Supreme Court of Western Australia

Supreme Court building

The Supreme Court building has considerable heritage significance in Western Australia. In 1899, a joint parliamentary committee was formed to decide on the location of the new court building with three sites being considered. The locations were a site in Irwin Street, the old Government Boys' School on St George's Terrace and the current site. After a decision was made and a contract awarded for £55,888 11s 3p to RP Vincent and Sons in February 1901, an announcement was made to the public during March of that year. The foundation stone was laid on 2 June 1902 and would open on 8 June 1903 with WA Governor Sir Frederick Bedford present as was the Chief Justice Sir Edward Stone and the full court.

The two-storey brick building was designed by John Harry Grainger (father of Percy Grainger), Chief Architect with the Public Works Department of Western Australia. It is designed in the Federation Academic Classical style: a style that was often used for major public buildings of the time. The original design called for only local materials to be used with Donnybrook stone, Meckering granite and jarrah wood the choice. Stuccoed cement had to be substituted when insufficient quantities of Donnybrook stone of identical texture and colour were lacking for the building. Another change was the slate roof, when a galvanized roof was installed instead saving £5,425. Originally, the grand foyer was to be painted in colours reflecting those of the glass domes, but again shortage of funds dictated the substitution of whitewash. The foyer was more appropriately redecorated to celebrate the Court’s centenary in 2003.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Supreme Court of Western Australia" and modified on 23 July 2019 under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.