Wooden Blocks - Mouat Street, Fremantle

Values

• The place is rare as an archaeological site containing remnants of wooden paved road, and has the potential to reveal further information about this technique.
• The place is rare as an extant example of the use of jarrah blocks as road paving in Western Australia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century.
• The wooden road paving is associated with the growth and development of Fremantle stemming from the gold boom.
• Mouat Street is valued as one of the earliest established streets in Fremantle, contributing to the iconic West End precinct.

Physical Description

Mouat Street is a 300m long street within Fremantle which runs north-south from Phillimore Street to Marine Terrace. The place is parallel to Cliff Street and Henry Street, which also run north-south, and intersects with High Street. Wooden Blocks, Mouat Street, Fremantle is within the State Registered place P25225 West End, Fremantle. Underneath the bitumen at the intersection of High Street and Mouat Street is a series of jarrah blocks (1903) which formed the road at the time. The extent of these wooden blocks is unknown.

History

The first contact with Europeans in the area was with British, French, and American whalers. In 1827, a British exploratory voyage resulted in Captain James Stirling recommending the Swan River as the site for a future British colony. The Colony was declared in 1829, with Fremantle as its port and Perth its capital. Perth and Fremantle were surveyed by John Septimus Roe in 1829, 1833, and 1836. An 1833 map shows Mouat Street within the wider town, with High Street as the primary street.

The Colony developed slowly and by the mid-1840s, prominent residents began to call for convicts to provide a labour force and funds to assist the settlement. In 1849, the Colony was designated as a penal settlement, and the first convicts arrived in June 1850. Convict labour allowed for public works that had been beyond reach of the small colonial population, including bridges, roads, jetties, and public buildings. The earliest known wooden paved roads in WA were laid using convict labour. In 1862, Governor Hampton proposed paving unfinished portions of the Fremantle-Perth Road (now Stirling Highway) with wood and this technique was later used on the Perth-Guildford Road. Convicts cut tree trunks into discs (later known as ‘Hampton’s Cheeses’) approximately a foot wide, which were laid alongside each other with gaps compacted with soil or crushed limestone.

Fremantle greatly benefitted from the discovery of gold in the eastern goldfields in the 1890s. As a port town, Fremantle was an entry point for both goods and people into the Colony. New accommodation and commercial buildings were constructed, and Fremantle became a busy industrial port.

In the 1890s, WA timber including jarrah and karri were exported to London to pave roads. Following the success of this method overseas, the Fremantle Council was asked whether Fremantle streets could also be paved with wooden blocks, which at the time were paved with limestone. In 1896, plans were initiated to lay wooden paving in some of the streets surrounding Fremantle Port where the traffic was heaviest. Two years later, the Fremantle Council became the first municipality in WA to use wooden street paving. Laid on High Street, the jarrah blocks were arranged longitudinally, from Cliff Street to the Town Hall, and were grouted with tar and bluestone dust.

In 1902, the Fremantle Council planned a schedule of works to pave additional streets, including Mouat (between Philimore and Croke Streets) and Cliff Street with wood. Works were complete by November 1903. After laying concrete, the wooden blocks were covered in tar and laid in an interlocking pattern:

‘…Mouat Street has been blocked for its entire length, nearly a quarter of a million jarrah cubes having been laid down on a solid bed of concrete, at a cost of less than £4,000. The work has been well carried out, and ratepayers will have the satisfaction of seeing a sensible diminution in the cost of maintaining the thoroughfares named, over which most of the heavy vehicular traffic of Fremantle passes.’

The Fremantle Port was later paved with wooden blocks and in 1912, the wooden paving on Cliff Street was extended from the Phillimore Street end to the Fremantle Harbour Trust boundary. The technique was also used in Hay Street in Perth.

In 1928, a portion of High Street was replaced with bitumised concrete following difficulties with installed tram tracks on the wooden road. The wooden blocks would move away from the tracks, leaving gaps for water to settle, which resulted in swollen blocks that caused misalignment to the concrete footpath kerbing. It is possible that Wooden Blocks, Mouat Street, Fremantle was also covered in bitumen around this time. Sources indicate that, if not in 1928, they were covered by 1956.

In August 2020, a portion of Wooden Blocks, Mouat Street, Fremantle were uncovered in excellent condition during pipe construction works. The wooden blocks were recorded and re-covered, and the pipe works were rerouted so as to not further disturb them. The excavated area was re-laid with bitumen.

Archaeology

The place is an archaeological site, underneath the bitumen of Mouat Street.

Uses

Historic Themes

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.