Mayor Emma Cole and local resident Peter Holcz on Hope Street.

A GROUP of Orange Avenue and Hope Street residents in inner Perth are hoping to have their neighbourhood’s historic streetscape preserved.

So far 16 landowners out of 29 lots have called on Vincent council to apply a “Character Area” classification over their streets.

It’s not as strict as a heritage listing and would still allow development as long as it fits in with the general streetscape aesthetics and scale.

Mayor Emma Cole said: 

“Orange Avenue and Hope Street is a beautiful connecting streetscape with many terraced houses being lovingly cared for by their owners.

“It’s right in the heart of the suburb of Perth, but has a really close, neighbourly feel and the pattern of smaller early 1900 homes is really special.”

Some of these character area nominations have led to disagreements in streets where some of the neighbourhood wants to keep the streetscapes’ style and others don’t want any kind of planning controls on what style they can build (“Fierce debate,” Voice, August 28, 2021). 

The whole street will get their say and then council has the final vote on whether to make it a character area.

Resident Peter Holcz submitted the nomination, which says it’s an opportunity to preserve the streets’ history.

Terraces

“The streets of Orange Avenue and Hope Street form a short dog-leg where both sides of the streets are lined with predominantly double fronted terraces dating back to the early 1900s,” he wrote.  

“As well as other original character stand-alone houses from the same era, this L-shaped neighbourhood is a unique inner-city example of original semi-detached worker houses located around the corner from the more notable ‘baker’s dozen’ on Lake Street.”

But it’s never been set in stone, and there’s stories in the changes too: “Additions and alterations to some of the dwellings include the removal of original Federation verandas that have been replaced with concrete porches, which reflect the influence of mid-century immigration patterns.

“The residents want to retain the character of our two streets, especially the front facade of our houses.

“We desire more contemporary additions, including second storeys, that generally preserve the historic character and are in keeping with policy recommendations.  

“We love our two streets and we really want to ensure we can enjoy what we have now and into the future.”

Eight character areas have been adopted since the policy was adopted in 2015.