Bayswater

Bayswater is a suburb 6 km (4 mi) north-east of the central business district (CBD) of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.

Bayswater is a suburb 6 km (4 mi) north-east of the central business district (CBD) of Perth, the capital of Western Australia. It is just north of the Swan River, within the City of Bayswater local government area. It is predominantly a low-density residential suburb consisting of single-family detached homes. However, there are several clusters of commercial buildings, most notably in the suburb's town centre, around the intersection of Whatley Crescent and King William Street and a light industrial area in the suburb's east.

Prior to European settlement, the Mooro group of the Whadjuk Noongar people inhabited the area. In 1830, the year after the European settlement of the Swan River Colony, land along the river was divided between the colonists, who moved in soon after. Most either died or left in the months following, leaving the area undeveloped for most of the 19th century. In 1881, the Fremantle–Guildford railway line was built, triggering the founding of the Bayswater Estate, the first development in the area, and in 1897, the Bayswater Road Board was founded, giving Bayswater its own local government. At first, development consisted of nurseries, market gardens and dairies, but as time went on, Bayswater became more and more suburban. Today, Bayswater is fully suburbanised, with the subdividing of older lots being commonplace. Plans for apartments around Bayswater and Meltham railway stations are a contentious issue.

Parks and wetlands, including the Baigup Wetlands, the Eric Singleton Bird Sanctuary and Riverside Gardens. There are other parks throughout the suburb, including Bert Wright Park, Halliday Park (which includes a war memorial), Hillcrest Reserve and Houghton Park line Bayswater's Swan River foreshore. Major roads through the suburb include Guildford Road, which connects to the Perth CBD and Tonkin Highway.

Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Mooro group of the Whadjuk Noongar people. They were led by Yellagonga and inhabited the area north of the Swan River, as far east as Ellen Brook and north to Moore River. The Swan River provided fresh water and food, as well as being a place for trade. A camping ground, at least 4,500 years old, existed just north of the present-day junction of Tonkin Highway and Guildford Road. Another camping ground likely existed in the area now known as the Baigup Wetlands.

When Europeans founded the Swan River Colony in 1829, they did not recognise the indigenous ownership of the land. John Septimus Roe, the colony's Surveyor General, surveyed the land along the Swan River. His survey resulted in the land being divided into long, narrow rectangular strips extending from the river. As the river was the only method of transportation in the colony's early years, each piece of land had to have river frontage. The long, narrow strips were called "ribbon grants". In 1830, the colonists travelled up the river to the land allotted to them. That year, the Swan River flooded several times, washing away crops and inundating shelters. The colonists were unlucky, as floods were not an annual occurrence. Most of these colonists either died or left the area soon after.

In 1881, the Fremantle–Guildford railway line was built. There were many arguments over whether it should be laid north or south of the river. The northern option was the one eventually chosen. What was previously a several hours-long trip to get from what is now Bayswater to Perth or Guildford took twenty minutes by train. There was now opportunity to develop the isolated and underused land grants.

In June 1885, increased interest in Perth's real estate market began, labelled a "land boom". William Henry Drake, the owner of Location U, died in Bayswater, London, in 1884. Stephen Henry Parker, using his power of attorney for Drake, placed Location U on the property market. The advertisement for the land did little to recommend it, making no mention of the railway line or the possibilities for subdivision. Joseph Rogers, a property developer from New South Wales who saw the land's potential, unlike the locals who saw it as a backwater, bought the land.

The first attempt to get a school for Bayswater occurred in 1889, however, the campaign for that was quickly knocked back by the state Board of Education. A second, more thought-out campaign occurred in 1892. Residents managed to convince the Board of Education to take a tour of the area. Afterwards, the Board decided Bayswater deserved a school. A site was purchased, and a one room weatherboard building was constructed. Named Bayswater State School, with 29 pupils when it opened in 1894, its size was insufficient.

After the Federation of Australia in 1901, there were tensions between the agricultural and residential elements of Bayswater. William Williams, a member of the road board, complained about cattle being a nuisance. Dairyman and fellow board member Edward Browne fought back, saying "cattle had been the making of the place". The piggeries received many more complaints, however, with concerns about their odour and noise from the pigs being killed on site. In 1903, the Bayswater Local Board of Health, controlled by the same members as the road board, disallowed piggeries from being situated between the river and 1 mi (1.6 km) north of the railway line.

The opening of the Midland Railway Workshops down the railway line in 1904 fuelled much growth, with workers migrating from the eastern states and overseas, particularly Britain. By 1908, many residents of Bayswater were from Victoria. Of thirty-three births in 1908, nineteen fathers and eighteen mothers were from Victoria.

This was one of the first town planning schemes in Western Australia, and it preceded the Stephenson–Hepburn Report by 22 years.

During the 1930s, dairies around Bayswater slowly started to disappear. The Whole Milk Act of 1933 made setting up new dairies substantially difficult. The established dairies were a source of numerous complaints about noise, dust and the traffic caused by them, among other things.

From April 1942 to the middle of 1943, Bayswater became the centre of army signalling operations in Perth. They were stationed there in anticipation of a Japanese invasion of Western Australia. Many homes and buildings were taken over for the purposes of signalling. The town hall was used by the military, and the road board had to pack its operations into the small parts of the building that were available. A large aerial was put up at the present-day site of Hillcrest Primary School. New factories were constructed and existing factories were converted to supplying military equipment. The federal government constructed a factory in between Garratt Road and Milne Street, in the middle of a residential area instead of the large industrial area just to the east, irritating residents and the road board.

Bayswater and its surrounding suburbs' population surged following the end of World War II. Housing construction, which was non-existent during the war, proceeded at a rapid rate post-war.

As of the 2010s and 2020s, development in the Bayswater town centre and around Meltham station is a contentious issue. The City of Bayswater started work on a structure plan for the Bayswater town centre in November 2015. The structure plan would cover building heights, land uses and connections for cars, pedestrians and cyclists. A draft of the structure plan was released in July 2017, and public comments on it were invited in August 2017.In June 2019, DevelopmentWA (previously the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority) began the process of expanding the Midland Redevelopment Area to include the areas around Bayswater station and High Wycombe station, renaming it the Metronet East Redevelopment Area. DevelopmentWA said the purpose of the redevelopment area was to "maximise development opportunities arising from the station upgrades and help create a well-designed and connected community hub." Its purpose would be to take development planning control away from the local government and the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC), and give it to DevelopmentWA. The boundaries of the area were formally established in May 2020.A draft redevelopment scheme for Metronet East was released in August 2020. The redevelopment scheme was formally adopted in May 2021, transferring planning authority from the City of Bayswater and the WAPC to DevelopmentWA. The redevelopment scheme provides the legal process for applying for development in the redevelopment area.In July 2021, draft design guidelines for the Bayswater section of the Metronet East Redevelopment Area were released to public comment. The design guidelines are intended to guide the redevelopment of land within the redevelopment area, including guides for building heights, setbacks, and provision of car parking spaces. The draft guidelines allow for buildings as tall as 15 stories in the central part of the town centre. The development scheme allows for buildings to break the design guidelines if DevelopmentWA approves the development application for that building.In 2019 and 2020, the City of Bayswater proposed to turn part of eastern Bayswater into a new suburb called Meltham, reminiscent of the old townsite of Meltham Heights. The new suburb would have centred on Meltham station within an area of 107 ha (260 acres). Responses from the residents indicated that 54% were opposed to the renaming for various reasons, including criticism of the name, worries that property values would decrease and the association of Meltham with anti-social behaviour. City of Bayswater councillors decided in May 2020 not to proceed with the new suburb.In February 2020, City of Bayswater councillors voted to heritage protect the entire town centre. This resulted in a backlash from some residents and the community group Future Bayswater, who say that it may hamper development and protect buildings with little-to-no heritage value. However, other residents and the community group Bayswater Deserves Better praised the move to heritage protection. The structure plan was finalised in June 2020.