Time Warp Tuesday - 04 February 2025

Published on Tuesday, 4 February 2025 at 3:17:00 PM

Welcome to #TimeWarpTuesday! This week we bring to you the next part of our mini-series on heritage places from the Town’s Municipal Heritage Inventory published in June 2000.

Heritage Places - Part Four

Burswood Resort and Casino

“The Burswood Casino is built on the site of the original land allocation of Henry Camfield. Henry Camfield arrived in the Swan River Colony in 1829. After some difficulty, Camfield received a grant of 1,000 acres that included some land on the river flats. Camfield named his property ‘Burrswood’ after a grand property from his English home. The difficulties he faced included extreme temperatures, bad timing for crops, mosquitoes and transport problems. He built a wattle and daub hut and supplemented his diet by shooting birds – emu, cockatoo, pelican, and swan, among others. Reading Camfield’s letters in chronological order it is easy to recognise his positive attitude eventually sinking into depression owing to the hardships of raising crops on poor land.

“Camfield left his land to take up a government appointment, first as Postmaster General then as Resident Magistrate of Albany. Camfield rented his land to tenant farmers. One of the most successful was Solomon Cook who developed a large market garden and piggery. Cook bought the land from Camfield in 1871 but died soon after.

“Burswood became known as Burswood Island as a result of some dredging of the river flats. Navigation along the river had been difficult owing to the mudflats, forcing the settlers to use flat bottomed boats. Settlers put pressure on the government to bypass Herrisson Island by cutting a canal through land jutting out at Burswood. The canal that created the ‘island’ of Burswood was excavated in 1831-32 but as early as 1839 proved inadequate. When the Swan River was improved in 1925 the Canal disappeared.

“Burswood’s other claim to early fame was the site of WA’s first golf course in 1895. The course was later relocated to South Perth in 1908. Another sporting pursuit held in the vicinity was horseracing which began in 1899 on a track named Goodwood. However, this track was taken over by the nearby Belmont Racecourse. The WA Turf Club sold Goodwood Race Course to the State Government in 1950.

“From the turn of the century until the 1980s the name of Burswood was linked with waste products. For a number of years, prior to WWI (1906-1912), sewage filtration beds were constructed. The poor image that Burswood conjured up owing to the association with the filtration site led to the local train station being changed from Burswood to Rivervale. After the treatment plant was closed down in 1934, Burswood became a rubbish tip from 1946. It was a busy scene of landfill, numerous seagulls and domestic rubbish until the 1970s.

“The Casino development, headed by Dallas Dempster, was a joint venture including Tileska Pty Ltd and Malaysian Genting Berhad. Despite its controversial beginnings the Casino opened on the 30 December 1985 with a first flush of 12,000 people.

“Today the river flats have been landscaped into manicured parks and gardens, attracting many visitors. Facilities include bicycle paths, children’s playgrounds and a heritage trail (marked by bronze statues). The Casino is visited by both local, national and international people in pursuit of entertainment of great variety, which includes not only the gambling but music, restaurants, sporting events and exhibitions. There are nearly 3,000 people employed at the Casino. Surrounding the resort and casino is the Burswood Park and public golf course.

“Description

“This impressive hotel and casino complex, which also includes entertainment and sporting facilities, is set in expansive parklands beside the Swan River. Built in the 1980s, the multi-storey hotel is the lunch-pin of the complex. It was built to take maximum advantage of views over the river and back towards Perth City. It has a stepped façade which is somewhat pyramidal in shape and a full height, Portman inspired glazed atrium to the south. The building housing the casino is essentially a large utilitarian shed.

“The Burswood Dome is a large sports and entertainment space with a pressurised fabric roof covering the main arena. The surrounding off-form concrete walls express the structure and internal function in a quite unadorned and utilitarian manner.

“Statement of Significance

“The Burswood Casino and Hotel has significant aesthetic, historic and social heritage value. Innovative architecture has led to a building that has changed the horizon viewed from the north side of the river. Extensive parklands enhance the aesthetic impact of the Casino and Hotel Complex. Historically the Casino is situated on land that has an interesting story of development. As this was the first of its type, the building of the Casino was an historic benchmark in Western Australia. The social impact of the Casino has been hotly debated and different schools of thought do not agree on the heritage value. However, there is no doubt the Casino has made its mark in Western Australian society.”(1)

Call to Action

Has this story inspired you? Did you or do you work at the Casino? Would you like to help us capture the history of our Town? Then you might like to make a submission to the 2025 Local History Awards (https://www.victoriaparklibrary.wa.gov.au/local-history/local-history-awards). Even if you just have one old photograph of a place, event or thing in the Town’s long history, we’d love to see it. Please put your thinking cap on, get out your camera, talk to your relatives and neighbours and get documenting and researching. Your entry could win you a prize too, but you will be arguably winning the greater prize of knowing you have helped both present and future generations understand their community better.

#LoveVicPark

References:

(1) Heritage Today 2000, ‘Town of Victoria Park Local Heritage Inventory, Heritage Today, Mount Lawley.

PH00244-01 The Burswood Casino building and the surrounding parklands, c1996-2000

Photographed by Heritage Today circa 1996-2000 for the Town of Victoria Park Municipal Heritage Inventory, published June 2000.