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The Commissariat Buildings are a group of two buildings found at 6 Marine Terrace in the West End of Fremantle,
Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
, which, with construction having begun in 1852, are one of the first sites built using convict labour in the Swan River colony. Throughout their time in use, they have been used in various capacities by several governmental organisations, until 1979 when they began to hold the Western Australian Maritime Museum's shipwreck galleries, which they continue to do to date.


Background

Before the construction of the Commissariat Buildings, all materials bound for the convict establishment were either unloaded to be stored in the temporary prison in Fremantle, or taken upstream to a
Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
warehouse. The Commissariat Buildings were constructed to increase the efficiency.


History


Early history

The buildings were designed by the clerk of works James Manning and were constructed in several stages over a period of 50 years, beginning in 1852, under the supervision of Captain
Edmund Henderson Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Edmund Yeamans Walcott Henderson KCB (19 April 1821 – 8 December 1896) was an officer in the British Army who was Comptroller-General of Convicts in Western Australia from 1850 to 1863, Home Office Surveyor-General o ...
, Royal Engineer and Comptroller General of Convicts in Western Australia. Originally built to serve a commissariat function, storing the food, clothing and building supplies of the colony, construction issues arose when it was used for storage before a roof had been built due to a number of delays. These delays were extensive enough to warrant the planned third stage of construction being never completed. During this original usage of the site, it was used as by the state government as a Customs House from 1879 to 1908, at which point a new building was built for that purpose. Simultaneously during this time, the site was used by the Post and Telegraph Office from 1879 to 1890 until a new office was constructed opposite the buildings. By the 1890s Western Australia was experiencing the
gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...
, and thus due to increased business for the state,
Fremantle Port Fremantle Harbour is Western Australia's largest and busiest general cargo port and an important historical site. The inner harbour handles a large volume of sea containers, vehicle imports and livestock exports, cruise shipping and naval vis ...
was
dredged Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
. In response to this, commerce moved away from the buildings, and the site was vacated in 1909.


Government Stores Department era

While the Commissariat Buildings remained under governmental control from 1908–1923, it is not known what they were used for, until 1923 when the Government Stores Department occupied a part of it, which it would continue to do until it moved location in 1977. The Government Stores Department gradually gained control of most of the building, and through it, the buildings became the central point for exportation and importation of the state's goods. During this time, the building was damaged in various ways, as with the invention of the vehicle, some sections of the wooden block floors had to be replaced with concrete, and with the invention of the forklift, several arches were damaged. Simultaneously to its occupation by the Government Stores Department, the site had other tenants, including the Child Welfare Department during the 1930s, a maintenance section for Stateships between circa 1935 to 1975, the Fisheries and Wildlife Department from 1939 to 1981.


WA Shipwrecks Museum

In the 1970s the
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
and
federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
governments created legislation regarding the conservation of historic shipwrecks. With this, the
Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, now known as WA Museum Boola Bardip, officially re-ope ...
considered its own conservation of maritime pieces, which, combined with the excavation of the
Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
, led to the State Government funding the conversion of the buildings into the
Western Australian Maritime Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, now known as WA Museum Boola Bardip, officially re-ope ...
shipwreck galleries, which were opened to the public in 1979. Today the site holds the WA Shipwrecks Museum and is listed on the
City of Fremantle The City of Fremantle is a local government area in the south of Perth, Western Australia. The City covers an area of , and lies about southwest of the Perth central business district. History The City of Fremantle is named after Charles Fr ...
's Municipal Heritage List.


Description


Design

The Commissariat Buildings, designed to be
utilitarian In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charac ...
by architect James Manning in a Victorian-
Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
and Victorian Regency style were built over 50 years, with construction beginning in 1852. – the ''notes'' section of the trove entry is important to read for details of the photographs use The two buildings combine to heavily contribute to the general aesthetic of the West End of Fremantle, with the buildings themselves matching the aesthetic of surrounding buildings such as the
Round House Roundhouse may refer to: Architecture and buildings Types * Roundhouse (dwelling), a kind of house with circular walls, prehistoric and modern, all over the world ** Atlantic roundhouse, an Iron Age stone building found in the northern and weste ...
, the
Old Kerosene Store The Old Kerosene Store is located at Bathers Beach in Fremantle, Western Australia, adjacent to the ruins of the original Fremantle Long Jetty. It is a single-storey limestone building and forms part of the historic Arthur Head Reserve preci ...
at Bathers Beach and the former Court House located on Marine Terrace. The buildings themselves consist of two freestanding structures.


Warehouse

The most dominant of the two buildings is the two-story warehouse, which features dominant gables and incorporates the 'A' store (built in 1852), the 'B' store (built from 1860-1), the 'Drum' Store (built from 1895-6) and the 'New Store' (built in 1898), with all of these except the 'New Store' being built in the Victorian-Georgian style. The Warehouse faces out to Croke Lane, Marine Terrace and the railway reserve. The walls are made of coursed
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
rubble and the roof is made of Colorbond finished
corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America) and occasionally abbreviated CGI is a ...
.


Administration building

The other building on the site is the smaller Administration Building, which is only two-story in parts. Due to the Administration Building being built for a different purpose than the warehouse building, it was built with a more complex, Victorian Regency style. Originally built in 1852, a southern extension was made circa 1894, with a northern two-story extension being made in 1896, and a further southern extension made in 1897.


See also

*
Convict era of Western Australia The convict era of Western Australia was the period during which Western Australia was a penal colony of the British Empire. Although it received small numbers of juvenile offenders from 1842, it was not formally constituted as a penal colony u ...
* List of museums in Western Australia


References

{{reflist, 30em Cliff Street, Fremantle 1852 establishments in Australia Landmarks in Perth, Western Australia Heritage places in Fremantle Limestone buildings Buildings and structures built by convicts in Western Australia Museums in Western Australia State Register of Heritage Places in the City of Fremantle