Press - 2007
POST Newspapers 10 Nov 2007
The Cliffe was cradle of the Triffids’ rock
BY ROMY RANALLI
Fans of Australian rock 'n' roll have joined the long running battle to save Peppermint Grove's sprawling bungalow, The Cliffe, calling for it to be turned into a music museum.
International photographer and rock historian Bleddyn Butcher, of Sydney, said he was alarmed by the Shire of Peppermint Grove's decision to advise the Heritage Council it supported removing The Cliffe from the Heritage Register.
Mr Butcher said the 113-year-old pioneering homestead was the home of David McComb, the lead singer and chief songwriter of one of Perth's finest and most successful pop groups, The Triffids.
Formed in the late '70s the band had international success with songs like Wide Open Road and Bury Me Deep in Love
Harold and Athel McComb bought the house in 1962 when David was three months old and he lived there until he moved to Melbourne in 1992.
He died aged 37 in 1999, a few days after a car accident.
The coroner's report found his death was caused by heroin toxicity and the rejection of the heart transplant he had four years earlier.
David was inducted into the WA Music Industry Association Hall Of Fame last year.
His parents were both doctors, Dr Harold McComb was a plastic surgeon and his mother Dr Athel Hockey was a geneticist.
He went to Christ Church Grammar School and studied journalism at the WA Institute of Technology.
Mr Butcher, a former New Music Express journalist, has just released a book about Mr McComb and the Triffids.
"Between 1978 and 1981, the Triffids recorded six collections of original songs at The Cliffe," Mr Butcher said.
"The house remained a sanctuary and source of inspiration throughout their career.
"Its peculiar location, an eyrie on Devil's Elbow overlooking Freshwater Bay, gave David a startling perspective as well as a beautiful view.
"When he became interested as a teenager in forming a band, he and the future Triffids would gather in the cellar at The Cliffe to practise, the size of the grounds ensuring there were few neighbours to disturb."
He said the cover of the last Triffids album The Black Swan (1989) was photographed in the stables at the rear of the house.
"I can't help wondering whether Mark Creasy's remark in your September 29 edition reveals an awareness of this part of the house's history," Mr Butcher said.
"Professing immunity to its architectural and period charms, Mr Creasy claims he would understand its heritage-listing if John Lennon had lived here, or even John Curtin.
"David McComb may not have achieved Lennon's eminence in the pop world but who has?
"Nor Curtin's place in this country's history but his contribution to Australian songwriting is second to none."
"No other song collection captures the West Australian state of mind quite as acutely as The Triffids' Born Sandy Devotional (1986).
"Preserving the house and its cloistered grounds as a memorial or living museum would be a fitting tribute to his undersung achievements."
He said the Heritage Council had not replied to his questions.
"I visited the property in March and found it tucked away but left completely unsecured, hence the vandalism," he said.
"I wrote to the Chairman of the State Heritage Council asking whether the preservation order or heritage listing obliged Mr Creasy to maintain the property.
"I still have not received a reply.
"I too am worried the Peppermint Grove shire is allowing Mr Creasy to pursue the policy of 'demolition by neglect'.
"I also sought to draw the matter to the shire council's attention but was fobbed off with the explanation that the heritage listing was not council business.
"This explanation was not strictly accurate."
Mr Butcher said he wanted the site to be turned into a museum celebrating West Australian song.
"Mr Creasy could donate the house and site to the state for this express purpose, tossing in the money he proposed spending on removal to make up for the maintenance he hasn't carried out during the last dozen years.
"The state government also has a requirement to contribute towards arts funding.
"Somewhere in my effects, I have a photocopy of an essay written by a 12-year-old David McComb about the house, I must dig it out."
POST Newspapers 29 Sep 2007
Grand mansion now a rotting wreck
BY ROMY RANALLI
The Cliffe - once one of the most stately homes in WA, with 20 beautifully fitted rooms and surrounded by a 10-acre park with lawns and flowerbeds - now sits dilapidated and decayed, hedged in by new subdivisions and invisible to passers-by.
Memories of lively parties for Perth's finest gentry linger like ghosts around what was once the billiard room, croquet lawn, tennis court and gardens. The long driveway, along which a chauffeur would drive one of the first cars in WA, still curves around the Peppermint Grove landmark on Bindaring Parade. Inside, you choke on the smell of asbestos-ridden dust and the mould is nauseating.
The paint and curtains have faded, some of the ceiling has fallen in and the rest is threatening to, and you need to watch the floorboards don't spring up and hit you in the face as you walk down the winding corridors. The jarrah beams are riddled with termites, it has been four years since anyone lived here and according to the owners, mining magnate Mark Creasy and his wife Sharon, it should be condemned.
The house, built in 1894, was not heritage-listed when the Creasys bought it in 1995 and they say there was no warning that it would be. The Heritage Act had been in place since 1991 but the house had not been put on the list.
"When we bought it, the fine for demolishing it without a council order was $100," Mr Creasy said. "But we made the conscious decision we would go through the right channels. Meanwhile, it has cost us around $225,000 in legal fees and eventually the house was put on the register."
Now the Creasys are waiting to hear whether Heritage Minister Michelle Roberts will remove the house from the state heritage list.
Mrs Roberts has visited the house after a request by Cottesloe MP Colin Barnett. Mr Barnett urged Mrs Roberts to remove it from the register. He said it was too costly to repair and served no heritage value. But contrary to reports in other papers, a spokesperson for Mrs Roberts says no decision has been made. No date has been set for an announcement. After 12 years, Mr Creasy says he doesn't know what he will do if it is granted.
Bought for $2.7 million, the house and land are now estimated to be worth $20 million.
Mr Creasy said: "I have more than the usual amount of money to insulate me against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that the Heritage Council might throw at me. I understand there is a sense of nostalgia here, but it is not heritage.
"Does anyone know who Neil McNeil, Hugh Lance Brisbane, or Harold McComb (all former owners) were?" he said. "If John Lennon had lived here, or even John Curtin, I'd understand that.
"The previous owners had covered the original shingle tiles with a tin roof which completely ruined the authenticity of the house, and they had created a fire hazard. No insurer would touch it."
The heritage assessment says the house was in good repair when the Creasys bought it in 1995. "A few structural problems have been identified but generally the condition of the fabric of The Cliffe is fair," it said.
Mr Barnett said recent reports by several architects and builders found the house was now uninhabitable, and estimated it would cost at least $2.8 million to make it liveable and much more to renovate it completely.
The Heritage Council said owners of heritage places could not be fined or obliged to maintain them.
"It would be an interesting development if they forced you to maintain it," said Mr Creasy.
He said little money had been spent on the property since he and his wife bought it.
The best solution was for the Heritage Council to accept his offer to move the building, which is the largest wooden house in the state, to nearby Manners Hill Park, where it could be opened to the public, he said.
"Houses are moved all over the country," he said. "I've offered to pay for them to move it."
