Melville Road Board Office (fmr)

Statement of Significance

The Office is significant for the following reasons: Historic Value: The building served at one time as the Melville Roads Board Office. Rarity: Important as part of the first home of local government in Melville. Melville Roads Board Building, a single-storey brick building, possibly construction 1913 and substantially altered and adapted in c. 1968 and likely to be the remnant of the original and first Melville Roads Board building erected on the site in 1913, has cultural heritage significance as a place for the following reasons: the site is of considerable historic significance as the lot acquired in 1910 by the Melville Roads Board and specifically intended for the erection of an administration building for the Melville Roads Board District, also incorporating a hall; and the place is socially significant as the first permanent location of the Local Government Authority gazetted in December 1900 to administer the Melville Roads Board District. The building is assessed to have little, if any, cultural heritage significance. SIGNIFICANT ITEMS: The form and materials of the external presentation of the original brick and iron building.

Physical Description

Detached office built in the the style of a dwelling, located on a prominent corner location. Melville Roads Board Building located at 391 Canning Highway, Palmyra, comprises a single-storey building understood to have been constructed in 1913 and subsequently altered in c. 1968, initially intended as offices for administration of the Local Government Melville Roads Board District. The building ceased to be the offices of the Roads Board in 1968 when the Civic Centre in Almondbury Road was completed and Local Government administration transferred to that location. The property is located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Canning Highway and Stock Road, Palmyra, Western Australia. The land retains a building likely to be part of the original Melville Roads Board building but subsequently altered in c. 1968 and later. The building is set back a short distance from Canning Highway and Stock Road in a grassed setting incorporating precast concrete paving to paths and a pedestal topped with a brass plaque commemorating the 1913 Melville Roads Board building erected on the site and its subsequent ‘demolition’.

History

Melville Roads Board Building, located at 391 Canning Highway, corner of Stock Road, Palmyra, comprises a single-storey building understood to have been constructed in 1913 and subsequently altered in c. 1968, initially intended as offices for administration of the Local Government Melville Roads Board District. Local Government in the State commenced in 1871 when the Municipalities and Road Districts Acts were gazetted. The intention was to give locally elected bodies the authority to carry out road and building works in specifically identified districts. In January 1871, the Fremantle Road District was gazetted to include all the land from the Melville Water south coast to the Canning River, down to Bull Creek, then to Armadale and across to the coast south of Rockingham. The name of the district changed to Melville and was gazetted on 5 January 1901. Monthly meetings of the Melville Roads Board were held in Board member’s homes, at the Canning Bridge Hotel (later the Raffles), at the Hotel Melville and at the Leopold Hotel. Melville was proclaimed a Shire in 1961, a Town in 1962 and a City after 1968. The A. H. Bracks Library, formerly housed in the adjacent building, was the second library to be built in the Melville locality. A. H. Bracks was a former Chairman of the Melville Roads Board, formerly housed in the Original Melville Roads Board Building. The A. H. Bracks Library has now relocated to the new Melville Recreation Centre building, opposite the corner of Stock Road and Canning Highway. The Roy Edinger Community Centre (fmr. Hall) is now replaced by the new Melville Recreation Centre, opposite the corner of Stock Road and Canning Highway. Roy Edinger was a prominent local businessman and community leader who was especially active in Palmyra between the 1940s and 1960s.

Integrity/Authenticity

Modifications: Some Extent of Original Fabric: Most

Condition

Sound but altered.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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