HISTORY

The Quarry amphitheatre is situated on the slopes of Reabold Hill, the highest point in a line of sand dunes running parallel to the coast. The Tamala Limestone formations is very close to the surface in this vicinity and has been quarried in several places, for building stone and lime-burning material.

The earliest quarrying in the area was undertaken by Henry Trigg who was granted 500 acres of land (Location Al) in 1834. This land grant lay south of modern day Grantham Street, and stretched from Floreat to the crest of the line of sandhills that runs parallel to the coast. Trigg was a master builder and recognized the value of the limestone outcropping along the western edge of his grant. His quarrying and lime-burning business prospered, and in 1839 he purchased the neighbouring land to the south (Location Ak) from Surveyor-General John Septimus Roe. This land included Perry Lakes and Reabold Hill (then known as One Tree Hill) and added greatly to his limestone reserves.

In 1847 Trigg sold his land to his northern neighhbour, Walter Padbury who consolidated it with his Location Am to form a 1,234 acre landholding that became known as the "Limekilns Estate". Padbury's primary interest was in livestock and he established abattoirs, stockyards, a tannery and other associated industries on the estate. He built a cottage and barns on the slopes of Reabold Hill and, as a shrewd businessman, may well have continued the quarrying operations.

The Limekilns Estate later passed to brothers Henry and Somers Birch (1869) who continued Padbury's slaughtering business, and then to Joseph Perry (1879) a well-known Herdsman and horsebreaker. Perry expanded the size of the Limekilns Estate to 1,290 acres and kept large numbers of horses and cattle on the flats around Perry Lakes and herdsman Lake. He built a house on the slopes of Reabold Hill in the vicinity of Padbury's old barn, and appears to have kept the quarry and lime kilns working, with the last lime kiln being erected in 1897. Private quarrying ceased in 1906.

In 1917 the land was sold to the Perth City Council who used building materials from perry's house and stone from the nearby quarry, to build a new house nearby, for use by the caretaker of the Limekilns Estate and the neighbouring endowment lands. This is the building now known as Perry House.

At the height of the limestone kilns operations, more than 50 men worked at the site, and even had their own brass band and held horse racing and hunt club meetings on the flats near Perry Lakes.

Many of Perth's early public buildings, including the foundations for the Perth Town hall (opened 1870) were constructed using lime and stone from the quarry and kilns. Stone was conveyed by a light narrow guage horse drawn railway through the bush, roughly along the route of present day Salvado Road, to Jolimont and then on to Subiaco railway station. The track alongside the rails was known as Limekiln Road. Various parts of the quarry were also linked by wooden tramway to facilitate recovery and removal of the limestone.

A story is told of how, in 1902, Ralf Deering was riding his horse, Ladybird, to the limekilns carrying the POUND SYMBOL350 payroll when he was waylaid by three masked bandits. The horse shied in fright at their sudden appearance and galloped into the bush. The robbers gave pursuit for a short distance before giving up and sneaking away. A group of quarrymen armed themselves and went out searching for the bandits, who were later captured in Perth. The weekly wage of a quarryman at that time was about POUNDS3.

After 1906, the quarry appeared to have remained disused for many decades, except as a regular site of adventure for local children. A number of elderly residents have spoken of their memories of riding their bicycles down its steep banks, and an article in the Western Mail in 1913 noted that the boys of Leederville and Subiaco had fun exploring Perry's Hill with its limekilns and quarry, which was "distant from the terminus of Cambridge Street some three miles". the same article suggests that the limekilns were deserted because the leases ran out and were not renewed.

In the early 1980s, Diana Waldron, director of the Perth City Ballet Company, conceived the idea of converting the old quarry into an amphitheatre for stage productions. With the help of her husband Ken, who was an architect, she negotiated her way through much planning, bureaucratic red tape and objection, and was finally given permission to proceed by Perth City Council and the Metropolitan Region Planning Authority. Upon receipt of a $468,000 grant from a Commonwealth Employment programme, which stipulated the use of unemployed labour, construction began. The original intention to use brick was thwarted because there were no bricklayers out of work at the time, so to meet the terms of their funding grant they used other unemployed workers to lay precast concrete blocks, With further funding from the Lotteries Commission (then known as ILDAC) and a number of other interested parties, the project was completed in 1986. The Quarry Amphitheatre was officially opened by Senator Peter Cook, on the 9th of November 1986.

Perth City Council provided little help in the building of the amphitheatre, but they did develop the clustered parking areas and roadways. The access road to the Amphitheatre is now known as Waldron Drive.

The Waldrons also set about rehabilitation of the bushland around the amphitheatre. With CALM’s permission, Ken Waldron collected seeds from plants native t the area, and Alcoa germinated and grew them free of charge, eventually providing over 1,000 seedlings. The large eucalyptus trees now bordering the parking areas are products of this successful environmental initiative.
From 1987 the Quarry Amphitheatre was leased from Perth City Council by the Perth Theatre Trust.
In 1994, with the restructuring of the City of Perth, the Quarry Amphitheatre site was included within the boundaries of the new Town of Cambridge, where it was viewed as “as a cultural centre of great significance.”

In May 1997, at the request of Cambridge Council, the Perth Theatre Trust surrendered its lease (not due to expire until 2007), and the Town of Cambridge assumed responsibility for the Quarry Amphitheatre.

Over the years, the nature of the Quarry Amphitheatre has provided unique maintenance and management challenges. In 1997, following the limestone cliff collapses in East Fremantle and Gracetown, a thorough assessment of the stability of the quarry’s limestone walls was carried out, and a program of regular inspection instituted.
One of their major findings of the investigation was that while small shrubs with fine root systems helped to bind topsoil material, larger shrubs and trees with well-developed root systems were the cause of the many identified cracks throughout the slope face. Remedial work included removal of loose rocks and several large trees and the introduction of cement tell-tails on visible cracks which allow monitoring of movement in the walls.

In 2000 a report was commissioned on “acoustic anomalies” which were causing variable sound levels with the Amphitheatre and some irritation to nearby residents. The problems were found to be caused partly by the type of sound equipment used, and partly by “environmental conditions such as temperature inversions, wind speed and direction, and air temperature”.
In 1998/99 drainage problems necessitated rebuilding of the undercroft floor.
In 1998 ownership of Bold Park and its Environs was transferred to the Kings Park and Botanical Gardens Board (now renamed as the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority). However, the Town of Cambridge retained control of several areas within the Park, including the Quarry Amphitheatre and was required to prepare an environmental management plan for these areas, separate from the Bold Park Management Plan. This was completed in 2000 and endorsed by the Minister for the Environment and Department of Environmental Protection.

The Quarry Amphitheatre has been adapted to an increasing variety of uses in recent years. In July 2005, it was reported that in the five years that Starlight Theatre Lighting had been managing the Amphitheatre, the performance season had expanded from one month to five months of the year and the venue was running at 81.5% capacity with many shows booked out.

Recent events have included ballet productions, jazz concerts, a Blue Light disco, theatre musicals, school drama productions, weddings and other private functions.

The Quarry Amphitheatre would like to thank Cambridge Library's Local Studies Collection for providing the information required to make this page.