Belmont in the 1920s- 2020 Hindsight with Richard Offen

The Roaring Twenties was a period of dramatic social change in Western Australia. Radical political movements began to make their presence felt, jazz blossomed and the Art Deco style of architecture peaked. For women, knee-length skirts and dresses became socially acceptable and the decades saw the large-scale adoption of the motor car, telephones, motion pictures, radio and household electricity. Belmont was originally part of a land grant assigned to Captain Francis Henry Byrne in 1831 and is believed to have been named Belmont after Byrne's estate in England. Until the 1890s, Belmont was principally an agricultural area owned by a handful of people. However, the advent of Western Australia's first gold rush brought with it a huge increase in the population of Perth with a consequent demand for housing. To solve the housing shortage, speculators began buying up land in Belmont for subdivision. The Belmont Road District, a forerunner to the City of Belmont, was created on 2 December 1898 and renamed Belmont Park in 1907. During the first decade of the 20th century, Belmont slowly grew as a residential area. But this growth came to a dramatic halt with the declaration of World War I in 1914. Following the unspeakable horrors of that war, in September 1920 James Mitchell, Premier of Western Australia, planted a grapevine in the Swan Valley. The vine, named Optimism, symbolised the beginning of the decade that was to follow the war to end all wars. This optimism began to be seen in Belmont, with the resident population almost doubling during the 1920s. The 1921 census shows a population of 1,866 people, which by the 1933 census had risen to 3,139. This was mainly due to the settlement of ex-soldiers and post-war migrants arriving from Britain, still recovering from the devastating war. 1919 brought the Spanish Influenza pandemic, which killed between 50 and 100 million people worldwide. Belmont had no medical officer, so Dr Pitcher of West Guildford was employed on a part-time basis, which was all the Belmont Park Road Board could afford. Notices were placed around the region asking for volunteers to help out as nurses and organisers. The children who did go to school wore handkerchiefs over their mouths and noses to stop the infection. But with only six cases in Redcliffe and one death, the pandemic fizzled out by the beginning of 1920. The houses around Belmont at this time were standard brick and iron homes, with a number of weatherboard and iron houses also erected by the new arrivals to the area. Many other incomers had to make do with living in shacks built out of whatever materials they could find. Sometimes they had to live in these for a number of years. Some had walls made of whitewashed hessian, which made the shacks very cold and damp in winter. There were, however, some more luxurious abodes in the area. Hill 60, for example, which dates from about 1902, was named after the First World War battleground in France. It's a large brick and tile house with outhouses and stables, and originally sat on five acres of land. Noted for its size and beauty, the property had some notable owners, particularly local milliner Lucy Heaney, who bought it in 1921. Although she only lived at Hill 60 for two years, Madam Heaney had the house altered to accommodate her collection of imported Italian furniture and expensive fittings. Amenities such as water and electricity were very limited in Belmont and there were few serviceable roads. Keen to improve the matter, the Belmont Park Roads Board accepted an offer from the Electricity and Gas Department in February 1920. This offer was to extend the electric current mains through the district and install street lights on Guildford Road, which was later renamed the Great Eastern Highway in 1935. The Board didn't waste any time in getting electric lighting installed in the Belmont Hall and by the end of February had accepted a tender for the work from the Perth Electrical Company, LHD and Co Ltd. The Hall and the Roads Board offices were eventually connected to the supply in mid-August 1920, making Belmont the first Roads Board to have installed electric lighting. However, many residents were less enthusiastic about this innovation, treating the notion of having electricity in their houses with grave suspicion, not to mention the seemingly prohibitive cost of being connected to the supply. Most were happy to continue using gas, kerosene and solid fuel for lighting, heating and cooking. Many of Belmont's residents in the early 1930s were either farmers or horticulturalists, taking advantage of the fertile land close to the Swan River. In 1922, a subdivision of the Redcliffe Estate took place and 183 10-acre plots were offered at auction and advertised as An ideal spot for the person who wishes to build up a piggery, a poultry farm or a dairy. The land is exceptionally fine for fruit growing, the yield of fruit off this land this last year being very good. For the businessman who wishes to live his spare hours in peaceful surroundings, or for the person who wishes to grow stuff for a livelihood, he could not do better than invest in a Redcliffe farm. In 1923, the residents of Belmont had a tall granite obelisk built in a triangular reserve opposite the local state school. Unveiled by Governor Sir Francis Newdegate in September 1923, the memorial honours the 34 soldiers from the district who fell in the Great War. Community fundraising for this war memorial included a Popular Girl competition, the climax of which was reported in the Sunday Times in July 1922. An enjoyable dance took place yesterday week at the Redcliffe Hall in connection with the Popular Girl competition in aid of the Belmont Fallen Soldiers Memorial, the Popular Girl being Little Miss Dorothy Powell. Motors conveyed the young people to the hall where they danced to excellent music. Dainty refreshments were provided by the organisers, Madames Bulger and Ford, kindly assisted by the Redcliffe Ladies. In the years after the First World War, cars were very rare, particularly on the side roads, most of which were unsuitable for motorised traffic. Slowly during the 1920s, motorised transport increased in Belmont and local entrepreneur Robert Bob Fields bought two motor trucks around 1922 and converted them into buses. According to those who used them, these buses were very noisy and a lot less comfortable than the previous horse-drawn ones. They also had trouble negotiating the hills, and the male passengers quite often had to get out and push. Mr and Mrs H.P. Kaysley bought Fields out and expanded the business, but strong rivalry developed between them and one of their drivers who set up in competition. The main bus stops were Redcliffe, Belmont and Riverdale Halls with the city terminus being Perth Esplanade. Because the competition for passengers was so cutthroat, the Belmont Roads Board dictated the timetables so that the competing services ran half an hour apart. With the increase in cars in the 1920s, road accidents became more prevalent, with many being caused by cattle wandering into the road. This led to a barrage of complaints to the Road Board. It was acknowledged that a central road agency needed to be set up to manage funding for road construction from the Commonwealth. In Western Australia, the main roads board was set up in 1926 in line with other states. A sharp bend in the Guildford Road between Abernethy Road and Le Page Street, which became known locally as the Devil's Elbow, was the scene of many accidents. By 1929, some straightening had been undertaken by the newly formed Maiden Roads Department, leading to a reduction in incidents. Gradually, industries other than agriculture began to spring up in the Belmont District. In 1920, the West Australian Portland Cement Factory opened above the river flats in Burswood. The cement produced was superior to that from other places. The success of this product had a long-lasting effect on the Belmont and Western Australia building industries. However, smoke from the factory was a problem for the local residents. A further Belmont firm producing building products was HL Brisbane & Co Ltd. Formed in 1929, the company started business by purchasing West Australian Potteries, a small Belmont terracotta roofing tile manufacturer. A year later, the company started producing glazed stoneware sewage pipes and fittings, followed by many other related products. By the mid-1920s, Belmont was becoming well-known for the number of recreational areas the Roads Board was developing. There were eight significant parks and gardens for public use. Three of these were situated on the riverbanks, affording facilities for bathing, rowing and yachting. Each suburb in Belmont was well-provided with these parks and playgrounds, and most of these were fenced and cleared between the World Wars. Special attention was given to the provision of children's playgrounds in many of the parks. The Cracknell Park foreshore has long been popular with Belmont residents as a bathing site. Originally known as The Springs, it was later called Hawkesburn Road Swimming Baths and then Riversdale Baths. Belmont Young Men's Club, formed in 1919, organised improvements to the bathing sheds at The Springs and planted flame trees along Hawkesburn Road as an entry to the swimming spot. After the First World War, the area became a social centre for the Belmont District with picnics, rowing regattas and swimming carnivals. Between 1923 and 1929, the Rivervale Progress Association held annual regattas, originally on the stretch of water between the Sandringham Hotel and Cracknell Park. These regattas included eight all-rowing races as well as swimming contests. Members of the Young Men's Club and Swimming Club were entitled to free membership of Belmont's Senior Cricket Club, formed in 1919. The club was given the use of Hardy Park and members helped improve the facilities there under the supervision of caretaker Peter Keane. In 1921, the area was renamed Belmont Recreation Ground and Riversdale Cricket Club was also allowed to use it. South Belmont's Soldiers Memorial Hall, located on the corner of Wright Street and Belmont Avenue, was originally a church but was transferred to the community in 1922. The hall quickly became the social centre of the area, hosting concerts, weddings and Saturday night dances. Another popular feature in the suburb was the regular movie show on Saturday night in the Belmont Hall. The shows were started in 1921 by Johnson and Webber, who rented the hall from the Belmont Roads Board. The first films were silent films, as the first talkies didn't come to Western Australia until late in 1929. Long before television, pupils also went to Belmont Hall to see educational films. In 1929, the West Australian gave an enthusiastic account of this radical new teaching method. The main picture that afternoon was to be Lost in the Arctic. In preparation, the boys and girls had been instructed in the life and customs of the inhabitants of the frozen regions, then followed the film, with the headmaster explaining difficult subtitles throughout. The end of the 1920s found the state rapidly spiralling into an economic depression, brought about by the crash of the stock markets in Britain and the USA. Workers lost their job or had their pay rates and hours cut. Facing high unemployment in the area, the Belmont Park Road Board put some men to work on clearing drains. Others formed road gangs to work on the road reserves, such as Koo Yong Road and the widening of Guildford Road. By the end of the decade, the optimism it had started with had completely faded and been replaced by yet another time of great despair.