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Wearne Hostel
Marine Terrace, Cottesloe, between Warton and Gibney Streetss
What follows is from the Heritage Council.
Aesthetic Value
Wearne Hostel is significant in exhibiting the aesthetic characteristics of the Federation Queen Anne style. The individual elements constructed between 1897 and 1909 make an increasingly exuberant use of the elements of the style. Many of the interior spaces have fine aesthetic qualities. (Criterion 1.1) Wearne Hostel is an eclectic assemblage of Federation Queen Anne style elements sited to take advantage of the site contours and the seaside location and creatively exploits all of these attributes to make a rich and finely crafted overall composition in its open setting. (Criterion 1.2) Wearne Hostel has a landmark quality at the corner of Marine Parade and Warton Street Cottesloe, and is an integral part of the vista in this locality. Cottesloe is a distinctive section of Metropolitan beach frontage. The remaining mature plantings contribute to its landmark quality. (Criterion 1.3)
Historic Value
Wearne Hostel, in its role as the M. C. L. Convalescent Home and later as the
M. L. C. Home, was one of the largest and most successful philanthropic
institutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It was founded and
principally funded by the Ministering Children’s League, and it provided a
most necessary service to the people of this State for almost 60 years; and in
particular, to those from the Goldfields in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. It provided services also to women, for whom there were few medical facilities available prior to the construction of King Edward
Memorial Hospital in 1916. (Criterion 2.2)
Subsequently, as the Fremantle Hospital Mosman Park Annexe it provided
health care services. (Criterion 2.2)
As Wearne Hostel it provides service for the Frail Aged. (Criterion 2.2)
Wearne Hostel was constructed during the Western Australian gold boom
period, and extended in the early years of the twentieth century, to provide
much needed services to those in need of convalescent care. (Criterion 2.2)
In 1984, during the mining boom of the 1980s, major alterations and additions
were made to convert the earlier buildings and to develop Wearne Hostel for
the frail aged. (Criterion 2.2)
Wearne Hostel has been closely associated with a number of prominent
persons. Lady Meath, English founder of the Ministering Children's League,
is commemorated in the Meath Wing, along with Mrs. Waylen and Walter
Padbury, whose bequests were commemorated in the wards named after
them. Others include among its founders and lifelong supporters, Mr. and
Mrs. H. D. Holmes, treasurer and secretary, and their daughters, Phoebe and
Emmie; Lady Onslow, patroness and president of the Management
Committee; and P. W. Harrison, Architect, who designed all the buildings
constructed at the place 1897-1909. (Criterion 2.3)
Wearne Hostel was closely associated with the wives of all the Governors of
Western Australia in the late nineteenth century and the first half of the
twentieth century, especially Lady Lawley; as well as with Edith Cowan, Lady
References and Links
State Library of Western Australia.
Abandoned Western Australia, Facebook. Many photos, thanks to Delphine Jamet.
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 5 January, 2024 and hosted at freotopia.org/buildings/wearne.html (it was last updated on 5 January, 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.