CockburnCoast - Western Australian Planning Commission

CockburnCoast
Chapter 4
The urban renaissance
of the Cockburn coast
4.1 The future is a thing
of the past
Walking south along the beach, towards old Robb Jetty, there
is a place, just after rounding the tip of Point Catherine, where
you catch a sudden wide-angle view of the old power station
building and the limestone ridge in the distance. Early in the
morning, sunlight strikes the old power station at a peculiar
angle, shimmering strangely along its borders, spreading pale
yellow sunlight on to the austere walls, unmasking its luminous
and haunting beauty.
The Cockburn coastline and the limestone ridge behind it are
brimming with stories and history. Some stories are as big and as
ancient as the landscape itself. Other stories are tiny snapshots of a
barely recognisable, long lost world.
Today’s landscape of faded sea walls, a red brick chimney stack, a
mesh of old wire and rusted fences lie as monuments to a bygone
industrial era. There is also a legacy of another kind - the stories of
the Cockburn coast and the people who made it. Here, stories of
sea and the land come together in a rich assortment of voices.
The urban renaissance of the Cockburn coast begins with people
and their stories. The tales of shipwrecks, battlers, racehorses, old
industrial buildings, freight trains and old traditions are the spirit of
the place. This is the bedrock for the Cockburn coast project and
the makings of a sustainable community centred upon a strong
sense of place.
“Places are not abstractions or concepts, but are directly
experienced phenomena of the lived world and hence are full
with meanings, with real objects, and with ongoing activities.”
- Edward Relph 'Place and Placelessness' (1976)
While a sense of place is a powerful force in shaping the urban
renaissance of the Cockburn coast, it is not a single sense of place
that everyone shares. But the common thread is that the Cockburn
coast is a place with its own identity tied to the land and
waterscapes, traditions, the old power station building, and people.
Nyoongar voice:
The land and waters of the Swan coastal plain have sustained
Nyoongar people, the traditional custodians of the land, for more
than 50 000 years. The Nyoongars revere the landscape and all the
living things it supports. The lasting relationship of the Nyoongar
culture and the landscape has been passed down from generation
to generation by Nyoongar elders, or “minders of the stories”,
through the telling of dreamtime stories. It begins a long time ago,
before the Europeans came from across the ocean, from the time
when the earth was being created and shaped…
Neville Collard - Nyoongar Birdiyia (Boss)
“My pop (grandfather) was Tom Bennell. Until he died in 1989,
he was a minder of Nyoongar stories. He passed his stories on
to me. Pop was originally a Nyoongar boy, born about 1903,
though nobody knows for sure. He was the progeny of a white
man, though on the Nyoongar side our line is descended from
Yagan. (Yagan was the son of Midgegooroo, a Nyoongar
Whadjuk leader.) Yagan was also the right-hand man of
Nyoongar leader Yellagonda, who welcomed the Wadjella
people (European settlers) on the banks of the Derbarl Yirrigan
(Swan River) when he shook hands with Captain Fremantle (in
1829).
In Nyoongar language the crocodile is called Meandip - that's
the same name for Garden Island. I'll tell you the story of how
the island got its name.
The crocodile Meandip came here and the Nyoongar said,
“Hey crocodile, what are you doing down here?”
The crocodile said, “I've come down here from my land, I got
lost and I'm here now.”
And the Nyoongar said, “This is the Nyoongar land and we
don't want you here - you are a bad man - you've got to go
back to your land.”
But the crocodile said, “I'm not leaving.”
And so the Nyoongar had wanginy (talk) and decided they
would call on the Waakal to help them. The Waakal said he
would go and talk to Meandip, but Meandip said he was not
leaving and so Waakal said they would fight and the winner
would keep the land.
And so they fought, all the way round the mouth of the Swan
River to Cockburn Sound where Garden Island is. Now the
Waakal got the better of Meandip, put a foot on him, pulled a
whisker out of his face and tied him up. And when you look at
the island from up high to the south-west, you can see the
white cliffs (his teeth), the knob, that's his crown, and then
there's the rest of Mendip's shape. That's how Garden Island
got its Aboriginal name - Meandip.
If you go the top of the Round House and look at Garden
Island, you can see the shape of Meandip.”
district structure plan
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