The century-old legacy in the path of Gina Rinehart’s $250m development

Partially concealed by a sprawling brush box tree and dwarfed by the bland multi-storey office blocks that now surround it, the 120-year-old Federation-style home on Outram Street stands as a striking reminder of Perth’s history.

When the red brick home’s stone foundation was laid in 1904, West Perth was emerging as a sought-after residential area for the city’s elite, including members of the newly built Parliament House.

The home at 27 Outram Street in West Perth, which is expected to be cleared to make way for the development.Credit: Jesinta Burton.

The home has since sheltered soldiers, esteemed surgeons and a world-renowned artist — notable West Australians who have left their mark on its timeworn walls.

But no owner has been more prominent than its newest, Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart — whose $250 million plan for the site could mark the end of its legacy.

Details of the development Rinehart’s family company has earmarked for the site and three adjacent lots are scant, but this masthead can confirm it involves the property’s demolition.

By all accounts, West Perth should be a heritage enclave, but few of its surviving early-1900s homes enjoy the protections afforded to those on the state heritage register.

And it is understood there are no legislative barriers preventing the home from being flattened.

A colourful history

Lieutenant William Guy Ardagh Walter was later killed in France during World War I.Credit: The Virtual War Memorial.

Seventy years before mining pioneer Lang Hancock pegged the iron ore tenements that would help elevate his daughter to the top of the country’s rich-list, William Ardagh Gardner Walter held the keys to the new Murchison goldfield.

The English-born Oxford graduate would vacate his role as mining warden of the state’s Mid West to become the property’s first known resident, with post office directories placing him at the home in 1905.

Walter and his wife Lucille had two children, including their son, Lieutenant William Guy Ardagh Walter, who became one of the 46,000 Australians to die in France during World War I.

William Walter senior would become known for slapping opposition leader Phillip Collier with a £25 fine over remarks during the conscription plebiscite that would see the magistrate forced into early retirement when Collier was elected premier.

In the years that followed, the home passed through a series of notable hands, from entrepreneur and bookmaker Bert Gutmann of Water & Gutmann to Hotel Perth publican Thomas Augustine Lalor.

By 1922, Lalor’s wife would list the three-bedroom home for auction, with a newspaper advertisement spruiking its artistically decorated rooms, corniced ceilings, well-manicured hedges and walnut-cased, iron-framed piano.

The home was later occupied by returned soldier-turned-solicitor Christopher Ewing.

Former resident Bert Gutmann pictured here at the Water & Gutmann in 1906.Credit: The Sunday Times

Ewing, his wife Vera and their three children lived at the property from 1925, almost a decade after Ewing had lost his leg while serving as part of the AIF’s 8th Artillery Battery, 2nd Australian Field Regiment at Gallipoli.

Ewing — who gained a reputation for his wit and storytelling talents — served as a special war pension magistrate while practicing at his law firm a short-distance away on St Georges Terrace.

Landgate records show the home was then transferred to Perth medical identity James Kynaston Couch before being sold to internationally renowned china artist May Creeth and her sister Helen in 1937.

May, whose paintings of Western Australian wildflowers were showcased around the globe, took her last breath at 27 Outram Street in 1947. Her legacy would be immortalised through her works held in the Holmes a Court collection, the National Gallery and the WA Museum.

A collection of May Creeth’s wildflower paintings, which were exhibited at the Glasgow International Exhibition to the Paris Exposition Universelle in the 1900s.

The year after her death, ownership of the property was transferred to Boulder-born novelist Dorothy Lucy Sanders and Ada Lucy McClemans, the former wife of Reverend William Joseph McClemans — who served as a chaplain on the Western Front.

Other notable residents included Royal Perth Hospital surgeon and prominent WA football identity Eric Kyle and plastic surgeon Benjamin Cohney.

The property was owned and occupied by Perth-based law firm James Chong family lawyers until 2021, when it landed in the hands of Rinehart.

Documents obtained by this masthead show the mining magnate purchased the home for $4.23 million via Outram Properties, an entity linked to her family company.

Four years on, the home now faces an uncertain future.

Rinehart coy on finer details of $250 million plan

In early April, Rinehart’s family empire Hancock Prospecting unveiled plans for a $250 million “work meets wellness” development on the site and three adjacent lots.

The project, which spans the 7000 square metres between 27-35 Outram Street and 46 Ord Street, comprises a mix of office, gym, wellness spaces, restaurants and serviced apartments opposite the company’s headquarters.

The concept designs of Hancock Prospecting’s proposed $250m Perth development.

The plan is now before the WA Planning Commission via its new expedited pathway for developments of state significance — which guarantees a determination within 120 days and ‘extraordinary discretion’ only in certain circumstances.

The development application has been referred to the City of Perth and other regulatory agencies, and is set to be released for public consultation on Thursday.

A spokesman for Rinehart — a vocal advocate for Australian veterans — declined multiple requests to answer questions on the development, but maintained there were no heritage-listed properties on the designated sites.

The Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage also declined to disclose whether the development application addressed the building’s history or included a justification for plans to demolish the home.

The City of Perth was contacted for comment.

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