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Gun House
'Gun House' was built during the second stage of construction as married quarters for the major commanding the coast artillery garrison, which occupied Artillery Barracks from June 1911 onwards. The house was used as a major's quarters until World War II, when it was used as accommodation for single officers.
During the war, successive General Officers Commanding the Army's Western Command lived in rented accommodation in Perth despite several unsuccessful overtures to Army Headquarters to purchase a permanent residence. Immediately following the war, residential accommodation in Perth was extremely scarce so, in May 1946, the incoming GOC, Major General J.S. Whitelaw, reported to Army Headquarters that he had been '... absolutely unable to find a suitable residence'. As a last resort and temporary measure he occupied the major's quarters in the Artillery Barracks.
Throughout Whitelaw's five years as GOC Western Command, he made several attempts to purchase a GOC's residence but without success. Subsequent GOCs continued to press for the purchase of a suitable residence with similar results. In January 1952, the Command Secretary wrote to Army Headquarters that, '... during the almost 40 years I have been at this Command Headquarters, I do know that the want for an official residence has been the cause of very much concern, worry and unhappiness to many GOC'. He went on to describe Fremantle as '... a locality in every way quite unsuitable for a GOC's residence'.
In 1955, the then GOC, Major General J.G.H. Dyke, in correspondence to Army Headquarters described Gun House as 'most unsuitable and ... located in a very poor class locality of Fremantle'. Notwithstanding determined efforts over many years to relocate the GOC from Gun House, it never eventuated. Between 1946 and 1995, all of 18 Army regional commanders to have served in that time lived in Gun House; six major generals and 12 brigadiers.
By the 1980s, Fremantle had lost its 'dockside' reputation. A report to Army Office at the end of 1986 described Gun House as being located in an 'acceptable socio-economic environment'. Fremantle had become gentrified!
Over the years a number of minor alterations were made to the house in an effort to make it more appropriate for a GOC. These alterations included the addition of various small external verandahs, minor internal alterations, periodic modernisation of the kitchen and bathrooms, as well as replacement of electricity, gas and hot water systems. In the early 1980s, extensive landscaping occurred in the house grounds, but otherwise Gun House in 1993 looked almost identical to when it was built 80 years earlier.
In 1994, the Defence Housing Authority undertook major extensions and renovations to Gun House. The extensions were designed to achieve harmony with the original work and great care was taken to preserve the style and proportions of the building and to match original bricks, tiles, plaster and fittings. At the same time, a number of earlier alterations were removed to restore the 1913 house to its original appearance. The result of the extensions is a charming, spacious and well appointed Federation style residence set in attractive grounds with pleasant, uninterrupted views over the Swan River. The gardens are ideal for outdoor entertainment.
At the front entrance to 'Gun House' in the Artillery Barracks at Fremantle, the visitor is met, appropriately by an 1813 ship's cannon. It is unclear when the name, 'Gun House', was adopted, but it certainly dates back to the late 1940s, if not earlier.
References and Links
Major-General Peter Phillips 1996, The Heritage Homes of the Australian Defence Force: One Hundred Australian Homes and Two Hundred Years of History, Defence Housing Authority: 74.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 18 June, 2020 and hosted at freotopia.org/buildings/gunhouse.html (it was last updated on 31 March, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.