Kate Street Park & Surrounding Houses

Statement of Significance

The Kate Street Reserve has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons: • Kate Street Park provides the central focus for the surrounding residences, many of which are timber worker's cottages. The park and the houses together form a quiet, character precinct which has aesthetic and social value.

Physical Description

Kate Street Reserve is a manicured parkland bounded by Kate Street to the north east, Norseman Street to the south east, Bickford Lane to the south west and Lake View Street to the north west. The reserve is comprised of playground equipment, seating and public artwork. The reserve is bounded by a steel and concrete fence to all sides and mature tree plantings of Eucalypt, Ficus and Melaleuca. In the streets the surround the park include number of timber worker's cottages mixed in with new developments. The public artwork located to the south of the reserve was installed in October 2015. There is a plaque to the base of the artwork that reads: Town of Victoria Park Public Art Artist: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah Title: Everything is True 'Everything is True' is a monument to the idealised perceptions of childhood. Exalting fact with the fervour of faith, this work celebrate the aspirations of a boyhood spent in the company of giant lizards, action figures and the endless hunt for lost civilisations. Opened: 19 October 2015 www.victoriapark.wa.gov.au www.abdulrahmanabdullah.com

History

Kate Street was likely named after the Lady Kate mine at Callion, west of Menzies in the Eastern Goldfields. The streets surrounding and including what was to become Kate Street Reserve were laid out and first offered for sale in 1904. The eight lots that now comprise Kate Street Reserve were all purchased by a Murchison goldfields publican, Thomas Walter Orchard. The surrounding streets to the Kate Reserve include names from the goldfields. As 'Lake View', 'Norseman', 'Boulder', 'Ivanhoe '(Cardiff Street’s original name before Victoria Park’s merger with Perth in 1917), 'Bank' of England, Royal 'Mint' and Royal 'Dane') were all Goldfields mines, it is likely that Kate Street was also named after a mine, in this case, Lady Kate mine at Callion which was operating as early as 1896. All eight lots were put up for sale by the original owner in October 1914. They were purchased by the Victoria Park Municipal Council in late 1914 or early 1915 for recreational use. The reserve was first cleared in c1915 - 1916. The first mention of Kate Street Reserve in the press was on 7 January 1916 (Daily News), indicating that the land for the reserve had just been cleared: “Within the area administered by [Victoria Park] are situated the Goodwood and Belmont racecourses, and 4,300 acres have been left for recreation purposes. Of these lands, a good area has been purchased by the council, or acquired by gifts to the people, Including the recreation ground at Cecil-street, two acres on the south side of the Causeway that are being gradually filled and planted with grass, bowling greens, and tennis courts, and other small lots scattered throughout the town, and two acres in Victoria Park East (Kate-street) that have just been cleared, as well as five acres in North Bickford.” In 1913, land was opened for selection for Workers’ Homes (West Australian 3 and 10 May, 1913) on Kate and Carnarvon Streets. These were to become 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 Kate Street, and 71, 73, 75, 77 and 79 Carnarvon Street. The Workers’ Homes Board was the forerunner of the State Housing Commission. Today (2021), nine of the ten Workers’ Homes Board houses which were built around 1914-1915 are still standing. 77 Carnarvon Street has been demolished. All of the Workers’ Homes Board houses in Kate Street still exist. The Workers’ Homes Board houses in Kate Street predate the timber cottages of 14 Kate Street (first occupied 1924) and 16 Kate Street (first occupied 1923) by 8 years or more.1

Integrity/Authenticity

INTEGRITY: High AUTHENTICITY: High

Condition

Good

Uses

Creation Date

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