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Grant a reprieve for rowing club

WA Rowing Club life member Clem Williams. Picture: Bill Hatto

WA's oldest rowing club has been given a last-minute reprieve.

Faced with the prospect of closure with its launch deck crumbling into the river, the 146-year-old WA Rowing Club was yesterday awarded a $57,828 heritage grant by the State Government.

Club vice-president Jessica Donnelly said there was no doubt the club may have been forced to close because the launch deck had become hazardous to rowers.

"The deck was built in 1905, with a major refurbishment in the 1990s," she said. "It has been repaired many times due to high tides and rough storms.

"This year, however, it has deteriorated more rapidly due to age and our athletes were at risk every time they launch a boat."

The WA Rowing Club was founded in 1868.

"It is the only surviving building from that period on the Perth Swan River foreshore," Heritage Minister Albert Jacobs said. "This funding is just one example of the importance of the grants program in supporting private owners with the costs of maintaining heritage places."

Life member Clem Williams said the building, designed by member Felix Whitwell at the turn of the 19th Century, had been an important part of the Perth landscape for generations.

"Many West Australians would be familiar with this club, even if they don't know the name of it," he said. "It has been here on Perth's foreshore for almost 150 years so has certainly stood the test of time. The building itself was condemned during the 1960s and again in the 1990s, yet both times was painstakingly renovated by volunteers, most of whom were club members. This project will be no different."

The funding is one of 43 projects to share $1.3 million in heritage grants.

Other recipients include Cronshaw's Store in Bunbury ($100,000), Beach House at Trigg ($82,839), the Nedlands Tennis Club ($10,021), Tudor Lodge in Mt Lawley ($11,643) and Villa Carlotta in Busselton ($100,000).