Perth Voice Interactive

BIG changes are on the way for West Perth’s aged streetscape with three houses to be demolished to make way for 48 units.

Almost 60m of street across houses 32, 40 and 44 Cowle Street will be knocked down while a semi-detached pair of heritage-listed properties will be incorporated into the $8.35m design by property developer Giorgi Group.

Numbers 28 and 30—the 1891 conjoined houses that will stay—are listed on the local heritage inventory as “an example of the convict and late colonial Georgian style”.

“The place has considerable historic value as a good example of one of the earliest worker’s dwellings built in the area prior to the gold boom period,” the inventory entry states.

They’ll be “refurbished and adapted internally to contain two one-bedroom apartments”.

While acknowledging the three-storey building is higher than most of the surrounding houses, the Giorgi Group report reckons, “this precinct is in a transition stage where it is appropriate that future residential developments be of a higher density that is compatible with the City of Vincent’s future vision for this area”.

The decision rests with the development assessment panel, the partly-democratic body that makes decisions for big projects over $7million.

by DAVID BELL