maylands dome
the dome is the crown jewel of maylands. it puts maylands on the map.
the dome used to be the peninsula hotel. it was built in 1906 by a german immigrant called gustav liebe who built the hotel just for himself. he also built the perth theatre on hay street and the old parts of the perth museum. he is responsible for some of the only nice buildings in perth.
during ww1, liebe got cancelled for being german. he got run out of maylands and became a wheat farmer in wubin, and in 1929 he became "the first person in the world to produce 106,000 bags of wheat in one season". then in the 1930s he got sick of the "chaotic wheat market" and became a sheep farmer in dalwallinu. but them during wwii he got cancelled again and after the war, no one needed wool anymore. then in 1950 he died of a broken heart.
then in the 70s alan bond built the peninsula tavern next door and tried to bulldoze mr. liebe's hotel to make a bigger carpark. there were huge protests. it was almost as big as roe 8.
and although the wreckers had gotten as far as detroying the staircase, the protesters were such a nuisance that in 1976 alan bond threw up his hands and said, "whatever, y'all can have it".
the protesters then formed the peninsula association and turned the hotel into a paper mountain type thing where different community groups could lease the rooms.
there were about 20 groups at any given time, mostly hobby clubs, crafternoons, support groups and diaspora meetups. it lasted until the late 90s.
they say the peninsula community centre ended due to the volunteers getting burnt out, but where theres smoke theres fire. i have heard of three culprit controversies:
- interpersonal strife during the free-love era.
- a vietnam war vet embezzling money and making big trouble.
- the german club always making a mess and not cleaning it up and then trying to sue the centre for "germophobia".
nowadays, you can go here and sit in the dome on one of their big plush chairs. if you want to see the old hotel you can have a look in the foyer next door which is the dome head office.
the maylands historical society also have a speaker on the third monday of every month. maybe some day i will get to speak there.