Crawley Edge Boatshed
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The Crawley Edge Boatshed, commonly referred to as the Blue Boat House, is a boathouse located on the Swan River at Crawley in
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 ...
, Western Australia. A well known landmark, the boatshed was built in the 1930s, and since the 1940s has been owned mainly by the Nattrass family.


History

The boatshed was originally built in the 1930s. It first came into the hands of the Nattrass family when Roland and Joyce Nattrass purchased the land behind it in 1944 as the site for their family home. The real estate agent insisted the boatshed be purchased with the land for an additional five pounds.Plaque on site of the boatshed In 1972, Roland Nattrass gave the boatshed to Ron Armstrong, a patron of the Perth Sea Scouts. A slightly larger boatshed was built around the original. In the 1990s, ownership of the boatshed passed to Barry Kollman, a sailor from the
Royal Perth Yacht Club The Royal Perth Yacht Club (RPYC) is a yacht club in Perth, Western Australia. It is the third oldest yacht club in Australia after the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria and the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.
. In 2001, the boatshed was put up for sale and purchased by Peter Nattrass, son of Roland Nattrass and Lord Mayor of Perth at the time. The boatshed had become very run down by that time. Faced with government threats to demolish and remove it, the family began to rebuild it. At the suggestion of a family friend, the local federal member of parliament
Julie Bishop Julie Isabel Bishop (born 17 July 1956) is an Australian former politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2018 and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2007 to 2018. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Curtin ...
, the boatshed was repainted in a bold blue colour. On 6 February 2004, the refurbished boatshed was re-launched by Perth yachtsman Jon Sanders and Perth sailor David Dicks. It was also given a facelift in late 2015, which included repainting the exterior and replacing the wooden jetty with a new one with steel pylons.


Tourism

In the 21st century, the boatshed has become an Australian icon, and star attraction for tourists visiting Perth from Asia. , the hashtag #blueboathouse had thousands of Instagram posts to its name. A
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article published that month claimed that the boatshed was the most photographed travel attraction in Perth, ahead of
Elizabeth Quay Elizabeth Quay is a mixed-use development project in the Perth central business district. Focusing on an area located on the north shore of Perth Water near the landmark Swan Bells, the precinct being developed by the project was named in hono ...
, Cathedral Square and the Bell Tower in Barrack Square. Another article published that month, on the website ''The Conversation'', claimed that the boatshed had become Perth's second-most popular spot for tourist selfies, and that social media publicity about the boatshed had generated global awareness about Perth potentially worth millions of dollars. According to Tom Nattrass, images of the boatshed have been used in marketing material for
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,
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and in Japanese advertisements. In March 2019, a group of tourists queuing up to take
selfie A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as ...
s at the boatshed included a woman from Singapore who told ''
The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, '' The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuous ...
'', "Everyone from Singapore that visits Perth gets a photo here, it's all over social media." One visitor from Thailand told
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in June 2019 that young couples from her country would travel to the boathouse to participate in pre-wedding photoshoots. Another visitor, from Malaysia, said that she had travelled to Perth specifically to take a photo with it. At a meeting of the
City of Perth A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
held on 28 May 2019, the Commissioners of the City resolved, due to the increase in visitors to the boatshed, the nearby ''
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'' statue and the
Old Swan Brewery The Swan Brewery is a brewing company, whose brewery was located in Perth, Western Australia. History The brewery was established in 1857 by Frederick Sherwood at the foot of what is now Sherwood Court in Perth. The brewery was named for ...
, to spend
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400,000 on a new "stand-alone" solar-powered toilet at Quarry Point, between the boatshed and the brewery. Construction of the toilet was due to be completed by August 2019. In mid-July 2019, the boatshed was temporarily and controversially wrapped in red plastic sheeting, as a tribute to the Manchester United football team, which was visiting Perth to play two
friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...
es. On 14 July 2019, three of the team's players, Tahith Chong,
Axel Tuanzebe Axel Tuanzebe (born 14 November 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for Premier League club Manchester United. Tuanzebe is a graduate of the Manchester United youth system and won both the Jimmy Murphy Young Pla ...
and Joel Pereira, visited and were photographed at the wrapped boatshed.


References


External links

* {{commons category-inline Boathouses Edge Boatshed Jetties in Perth, Western Australia Swan River (Western Australia)