• Vincent mayor Emma Cole with Wilberforce Street resident Ellie Savory, who’s keen to keep the area’s aesthetics.

TWO eye-pleasing patches of Mount Hawthorn may soon have their aesthetic preserved as “character areas”, with a workshop to discuss the details coming up on March 9.

Kalgoorlie Street’s block of homes between Ashby and Berryman Streets – along with all of Wilberforce Street’s residences – would be covered by the character areas if residents are supportive.

Character areas don’t prevent demolition but you have to at least make any new development or renovations fit in with what’s valued about the current “visual character” of the area.

Kalgoorlie Street has a lot of 100-year-old homes and some contemporary designs, while most of Wilberforce’s houses are original character homes dating back to 1900.

Mayor Emma Cole said: “We are lucky in Vincent to have beautiful leafy streets filled with character homes and history. 

Extensions

“Wilberforce Street and Kalgoorlie Street are unique streets and the residents have let us know they are keen to better define this,” Ms Cole said.

“We are seeking residents’ views on what characteristics they love about these streets and how the City of Vincent could encourage keeping the character and better manage house extensions and new developments to complement this.”

Wilberforce Street resident Ellie Savory lives in a house built in 1924 and is keen on the character area proposal.

“Wilberforce Street is so unique in that it is overwhelmingly intact in its original architecture,” Ms Savory said via a Vincent council release.

“I hope that more Vincent property owners take this opportunity to preserve the character and ambience of their street, block or suburb.

“The great cities of Europe, which travellers flock to, are ones that have preserved their architectural histories and we should too.”

The workshop’s in Mount Hawthorn Lesser Hall at 197 Scarborough Beach Road from 5.30pm on March 9, otherwise imagine.vincent.wa.gov.au has an online survey, and submissions close March 21.

The council’s only planning to go ahead if locals are supportive, as historically attempts to bring in character areas or heritage areas have been an uphill battle. 

Last year the council considered making a much wider area of Mount Hawthorn into a character retention area, but late in the process several residents staunchly objected.