Forrest Place

Forrest Place connects Perth railway station on Wellington Street with the Murray Street Mall, outside the Carillon City shopping centre. It is {{convert|150|m}} long, and is paved and landscaped as a pedestrianised square, with seating, public artwork, and trees. The eastern side of the street is lined by shops from the Forrest Chase shopping complex, while the historic General Post Office and Commonwealth Bank buildings are located to the west.{{Google maps|url=https://maps.google.com.au/maps?saddr=Forrest+Pl&daddr=Forrest+Pl&hl=en&sll=-31.952365,115.859295&sspn=0.002312,0.00327&geocode=FXl0GP4dO-DnBg%3BFblvGP4dHN7nBg&t=h&dirflg=w&mra=dme&mrsp=1&sz=19&z=19 |accessdate=8 December 2013}}

Forrest Place is used in many ways throughout the year, including cultural displays, children's activities and parades, and contains the City of Perth visitors centre.{{cite web| publisher = City of Perth| url = http://www.cityofperth.wa.gov.au/html/vis13_waaccess_fp_fp.php| title = Forrest Place| accessdate = 31 July 2006| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060821202320/http://www.cityofperth.wa.gov.au/html/vis13_waaccess_fp_fp.php| archive-date = 21 August 2006| url-status = dead}}

Nearby transport facilities include Perth railway station and Perth Busport, and Perth Central Area Transit (CAT) buses run along Wellington Street,

File:Forrest Place 1971 .tiff

File:Forrest Place, January 2018 08.jpg|250px]]

Named after Sir John Forrest,{{cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-17/the-changing-face-of-forrest-place-perth/7421894|title=From marketplace to water labyrinth: The changing faces of Forrest Place|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|author=Emma Wynne|date=17 May 2016|access-date=18 November 2017}} the first Premier of Western Australia, Forrest Place was for most of its history a roadway between the Perth railway station and Murray Street.

It was originally a plot of land issued to Patrick Farmer in 1840. Prior to Forrest Place's construction, an arcade between Wellington and Murray Streets existed on the site known as Central Arcade.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207395550 |title=Perth's Central Arcade |newspaper=Truth |volume= |issue=154 |location=Western Australia |date=23 June 1906 |accessdate=31 March 2023 |page=7 (CITY EDITION) |via=National Library of Australia}} It was considered an "unhealthy" establishment, which led to its demolition. The construction of Forrest Place deemed to have "changed the face of Perth".{{cite news|url=http://www.thewest.com.au/multimedia/WAN%20ONLINE/mm1/Galleries/175_ed4/26-Sept-full-page-10.jpg|title=Postal palace – the new G.P.O. ready at last|date=26 September 1923|work=The West Australian|accessdate=18 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080731005302/http://www.thewest.com.au/multimedia/WAN%20ONLINE/mm1/Galleries/175_ed4/26-Sept-full-page-10.jpg|archive-date=31 July 2008|url-status=dead|location=Perth, Western Australia|format=JPG}}

Prior to the building of the Forrest Chase complex (containing Myer and numerous other retail stores), the central building on the eastern side of Forrest Place was the Padbury Buildings (built in 1925{{cite web|publisher=Heritage Council of Western Australia|url=http://register.heritage.wa.gov.au/viewplace.html?place_seq=25079&offset=2&view=description|title=Padbury Buildings|accessdate=31 July 2006|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930023633/http://register.heritage.wa.gov.au/viewplace.html?place_seq=25079&offset=2&view=description|archivedate=30 September 2007}} and demolished in 1986–1987). While the buildings on the east side have changed a number of times in the street's 82-year history, the General Post Office (completed in 1923{{cite web |publisher=Heritage Council of Western Australia |url=http://register.heritage.wa.gov.au/PDF_Files/POST%20OFFICES%20-%20Reg/General%20PO%20Perth%20%28P%29.PDF |title=General Post Office |accessdate=31 July 2006 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090626185221/http://register.heritage.wa.gov.au/PDF_Files/POST%20OFFICES%20-%20Reg/General%20PO%20Perth%20%28P%29.PDF |archivedate=26 June 2009}}) and the Commonwealth Bank building (completed 1933{{cite web|url=http://register.heritage.wa.gov.au/PDF_Files/C%20Reg/Com%27wealth%20Bank%2C%20Perth%20%28P%29.PDF|title=Commonwealth Bank Building|publisher=Heritage Council of Western Australia|accessdate=31 July 2006}}), both designed by John Smith Murdoch in the Interwar Beaux-Arts style and faced with Donnybrook stone, have endured significant change around them.

In the 1940s returned soldiers marched through Forrest Place.Edmonds, Jack (editor) (1976) Swan River colony : life in Western Australia since the early colonial settlement, illustrated by pictures from an exhibition mounted by West Australian Newspapers Ltd. as a contribution to celebrations for the state's 150th year Perth : West Australian Newspapers, 1979.{{ISBN|0909699208}} – page 79 – Ninth Division troops 24 March 1943

It was a meeting place and focal point for political meetings in the 1950s through to the 1980s;Edmonds, Jack (editor) (1976) Swan River colony : life in Western Australia since the early colonial settlement, illustrated by pictures from an exhibition mounted by West Australian Newspapers Ltd. as a contribution to celebrations for the state's 150th year Perth : West Australian Newspapers, 1979.{{ISBN|0909699208}} – page 95 – Gough Whitlam – 1974, considerable use was made of the steps of the Post Office being above the roadway level.

An attempt to defuse the political nature of the space and ban meetings in Forrest Place was carried out by Charles Court, on 18 November 1975, when his government used Section 54B of the Western Australia Police Act to ban meetings.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110576344 |title=The promised Police Act amendments labelled 'cosmetic' |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=53 |issue=16,036 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=20 August 1979 |accessdate=21 June 2023 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{Citation | title=54B affects you! | publication-date=1980 | publisher=Civil Liberties Action Committee | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/159323463 | accessdate=8 December 2013 }} Considerable numbers of demonstrations resulted from this ban,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259474803 |title=Police act pushed to absurdity |newspaper=Tribune |issue=2169 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=26 November 1980 |accessdate=21 June 2023 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} which was later repealed by the Public Meetings and Processions Act of 1984.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259491608 |title=Anti-assembly law to go |newspaper=Tribune |issue=2316 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=8 February 1984 |accessdate=21 June 2023 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}

In 2013, the history of protests held at Forest Place, and the responses by authorities, was the subject of a presentation by Murdoch University Adjunct Associate Professor Lenore Layman. These events are considered by Layman to be part of an "alternative history of Perth" that isn't so sedated.http://community.perth.wa.gov.au/historycentre/?page_id=1994 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213013507/http://community.perth.wa.gov.au/historycentre/?page_id=1994 |date=13 December 2013 }} Forrest Place: A civic space of protest? – the summary of the presentation was given as: "A presentation by Adjunct Associate Professor Lenore Layman – Forrest Place has often been a contested city space as citizens have chosen the site to exercise their right to peaceful public protest. People's causes have been many and varied but always passionately proclaimed; and public authorities have frequently responded decisively to re-assert control of the street. Together the protests and responses to them tell part of an alternative history of Perth. Perhaps the city hasn't been so sedate after all?"

In 2017, in a chapter in the book Radical Perth, Militant Fremantle Layman develops an argument that Forrest Place was a location of conflict over the usage of the space as a place for freedom of speech, association and peaceful assembly.page 62 – as part of chapter 8, Forrest Place Protests from the Depression to 54B and into 21st Century in {{Citation | editor1=Fox, Charles Elmer | editor2=Oliver, Bobbie | editor3=Layman, Lenore | title=Radical Perth militant Fremantle | publication-date=2017 | publisher=Black Swan Press, Curtin University | isbn=978-0-9954415-5-2 }}

File:Melbourne fans celebrate grand final win.jpg fans celebrate the day after the Demons won the 2021 AFL Grand Final that was played in Perth.|thumb|right|250px]]

With the 2021 AFL Grand Final being held at Perth Stadium because of a COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne, in lieu of the traditional AFL Grand Final parade a "people's parade" was held at Forrest Place allowing fans to celebrate the game (but without the clubs in attendance) on 24 September 2021, the day before the final.{{cite web|url=https://7news.com.au/sport/afl/perth-to-hold-peoples-parade-at-forrest-place-in-lieu-of-traditional-afl-grand-final-procession-c-3973497|date=15 September 2021|accessdate=25 September 2021|publisher=7News|title=Perth to hold ‘people’s parade’ at Forrest Place in lieu of traditional AFL Grand Final procession|author=Pip Christmass}} The premiership cup presentation also took place at Forrest Place the day after the final following the Melbourne Football Club's victory over the Western Bulldogs, with the winning team in attendance.{{cite web|url=https://thewest.com.au/sport/afl/afl-grand-final-melbourne-demons-celebrate-with-fans-at-forrest-place-ng-b882018355z|date=15 September 2021|accessdate=26 September 2021|publisher=The West Australian|title=AFL grand final: Melbourne Demons celebrate with fans at Forrest Place|author=Josh Zimmerman}}

File:Grow Your Own, January 2018 02.jpg

Forrest Place became a large paved area with the closing of the roadway in the late 1986.[http://innopac.liswa.wa.gov.au/search/dForrest+Place+%28Perth%2C+W.A.%29+--+Photographs./dforrest+place+perth+w+a+photographs/-2%2C-1%2C0%2CZ/l962~2030207&FF=dforrest+place+perth+w+a+photographs&12%2C%2C28%2C0%2C-1. Photo WA Library collect 1987 demolition] It still links Perth railway station on Wellington Street with the Murray Street Mall, with the bollards near the "Grow Your Own" public artwork (nicknamed "The Cactus") blocking vehicular access to the north.[https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/is-our-cactus-cactus-zempilas-hints-that-perth-s-polarising-public-art-is-facing-the-chop-20231027-p5efo3.html Is our Cactus cactus? Zempilas hints that Perth’s polarising public art is facing the chop]

File:Forrest place plaque left.jpg at 03:00 pm on 26 September 1923.|250px]]

{{Portal-inline|Australian roads}}

• List of lanes and arcades in Perth, Western Australia

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• Conole, Peter.(2002) Protect & serve : a history of policing in Western Australia Scarborough, W.A. : Western Australian Police Historical Society. {{ISBN|0-9579535-2-6}} – see specially pp. 343–348 regarding the problems of 54B for the police service.
• {{cite Q |Q133458669 |last=Gregory |first=Jenny |author-link=Jenny Gregory |url-access=registration |isbn=0-9594632-4-0 |pages=124–130 }}

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• Mason, John. Title of Perth town lot V 17, 1840 Issued in his name, 3 November 1840. (Mason, John—Archives – Battye Library)
• Australia. Dept. of the Interior.(1911) Perth new G.P.O. site: Plan of existing buildings. Plan Nos. D663 and D664.(Signed by Hillton Beasley, Chief Architect). (Australian Archives)
• {{cite Q |Q133458669 |last=Gregory |first=Jenny |author-link=Jenny Gregory |url-access=registration |isbn=0-9594632-4-0 |pages=124–130 }}

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• [http://innopac.liswa.wa.gov.au/search/dForrest+Place+%28Perth%2C+W.A.%29+--+Photographs./dforrest+place+perth+w+a+photographs/-2%2C-1%2C0%2CB/exact&FF=dforrest+place+perth+w+a+photographs&1%2C28%2C Photographs of Forrest Place, State Library of Western Australia]
• [http://innopac.liswa.wa.gov.au/search/dPadbury+Buildings+%28Perth%2C+W.A.%29+--+Photographs./dpadbury+buildings+perth+w+a+photographs/-2%2C-1%2C0%2CB/exact&FF=dpadbury+buildings+perth+w+a+photographs&1%2C3%2C Photographs of the Padbury Buildings, State Library of Western Australia]

{{Perth CBD Streets}}

Category:Streets in Perth central business district, Western Australia