Documentation of Places

REGISTER OF HERITAGE PLACES ASSESSMENT DOCUMENTATION 11. ASSESSMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE The criteria adopted by the Heritage Council in November 1996 have been used to determine the cultural heritage significance of the place. PRINCIPAL AUSTRALIAN HISTORIC THEME(S) • 2.4.2 Migrating to seek opportunity • 2.5 Promoting settlement •• 3.4 Utilising natural resources • 3.5.1 Grazing stock • 3.6 Recruiting labour • 3.14 Using Australian materials in construction • 4.1.2 Making suburbs • 5.8 Working on the land • 8.1 Organising recreation • 8.12 Living in cities and suburbs HERITAGE COUNCIL OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA THEME(S) • 104 Land allocation and subdivision • 106 Workers • 107 Settlements • 110 Resource exploitation and depletion • 301 Grazing, pastoralism and dairying • 308 Commercial services and industries • 405 Sport, recreation and entertainment • 407 Cultural activities • 602 Early settlers • 604 Innovators 11. 1 AESTHETIC VALUE* Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach is unique in Western Australia as an open air entertainment venue that has been set into the hillside of a former limestone * For consistency, all references to architectural style are taken from Apperly, R., Irving, R., Reynolds, P. A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture. Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present, Angus and Robertson, North Ryde, 1989. For consistency, all references to garden and landscape types and styles are taken from Ramsay, J. Parks, Gardens and Special Trees: A Classification and Assessment Method for the Register of the National Estate, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1991, with additional reference to Richards, O. Theoretical Framework for Designed Landscapes in WA, unpublished report, 1997. Register of Heritage Places Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach 7 May 2019 3 Quarry incorporating tiered seating and a stage surrounded by soaring limestone walls. (Criterion 1.2) Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach has aesthetic value for its bushland setting and unobstructed views of the city. (Criterion 1.3) The exposed sheer Quarry faces provide striking evidence of the remains of a historical industrial process within a remnant native bush setting (Criterion 1.3) 11. 2. HISTORIC VALUE Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach has historic value as an early limestone Quarry, the stone of which was used in the construction of some of Perth’s early prominent buildings including the foundations of the Perth Town Hall. (Criterion 2.1) Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach is associated with the development of the limestone quarrying industry in the Perth metropolitan area in the first half of the nineteenth century. (Criterion 2.2) The place is significant for its associations with prominent settlers Walter Padbury and Henry Trigg, who were significant figures in the early development of Western Australia. (Criterion 2.2) The place is associated with Diana Waldron, founder of the Perth City Ballet, who with her husband architect, Ken Waldron was responsible for the inception, fundraising and construction of the Quarry Amphitheatre. (Criterion 2.3) Since its establishment in 1986, Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach has provided a unique cultural venue for the West Australian community, which is distinguished by its exceptional architectural response to the natural and cultural environment. (Criterion 2.4) 11. 3. SCIENTIFIC VALUE Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach has moderate potential to provide information about the process of quarrying limestone in the nineteenth century. (Criterion 3.1) 11. 4. SOCIAL VALUE Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach is of social value to the local and wider community who have campaigned to retain the Amphitheatre and its environs as it was when it was first established as a performance venue in 1986. (Criterion 4.1) Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach has social significance to the local and wider community as a venue for concerts, ballet and other cultural events, since 1986. (Criterion 4. 2) 12. DEGREE OF SIGNIFICANCE 12. 1. RARITY Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach has rarity value as an extant former inner metropolitan Quarry. (Criterion 5.1) Register of Heritage Places Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach 7 May 2019 4 Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach is unique in Western Australia as a former Quarry that has been adapted for re- use as an Amphitheatre. (Criterion 5.1) 12. 2 REPRESENTATIVENESS The place is a representative example of a former Quarry in the inner Perth metropolitan region that was used to extract limestone during the first half of the nineteenth century. (Criterion 6.2) 12. 3 CONDITION Regular maintenance and upgrades to facilities have been undertaken over the years to ensure the ongoing use of the Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach as a public venue. Remediation works have been undertaken to the rock walls to ensure the safety of patrons at risk from small rocks falling from the crest of the Quarry into the amphitheatre. These works involved removing vegetation from the crest, and installing a steel mesh geofabric over the cleared area to ensure stability. These works have not impacted on the Quarry walls. The Quarry walls themselves are in a stable condition, however natural weathering of the limestone has weakened the surface, as has natural growth of vegetation along the Quarry walls. 12. 4 INTEGRITY The Quarry walls have high integrity, the original intention and use of the area is readily apparent even with the adaptive re-use of the place as a theatre. With the redevelopment of the place, the Quarry wall has little potential to be returned to its original use. The Amphitheatre as a whole has a high integrity, the use of space and intent of use is readily apparent. Given the ongoing use of the place, the value of the Amphitheatre as an adaptively re-used quarry is likely to be sustained into the future. 12. 5 AUTHENTICITY The Quarry walls have moderate authenticity, still being largely intact, although adaptive re-use of the place as a theatre has left some physical impacts on this fabric. The Amphitheatre as a whole has a high authenticity, with little redevelopment of the site since its inception; the Auditorium, Stage and Administrative Block have undergone some changes but this has not significantly impacted on original fabric. Register of Heritage Places Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach 7 May 2019 5 13. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE The documentation for this place is based on the heritage assessment completed by the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH) in January 2017, with amendments and/or additions by DPLH staff and the Register Committee. 13. 1 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach comprises a 566-seat open air Amphitheatre located high on Reabold Hill in City Beach with panoramic views of Bold Park towards the city developed in a former limestone Quarry, all within a natural bushland setting. Following the foundation of Perth in August 1829, the townsite was laid out between Mount Eliza and what was to later become Heirisson Island. From the 1840s, farmlets and market gardens were established to the north of the townsite, utilising the lakes and fertile swampland for agriculture. Some of the first settlers to take up landholdings in the area included William Leeder, John Monger, the Surveyor General John Septimus Roe, and Henry Trigg.1 Limestone was in great demand for construction in the new colony. The earliest lime kilns in Western Australia were established at the initial settlement sites of Fremantle and Albany in the 1830s, where settlers had access to local supplies of limestone. During the early expansion of the Swan River Colony, small kilns were established at Cottesloe, Peppermint Grove and Claremont from the 1850s to the 1890s. 2 Henry Trigg, a carpenter and master builder from Gloucester, England arrived in the new colony of Western Australia in 1829. In 1834, Trigg was granted 500 acres of land, which lay south of modern day Grantham Street, stretching from Floreat to the coastal sand hills. The western boundary of Trigg’s land ran along the top of a limestone ridge. As a builder, Trigg recognised the value of this limestone outcropping and set up a quarrying and lime burning business. Trigg’s business, which became known as the ‘Limekilns’ prospered. 3 In 1839, Trigg purchased neighbouring land to the south from Surveyor General John Septimus Roe. The land included Perry Lakes and One Tree Hill, (now known as Reabold Hill).4 In the same year, Trigg was appointed Superintendent of Public Works, and in this role was responsible for overseeing the erection of many early government buildings in Perth, and the outer suburbs.5 In 1844, Walter Padbury, a pastoralist, acquired 426 acres of land adjacent to Trigg’s property on the western side of Herdsman Lake. He later purchased Trigg’s land including the Limekilns business for £350, forming a 1,234 acre landholding, which became known as the ‘Limekilns Estate’. For the next 20 years Padbury built the estate into a successful property, retaining quarrying operations, and supporting a number of business ventures, including cattle grazing, a slaughterhouse, a tannery, and with the introduction of convict transportation in 1 Town of Cambridge Municipal Heritage Inventory and Townscape Precinct Study, page 21 2 J Mackay, Conservation Plan for Traditional Lime Burning in Wanneroo, Western Australia, (Curtin University of Technology:2000), pp. 19-20; R Brittan, op cit., pp. 13-15 3 http://www.quarryamphitheatre.com.au/The_Venue/History_of_the_Quarry 4 http://www.quarryamphitheatre.com.au/The_Venue/History_of_the_Quarry 5 P. J. Coles, 'Trigg, Henry (1791–1882)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/trigg-henry-2745/text3883, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 25 August 2015. Register of Heritage Places Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach 7 May 2019 6 1850, a large scale butchering business that supplied meat to the colonial government.6 During Padbury’s ownership, the estate included a six roomed residence, a two storey barn, a hay loft and a carriage and cart shed, all constructed of stone.7 At the height of operations, more than 50 men were employed at the quarry and lime kiln site.

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