Remember the recent post of young, future Brigidine Sister Dorothea Hickey at her first communion in 1944, in which we asked if anyone could pinpoint where she was standing?
Our own Brother Noel Hickey, Dorothea’s older brother, mentioned he had a photo of the area, and soon sent through a version of this magnificent scene. Dr Michael Gregg, of the Western Australian Museum, then came back with a wonderful colourised version*.
It was photographed from the spire of St Joseph’s Church in 1934, then in the last stages of construction on the south side of Salvado Road. This was actually the third St Joseph’s Church in the immediate vicinity, and lined up with Connolly Street which extended south, through to Salvado Road.
The first St Joseph’s, the beautiful parish church on the left (foreground) is visible. Constructed in 1897, it was quietly demolished in the 1970s or 1980s.
The second St Joseph’s church (on the left, behind the first) is also visible. This one was built in 1913 and had classrooms for St Joseph’s Brigidine Primary School (established 1942) built alongside it. This church and adjacent classrooms have now also been demolished.
The bridge in the centre was known as the Axon Street Bridge. An extension of Subiaco’s Axon Street, it fed north over the railway line into West Leederville’s McCourt Street, slightly to the east. Today it is Haydn Bunton Drive which extends from Townshend Road instead, and feeds onto Salvado Road, slightly west of where it once did.
Just behind the line of trees on the centre right are the Kitchener Park tennis courts - today a carpark - and beyond that, of course, is Subi Oval with its beautiful grandstand. Beyond that is old West Perth in the centre, Subiaco to the right, and the town of Perth further out. No highrise in those days!
What an amazing image of old West Leederville and Subiaco, showing an area of great significance to our School.
*Thank you, Sean Cowan, for the original shot, and John Linton for the colourised version!
