DOREEN Taylor has fond memories of the Henderson Street Warders Cottage she called home more than 40 years ago.
Cramming a family of 10 into a small terrace cottage with no toilet during the 1960s might dissuade many, but Mrs Taylor said she had good memories of her time at number 17, the cottage that last week welcomed more than 50 former residents during a reunion to celebrate their restoration.
“We’ve got good memories here, we had good times and we really loved it,” she said.
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READ NOW“It looks good now, I’d love to live here again, it’s so close to everything.”
Daughter Sue Radford also shared her mother’s love of the home she grew up in.
“We made lots of friends here and Fremantle was really a hustle and bustle place,” she said.
“We used to create havoc on the balcony with all the passers by and dad really enjoyed his job at the prison.”
Built in the 1850s, the cottages housed Fremantle Prison warders until 1991 and then Department of Housing tenants until 2011, when they were deemed unfit and unsafe to live in.
The Heritage Council of WA took over ownership in 2015 and after months of conservation work, the 15 cottages are now for sale for residential or commercial use.
State Heritage Office executive director Graeme Gammie said a significant amount of conservation and restoration work had happened across the cottages to ensure they were structurally sound and to restore original detail lost to time.
“The cottages are now ready for sale and this presents a rare opportunity to buy a unique heritage asset, with new owners understanding that they will be he next generation custodians of a part of Western Australia’s convict history,” he said.
“It will also be exciting to see how the re-occupation of the cottages revitalise an area in the heart of Fremantle.”
Expressions of interest for the cottages close on December 9.
Visit www.stateheritage.wa.gov.au for more information.