvas covered cart, which was horse drawn. The lake itself was used as a rubbish tip, and after the Second World War it contained the remains of rusting wartime tanks and Bren-gun carriers. John Gooey's land was resumed by the Perth City Council in 1959, and the area was subject to a planning scheme in the 1960s. The Council wanted to provide a swimming pool, cultural centre, kindergarten and infant welfare centre on the land, but that plan proved too costly. Instead, the Lake was filled and subdivided, again by dumping rubbish there and subdivided, creating 76 residential and 10 commercial lots as well as a recreation reserve. The reserve was named after Charles Veryard, a Perth City Councillor from 1927 to 1964, and Mayor of Perth from 1964 until his death in 1967. Charles Veryard Oval became the home of the North Perth Cricket Club and Old Modernians Hockey Club with facilities, such as the change rooms and social rooms, established for their use. A Smiths' Lake Precinct Group was formed in 1997 and rehabilitation of the lake began in 1999 through the efforts of this group. They were assisted by corporate and local government funding and help with replanting came from the wider community, including a group of North Perth Primary School children. Further subdivision occurred in 2000 when the Vincent Council's former Works Depot in Richmond Street was subdivided (the depot was relocated to Osborne Park the same year). In 2002 further work was carried out in the area, changing it back to a more natural setting, and art works were added plus recordings of interviews from the Vincent Local History Centre. The work was the first stage of the development of a Wetlands Trail linking all the wetlands in the Vincent area with Banks Reserve on the river in Mount Lawley.

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