The University of Western Australia, established by an Act of Parliament in 1911, was the first free university in the British Commonwealth of Nations. In 1913 UWA was established in Irwin Street in corrugated iron and weatherboard buildings known as ‘Tin Pot Alley’.
The university moved in stages to its present location on Matilda Bay in Crawley. Its first building opened in 1925 with other buildings following and Winthrop Hall, Hackett Hall and the Administration building were constructed between 1929 and 1932 from Tamala limestone with dressings of Donnybrook sandstone. Early planning was driven by an appreciation of the landscape and there are thousands of trees, 50 per cent native to Australia, on the campus. The beautiful grounds and a number of the buildings are heritage-listed.
We had previously wandered through the UWA campus delighting in finding lovely artworks and tranquil gardens nestled between the beautiful buildings. Since then we have formalised the walk by following the Walking Subiaco - Crawley and University of Western Australia trail.
The trail starts at the Visitor Centre in the Administration building in Whitfield Court and the blog will follow the numbered trail. We however started halfway around as we parked at JH Abrahams Reserve (free on weekends). Ticketed parking is also available within the UWA campus and along Hackett Drive. You can download the map and trail notes here. https://www.subiaco.wa.gov.au/subiacowebsite/media/media/Community%20Development/Self%20guided%20walks/Walking-Subiaco-Crawley-and-UWA.pdf
As you walk south alongside Whitfield Court the offices of the vice-chancellor are on your right. Nine opus sectile medallions above the arched windows represent some of the subjects taught at the university. A further eleven on the rear of this building can be viewed from Whelan Court.
On your left is the stunning reflection pond, designed to create an impression of even greater height for the Winthrop Hall Tower. Overlooking the pond are Socrates and his mentor Diotima.
Winthrop Hall, built in 1932 faces Stirling Highway and is the face of UWA Crawley and the centre of university life. It's magnificent architecture is reflected in surrounding buildings and lends a sense of history and timelessness to the campus. There is a frieze of winged lions under the eaves of the roof and a balconette in the Italian style. Graduation ceremonies, lectures, concerts, balls, exhibitions and theatrical events are often held here.
Inside Winthrop Hall the marbled mosaic floor in the foyer was constructed from marbles brought from Carrara, Verona, Rome, Belgium and England. If the building is open, you may be able to climb the marble stairs to the hall, which is dominated by the McGillivray organ (installed in 1959) and the rose window inspired by the San Francesco Basilica in Assisi. Coats of arms of universities from around the world are mounted on the walls. The wooden beams on the ceiling were decorated with Aboriginal motifs by George Benson in 1931. Due to an event we were only able to access the foyer with it's stained glass windows and busts of Sir John Hackett and Mary Raine.
Above the entrance arch to Winthrop Hall are the five lamps of learning, created from Venetian glass tile mosaics. The five women represent the five gifts of the Holy Spirit: counsel, courage, wisdom, understanding and knowledge.
Go through the archway and, turning right, walk along the path on the south side of the Administration building. At the corner of the building, turn right again and walk towards the grassed area of Whelan Court, where you will find the eleven opus sectile medallions. Follow the path along the west side of the Administration building through Whelan Court to the Sunken Garden.
The Sunken Garden is a very popular site for wedding ceremonies and theatre productions. In 1948, Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh attended a performance of Oedipus Rex in the Sunken Garden—the first production in the venue. The garden was originally a pit created to provide sand for construction of the Hackett buildings. Oliver Dowell, foreman gardener in the 1930s, saw its potential and proceeded to develop the garden as an amphitheatre. The sundial is a memorial to Edward Shann, the foundation professor of history and economics. His favourite Maori prayer is inscribed at the base of the semicircular stone seating.
If you leave the Sunken Garden by the ramp at the western end you will come to the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery. The university collection holds over 2,500 works, including paintings by Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Rupert Bunny, Fred Williams and Lloyd Rees. The sculpture Homo fallible by Hans Arkeveld (1990) stands at the entrance.
Walking back towards Winthrop Hall you will pass the Geology Museum on your right. This building has some architectural similarities to the Hackett buildings. Outside the museum is a prehistoric garden from the Eocene and Jurassic periods, which includes one of the most extensive collections of cycads in Western Australia.
Continue eastwards and turn south down Gillett Promenade. Two panels by George Benson (1935) in bas-relief are set in the wall on your right depicting scientists of great renown. Under the Geology tower you will find Archimedes, Galileo, Newton, Kelvin and Einstein. Further south and outside Geography, are the chemists Priestley, Dalton, Boyle, Faraday and Perkin.
Down the slope to the east is the Tropical Grove in the centre of the Great Court. The grove was originally the site for the gardeners’ shed, which was surrounded by plants to camouflage its existence. The plants were never removed though the shed has long since gone. Today it is often used for wedding ceremonies and university functions as it is one of the most beautiful locations on the campus. At the entrance to the grove, former curator of grounds George Munns (1955-72) is honoured with a plaque for his outstanding contribution to the landscape.
South of the grove and overlooking the Great Court is the Reid Library, one of eight libraries on the campus. To the west of the library is the Physics building.
Follow the steps down on the south side of the library to James Oval, home ground of the University Cricket Club. In 1933 some of the original university buildings from Irwin Street, Perth were transplanted to the Crawley campus and in 1987 one of these buildings was placed on the west perimeter of the oval, restored and renamed the Cricket Pavilion. A replica of the original Senate Room was included in the reconstruction and many photographs of early graduates are on display.
Behind the Irwin Street Building is the golden Mathematics building. As you walk around James Oval you will come across another sundial, the Muriel and Colin Ramm sundial, installed in 2022.
To the east of the oval are the Economics and Social Sciences buildings. The latter has an inner courtyard with the large mural, Emergence, by Leonard French (1976). There is a plaque on the left of the mural. Just east are sliding doors which lead to the Berndt Museum of Anthropology which houses unique displays of Aboriginal cultural material from WA, SA and the NT. Continue south along Saw Boulevard to see the Guild Village, the heart of student life, which contains a number of shops and facilities on several levels.
Walking south from the Guild Village you will pass the Psychology and Anatomy buildings and then arrive at Prescott Court. Prescott Court was developed in 1982 and is named after a former vice-chancellor, Sir Stanley Prescott (1953-70). It was sown with many red flowering species to attract birdlife. On the perimeter of the court near the Science Library, is the analemma – a sundial designed by Robert Collins in 1978. It can be read easily without having to apply a calculation to the reading, and varies only one minute every twenty five years.
The original Institute of Agriculture (1938) received an art deco award in 2002. There is a Kohler bas-relief, Spirit of Progress (the goddess Ceres,1938), at the entrance to the old building facing Prescott Court.
Keep walking south with the Taxonomic Garden and the glasshouse complex on your left. When you are past Child Care Services, turn right into Parkway. Follow this road towards the river, passing Sports Science on your left, to the roundabout at the intersection of Princess Road, Hackett Drive and The Avenue. Cross this busy road into JH Abrahams Reserve and you will pass the site of the former residence (now demolished) of artist Elise Blumann (1897- 1990) at 1 Hackett Drive.
JH Abrahams Reserve (Goordaandalup) is a lovely grassy riverfront reserve with a brand new nature playground, picnic tables, barbecues and public toilets. Parking is free here on weekends.
From the playground follow the path left alongside the river heading for the boat ramp. Inserted into a large granite rock is the Qantas Catalina memorial plaque. The Qantas Catalinas operated from their moorings at this point on the Swan River during World War II when "communication between Australia and Britain had been severely restricted" Then Qantas Empire Airways inaugurated a Catalina flying boat service between Australia’s western coast and Sri Lanka in June 1943. At the time this air route was considered one of the most dangerous in the world; it was flown unarmed and in complete radio silence, the flight path navigated by ‘dead reckoning’ alone. They travelled a distance of five thousand six hundred kilometres, twice as far as any previous regular air service, and the journey took between twenty-three and thirty-two hours’.
This wetland area is of religious significance to the Nyungar people, the traditional landowners, keepers of knowledge, custodians and carers of the land and waterways. Nyungar groups moved along a chain of wetlands which were created by the Rainbow Serpent through spiritual dreaming.
Continue on past the boat ramp to Pelican Point (Katamburdup) for stunning river views. This was the site of the former US Catalina Base and US and Royal Netherlands Navy personnel occupied many campus buildings between 1942 and 1947. The path will take you through a short section of bush before crossing Australia II Drive, at the end of which is a bird sanctuary, part of the Swan Estuary Marine Park.
Wander through beautiful Matilda Bay Reserve, passing Matilda Bay Restaurant and the Matilda Bay pontoons. As you come alongside Bayside Kitchen cross Hackett Drive back into the University campus. This riverfront section also forms part of the Karda Bidi, a Whadjuk Trail which follows the river from Rosalie Park to Claremont Jetty.
As you walk past the Anatomy Building you will pass through the Medical School Memorial Garden, in memory of those who have donated bodily parts to science. The Anatomy building is home to the Clinical Training and Education Centre (CTEC) which was opened in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II and is where simulated surgery is carried out with links to surgeons around the world.
Next you will see heritage listed Shenton House, built as a private dwelling around 1846, the oldest building on campus. The house was purchased by the state government in 1910 and allocated to the university in 1914. It is now occupied by the School of Indigenous Studies and the Centre for Aboriginal Medical and Dental Health.
Just north of Shenton House is the Guild Tavern (1927) which was used by the US Navy during World War II as a mess and sleeping quarters.
The nearby Oak Lawn is named for its variety of oak trees and is the scene of many outdoor student concerts and fairs. Walking north across Oak Lawn you will see the Law School. Veer left to stroll through the walkway of the Social Sciences building. On the west side, you will see the Japanese Garden, which Sydney architect Peter Armstrong developed by adapting Japanese principles of garden design to local flora.
Continue northwards around the carpark and through the Arts building (1964). Pass Patricia Crawford Court and continue to the northernmost courtyard, New Fortune Theatre which was designed for Shakespearean productions. The resplendent peacocks are permanent residents of the Arts building.
Make sure you detour to the University Club of WA building to see the spectacular Hours to Sunset and Sculpture Garden. Based on designs by Shaun Tan the Hours to Sunset Mural/Sundial and the Sculpture Garden below complement each other. The mural casts the sun as an all-seeing bird, with luminous representations of the sky and heavenly bodies recalling the medieval Book of Hours. This digitised mosaic image uses premium glass mosaic tiles to translate the beautiful Shaun Tan painting into a mosaic masterpiece made with mathematical accuracy. A sundial indicates time by measuring the angle of the sun in the sky. Normally we measure time relative to midday but this sundial is different, as it measures time relative to sunset and indicates how many hours of daylight remain in the day. The sundial is mounted vertically on a west facing wall. A gnomon, projecting horizontally from the top centre point of the sundial, casts a shadow on the wall. During the afternoon the tip of the gnomon’s shadow will move from the bottom of the wall up to the top until, at sunset, it is level with the gnomon. The left-hand curve of the sundial’s markings plots the path of the Sun’s shadow during the summer solstice, the middle line is the path during the equinox, and the curve on the right shows its path at the winter solstice. The hour lines are angled to account for the different length of day between summer and winter. Beneath the sundial is a sculpture garden with a cluster of mosaiced shapes (sadly the cluster of three has been damaged and removed).
As you emerge from the Arts building, you will see Howard Taylor’s immense sculpture entitled Black Stump (1975) which was relocated from the AMP Tower in St Georges Terrace. Just beyond is the Octagon Theatre, the heart of theatrical life on the campus.
Walking northwards you will enter Jackson Court where Greg James’ sculpture, The Dancer (1988), is nestled amongst the foliage nearby (which also hosts a tree featuring a dinosaur!). To your right is the Dolphin Theatre (1975).
Enjoy the shady peppermint trees as you walk around the Dolphin Theatre and past the sports centre to the Somerville Auditorium. Conceived in 1927, the auditorium was designed to resemble a cathedral of Norfolk Island pines. The first official performance was held here in 1945 and after World War II it became the principal venue for summer school performances. Today the Somerville hosts the summer film season as part of the Perth International Arts Festival.
Adjoining the Somerville is the School of Music. When the film season is not in progress you can walk through the back of the outdoor auditorium past the glass-walled Eileen Joyce Studio, with its collection of antique keyboard instruments and Joan Campbell’s rock sculpture, Integrata (1981). Through the gates is a bust of pianist and composer Percy Grainger (1980).
The trail continues around the Sports Centre passing Hackett Hall and Administration East where there is a walkway under Mounts Bay Road connecting the residential colleges to the campus.
You are now back at Whitfield Court, across from the Visitors’ Centre.
There are some magnificent mature trees in the gardens and some of them are quite quirky. Can you see the long nosed bandicoot? Wherever you walk there is lots to discover!
Next time you find yourself in this area, perhaps taking in an outdoor movie at UWA Somerville, attending Perth Festival events or enjoying a family picnic on the river at Matilda Bay, take some time to have a wander through the University grounds. The heritage listed gardens are a perfect place to find some shade on a hot day. There are public toilets and a cafe at Matilda Bay. Parking within the campus is restricted and fees apply to external car parks where parking is often at a premium. The best time to visit is during university breaks and double check there are no major events at the various venues within UWA.
The walk is approximately 4 kilometres in length — allow two hours.
To read more blogs go to:
To explore more nearby click on the following links:
In the spirit of reconciliation Out and About- Family Nature Connection acknowledges the traditional owners of the Wadjak Boodjar (Perth land) and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
Comments