West Perth Cowle 54

(References pending)

​Walter Edward Joseph Gallop, born in Perth on 27 January 1857, came from one of the Swan River Colony’s earliest working families. His father, along with his brothers, arrived in Western Australia in October 1829 and went on to become farmers and market gardeners, supplying produce to Perth and Fremantle.

 

Joseph followed the same path and by the 1880s was an established market gardener on the northern edge of what is now West Perth, working the Lake Henderson wetland system when the area was still defined by lakes, drains, gardens and orchards rather than inner-city development.

 

Joseph owned land in the Cowle Street area and in 1884, it was on this land that he built a small brick cottage on Lot Y207, now known as 54 Cowle Street. In the following year, a separate portion of land he owned in central Perth, recorded as Perth Town Lot W1 near the Barrack Street, Beaufort Street and Wellington Street area, was taken by the government for road alignment works. In exchange, Joseph was granted a four-acre block fronting Lake Street, on the edge of the Lake Henderson wetland system, which appears to have expanded his market garden holdings.

 

His house that remains today is recognised as the earliest house built on Cowle Street and is amongst the oldest surviving homes in the City of Vincent area.

 

As for his personal life, Joseph married Frances Lindsay in 1879, was widowed in 1884 and remarried Eunice Tapping in 1886. He had several children, including daughters Eva and Grace, though at least one died in infancy.

 

Joseph died aged 37 on 21 July 1894. After his death, his West Perth property was passed down to his daughters. His name is remembered in the neighbourhood through Gallop Street, which runs near the area once occupied by his gardens.

 

Other members of the Gallop family also played notable roles, including his uncle James Gallop, who established the Dalkeith market gardens known as ‘Gallop’s Gardens’ and Geoff Gallop, who served as Premier of Western Australia from 2001 to 2006.

 

The site is currently being redeveloped alongside neighbouring properties and while real-estate databases group the area as 48–70 Cowle Street for development purposes, Landgate records confirm that the historic house occupies a distinct legal lot at 48 Cowle Street, separate from No. 50 next door.