A look at the site that became St. Joseph's College, Subiaco.

A late 1930's photograph of the school site looking east from Station St, Subiaco.

(From the K H Quigley Collection - All rights reserved.)

In the early 1950's, the land bounded by Station Street, Salvado Road and the Perth to Fremantle railway was identified as Reserve 22730.

This Reserve made up most of the foreground shown in the above photograph.

The Reserve was divided into two allotments, Perth lot 648 (northern) owned by the Parish of Subiaco with St Joseph's Church (circa 1935) to the east, the remainder of the lot in the west being vacant land.

At the time the southern portion of Reserve 22730, Perth Lot 176, was allocated for the purpose of "Public Buildings" and became the site of the W.A. Government Printing Office (GPO) from the mid 1950's until 1993. A number of the initial SJC 1954 student intake remember the Government Print Offices being built.

Following agreement with relevant landholders/authorities, St Joseph's Marist College was constructed on the western section of Lot 648 in 1953 and opened its doors to students on 15th February 1954.

St Joseph's, Subiaco was the Marist Brothers first and only W.A. metropolitan school, the rest being located in country W.A. at New Norcia, Northam and Bunbury.

Built on Subiaco Parish land, the College drew the bulk of its initial student intake from the parishes of Shenton Park, Subiaco and Wembley.

The communities of those Parishes physically and financially supported St Joseph's from its embryonic beginning. A sterling effort given the problematic WW II economy.

The brown brick building was designed and built in the post WW II international by the Costello Building Company.

This company was established in the 1930's by builder/ designer Horace Costello and constructed a number of Catholic religious buildings around Perth and in the country.

Examples of Costello company's notable & still standing achievements are the beautiful Carmelite Monastery in Dalkeith, a heritage listed presbytery in Corrigin and the refurbished Broome church pearl shell altar.

On the compact one and half acre (0.6 hectare) site, the builders constructed 5 classrooms, a laboratory-theatre-meeting room, office and staff room.

On Sunday 7th February 1954 Bishop Lancelot Goody blessed, dedicated and unveiled the school's foundation stone.

8 days later (15th February 1954), 132 students commenced their Marist education journey under the tutelage and guidance of Brothers Lucian(john) Gerber (Principal), Victor (John) Chalmers and Ernest (Terry) Gleeson.

Classes offered at that time ranged from Grade 4 to First Year High School.

By 1958 student numbers had increased substantially warranting the addition of 4 extra classrooms on the west side of the original building. The Costello Building Company carried out the building those extensions and at the end of construction donated, at no cost, a large scale coloured metal school crest which was affixed on the front of the building facing Salvado Road,

Two years later (1960) such was the demand for student places, that a further extension was added on the east end of the school building and in 1961 the east undercroft was enclosed to provide extra staff office space.

It became apparent by 1963 that even these extensions were not adequate to cope with the College's growing student body which had increased to well over 600+., making St Joseph's the third largest Catholic Boys school in the Perth metropolitan area.

As student numbers continued to increase, overcrowding became a logistical problem, and a decision was made to seek a new location.

A 20-acre (8 hectare) site in Churchlands , north of the Wembley Public Golf course was identified as being adequate to meet the College's needs.

In the early 1960's this block of land was purchased from the State Housing Commission