Caltex Service Station

Statement of Significance

The service station was constructed by the innovative Wood family as one of the earliest examples of a Super Service Station in the Perth area. Its remaining original fabric is distinctive in its detailing and represents early associations with the burgeoning motor vehicle industry. Its early use of the Interwar Art Deco style gave a progressive connotation.

Physical Description

Part of the original crenellated canopy and two Corinthian columns remain along the north western corner. The remainder of the canopy was rebuilt in 2001 using new materials but copying the style of the original. The structure housing original workshops to the Beaufort Street frontage is discernible, but considerably adapted. The original fabric is discernible within the largely reconstructed service station on the site. Pensioner Funeral Services, a building of the same period, is situated on the opposite corner of the intersection. Extensive

History

William Henry Wood was a pioneer of the service station industry in Western Australia. His three eldest sons, William, Eric and Albury Wood, built the Wood Bros. Super Service Station on the corner of Beaufort and Bulwer streets in 1928. Other of William Wood's service stations were on the corner of Albany and Great Eastern Highways in Victoria Park (1923) and on Lord Street, on the City side of the Mount Lawley Subway. William's sons, trading as the Wood Bros, opened another service station on Adelaide Terrace, East Perth, in the late 1920s, in a converted house. The Beaufort Street Service Station was sold in 1930 and traded afterwards for some years as Woodsome Garage and Engineering Co. and then as Woodsome Service Station Ltd. By 1960, the place was trading as O'Reilly's Service Station. The service station originally consisted of the canopy and a building partially contained under the canopy. Other structures were added over the years, including a parking and garage building to the north-east (1929), a lubritorium on the eastern side (1960), and a retail/display area (1964). Some of these buildings have since been removed or altered as were the bowseres, which were manually operated, the fuel having to be hand-pumped up into a glass bowl at the top of the bowser and then gravity-fed into the vehicles' petrol tankd. In 1983, Black and White Taxis took over the service station as a 24-hour taxi base and refueling depot. Much of the canopy, which was considered the remaining most authentic part of the structure, was demolished early in 2001, and has been rebuilt in similar style with modern materials. .

Integrity/Authenticity

Low degree

Uses

Historic Themes

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