State overlooks ‘missing link’ in shared horse heritage

THE old South Fremantle power station in Cockburn is one of 10 sites entered on the State’s register of significant cultural heritage places. It is also up for sale. The other sites which have played a role in the built and social history and identity of WA include Victoria Quay (home of the State’s new film ‘hub’) and Oliver Hill Battery (1938) and Thomson Bay settlement (1830s) at Rottnest Island.
The listing of the Art Deco powerhouse opened in 1951 and abandoned in 1985 cements the historic link in Cockburn to Fremantle via the South Beach Horse Exercise Area, registered in 2007 to honour generations of horse training families who still live in the area and use the strip between South Beach and CY O’Connor Beach each day between 4am and 8am. The first horse race on the mainland was held here in 1833.
In 2016, StreetWise Media with a community grant from the City of Cockburn unveiled a memorial at CY O’Connor Reserve to commemorate the shared horse heritage of Fremantle and Cockburn. Readers can visit the concrete plinth at the end of MacTaggart Drive opposite the power station site.
Unfortunately, the 2007 South Beach listing application was submitted without the inclusion of the ‘bridle path’ through Hollis Park that connects South Beach to historic stables in Cockburn, including nearby Randwick stables on Hamilton Road – the State’s oldest established in 1924.
Presently, a paved path runs through Hollis Park, where volunteers including City Ward Cr Adin Lang and South Ward Cr Andrew Sullivan have been replanting trees for the past few years along the last route used to access the beach by trainers and riders in Fremantle and Cockburn.
The bridle path was included on the interim list of significant heritage places, but has never been reconciled with the heritage-listed beach it is linked to. The latest heritage listings have overlooked the ‘loose end’.

History overlooked

Fremantle’s independent publication has for many years raised this ‘oversight’ with local and state authorities including the Heritage Council of WA, which in 2019 told StreetWise it was still awaiting feedback from stakeholders in the proposed listing including the City of Fremantle.
Former Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt was a member of the Heritage Council. Dr Pettitt also supported building a solar farm on Hollis Park, one of many proposals to redevelop the former toxic landfill site. Dr Pettitt said he could not comment and it was up to the Heritage Council to, “prioritise what goes from the interim to permanent list”. The Council has not responded.
In 2012, City officers recommended not to extend the heritage-listed horse beach to include Hollis Park even though the Heritage Council’s register committee resolved to amend the existing listing to include Hollis Park subject to feedback from all interested including the City.
Former National Trust boss Tom Perrigo said at the time he was concerned the vital link to the beach would be severed and potentially adversely affect the values of the heritage-listed exercise area: “The link is one and the same and should be listed. Failing to do so is against the spirit of the heritage act. The State register acknowledges the ongoing use of the Hollis Park area, with the bridle path still used, ‘into the 21st century’.”
Formerly called Cockell’s Paddock (after James David Cockell, a former pearl diver and father of WA country racing), the 9.27ha reserve skirts one of the oldest operating stables in Fremantle owned by Terry Patterson at the end of Daly Street.
Mr Patterson said Cockell lived in stables on Daly Street on the north side of Duoro Road, but he trained his horses on the tip site opposite Mr Patterson’s stables during the 1920s and 1930s. He wants the site renamed after the famous horseman (pictured opposite ‘Hollis hold-up’).

‘Cockell’s Paddock’

Cockell’s 91-year-old son Jack, who still trains horses, says he would be honoured to have his family recognised in name, and history. Dying of asbestosis, Fack says when he dies he wants his ashes and those of his mother, a former nurse in Fremantle, spread over South Beach.
“Part of the open area south of Daly Street where he (Cockell) turned the horses out to run free, consequently known as ‘Cockell’s Paddock’, is present day Hollis Park,” heritage records state.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Fremantle council leased land south of Daly including Thomas, Hulbert, Walker and Hickory streets to leading horses trainers including Jack Collinson, Arthur Bowden and the Cridlands.
“Collinson and other trainers in the area had established routes to South Beach from the southern end of the various streets to the vacant ground, including present day Hollis Park and the rubbish tip site. his route has continued to be used through into the 21st century.”
Collinson’s stables produced a number of successes such as Gold Patois and Aptofine, Railway Stakes 1948 and 1952, respectively, and Yabaroo, Perth Cup 1955. Melbourne Cup winners and WW1 soldiers also trained here. Engineer CY O’Connor also used the area and rode horses on the beach until his death in 1902. A partly submerged statue of the pipeline pioneer on his horse was erected in 1999 near the Wyola wreck. The State’s inaugural horse race also was held on the beach in 1833 when seven imported Timor ponies raced around a half mile course for a purse of five sovereigns.
Readers can access the StreetWise commemorative booklet produced in 2016 and 2017 at https://issuu.com/mel705/docs/1freo_streetwise_-_special_edition_.