Bicton Foreshore and Reserves

Statement of Significance

The Bicton foreshore and the adjoining parkland are of cultural heritage significance as the site of earlier public amenities and today as a popular public recreation place.

SIGNIFICANT ITEMS:

The parkland, remnant introduced and indigenous trees, open spaces and foreshore for public recreation.

Physical Description

The place comprises the site of earlier amenities – the river beach and parkland, Stam's Tearooms, the jetty in the Swan River and the entire Commonwealth Animal Quarantine Station – no evidence survives today. Stam's Tearooms were removed in 1964. Only some stands of introduced pine trees (Pinus) survive.

History

The Beeliar Nyoongars used these areas as campsites and hunting grounds. In the summer months the large variety of plants and animals in the area provided the Aborigines with an abundance of food and other resources. The Beeliar
Nyoongars would regularly burn sections of these areas which kept the understorey low and was considered a useful technique for flushing out game. The Aboriginal name for the Swan River was named ‘Derbarl Yerrigan’ which means ‘brackish place of the turtle’.

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the Bicton foreshore was a popular public recreation place, a use which continues today. The land at the Bicton foreshore was granted to John Hole Duffield in 1830. Duffield named the place Bicton after Bicton near Exeter in England. The Fremantle Race Club operated from the nearby Bicton Race Course from c. 1904 to 1917.

The Bicton Tearooms were erected near the jetty overlooking Blackwall Reach to service visitors to the site in c. 1917 and run by the Stam Family until demolition in 1964.

The Fremantle Quarantine Station was introduced on the sloping site east of the foreshore in c. 1916 until removal to Byford in 1983. It was a Commonwealth Holding Station and all animals, including bees, were obliged to pass through it. That site and its remnant landscape were then converted to public parkland.

Condition

Sound and well maintained.

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.