Lost (South) Perth – Fiesta 2014

The City of South Perth’s Fiesta 2014 program has been released and it’s more colourful and exciting than ever!

Lost Perth creator, Warren Duffy, will be taking us on a journey through the last 100 years of South Perth with some exciting stories and photographs. Join us at the Perth Zoo on Wednesday 19 March for a lot of “ooooh yeaaaah”s and “aaaaaw”s over days gone by.

The night will feature images from Duffy’s collection and recently released book Lost Perth, as well as a selection of never before seen images from the City of South Perth’s Local History Collection.

When: 6.45pm, Wednesday 19 March 2014
Where: Perth Zoo (Lecture Theatre), Labouchere Rd, South Perth
Cost: $15 plus booking fee.

Bookings essential: Click here to register!

COSP_PH_2035/2 – Human pyramid at Como Beach, 1944.

PS. Do you recognize anyone in this picture?

Ian Reid Author Talk

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Ian’s talk about his newly released historical novel That Untravelled World was fantastic. 20 keen historians and writers gathered over wine and cheese to hear about Ian’s approach to writing this novel and to learn some tricks of the trade. Ian also read an excerpt from the novel that focused on Perth Zoo and South Perth in the 1910’s.

Fore more information and to purchase the novel, visit UWA Publishing’s website. Copies will be available for loan through South Perth and Manning Library in the near future.

Ian Reid – Author Talk

Check out the details of our upcoming author talk by Ian Reid!

Ian’s new historical fiction novel That Untravelled World focuses on elements of South Perth’s local history, such as the Perth Zoo and the Canning Bridge Camps.

On the eve you will have the chance to see some of the smashing digital photographs from the South Perth Local History Collection – selected especially to resonate with the local themes that appear in Ian’s novel.

Building of the week!

Sopranos Restaurant

Everyone’s seen it when driving along Mill Point Road…And everyone may or may not know that it’s standing proof of the early establishment and development of South Perth.

This building was constructed c. 1900 by Frederick Stidworthy – a skilled South Perth builder, contractor and stone mason. Stidworthy’s stone masonry skills can be seen at the Perth Zoo, in particular the cave-like bear pits. Stidworthy also built the South Perth Road Board office in 1904, now know as Heritage House Cultural Centre (corner Mill Point Road and Mends Street).

Lucy, Frederick’s wife, ran tea rooms from the lower-ground of the building between 1902-1918. This was a great location to run tea rooms from as the entrance to the Perth Zoological Gardens was just on the opposite side of Suburban Road (renamed Mill Point Road in 1947; the Zoo entrance eventually moved to Labouchere Road). So one can imagine that Lucy got a fair bit of patronage from those who travelled over to visit the Zoo for the day!

It’s interesting that there is still the connection of food, beverage, socialisation and business with the building today, just as it was back in the early 1900’s. By the way, Sopranos have some delicious food and the front-of-house staff are lovely! I wonder what the typical food experience was like when Lucy was running the show…It’s a shame that we don’t have any photographs in our collection of the building during this period of its operation!

Stay tuned for more building profiles!