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Bryn Davis
Kyele Wickenden : Eulogy for Bryn Davis
As I look around at you, all here to pay tribute to and celebrate the life of Bryn Davis, the term “Six Degrees of Separation” immediately comes to mind. He is the one person who links us all here today.
My name is Kyele Wickenden and Bryn was a dear friend of mine for many, many years. Bryn’s brother Peter asked if I would like to talk about some of his achievements. I am extremely honoured to be able to do this last task for Bryn.
Apart from my own memories of Bryn’s achievements, I spoke in recent days to some of his long term friends, and a few Fremantle Society members, Mary Rawlinson,Teresa Rocchi, Annie Benjamin, Ken Ferguson and current Fremantle Society President, John Dowson, and also referenced Ron and Dianne Davidson’s book Fighting For Fremantle – The Fremantle Society Story, which included some of Bryn’s heritage and environmental campaign work .
I would like to share some of those and a few anecdotes with you .
But first of all, I would like to acknowledge and thank the Opal staff who cared for Bryn during his stay and who came to say their farewells to Bryn during his last week.
I am sure he would be incredibly humbled, and chuffed to think you all bothered to turn out to farewell him. And we all know his wicked sense of humour would be such that he’d pop out from behind a door to say “tricked you!” But, we know sadly that’s not the case anymore. He was a delightful and generous friend to us all. He suffered long from Parkinson’s and battled on until he’d had enough.
He made many, many friends over the years and enriched the lives of all with whom he came in contact.
I think few of us know anyone who has done as much as he has done or had the energy to do what he did. When I let Gerry MacGill, the Convenor of the North Fremantle Community Association, know of Bryn’s death, he wrote back to me saying that “Bryn certainly was a relentless campaigner and we could do with more like him today”.
To say his achievements were great would be an understatement. His goal was always as he said “ to leave this place, whether the planet, local environment or a restored building, in a better condition than we inherited it”. He was passionate about preserving the present and the past for future generations as well as greening the environment. His campaigns and lobbying could in fact be divided into two categories: The natural environment and, the built environment.
He started in his 20s by writing submissions to be included in the Systems Six Report, and detailed a list of areas within Australia, that were of environmental importance and significance and should be preserved.
All this while he was working, teaching at Guildford Grammar. He was very dedicated to his craft and would take the boys out on all sorts of exciting excursions.
When he was living in South Perth with his friend Mary Rawlinson, one of his longest and oldest friends, he was campaigning to save Sir James Mitchell Park from development. I remember him recounting to me that he took photos showing the rubbish that had been dumped at the foreshore and campaigning to have it cleaned up and the parkland and wetlands preserved for everyone. Not just because it was sitting on the door step to the city but because it was an important site. He went on to create “Green Force” in 1988, as a means of garnering a public profile for his lobbying for his environmental work.
Mary told me that whilst Bryn was restoring the house there was no hot water for the kitchen for years, then when he sold the house it took him no time to extend the hot water to the kitchen. All that time without Hot Water! But that was the way he operated.
After South Perth, Bryn bought and restored a house in Guildford before moving to Coral Street in Fremantle. Thus began his great adventure, campaign and love affair with Fremantle, buying, restoring and selling houses in the area.
He joined The Fremantle Society in about 1984 and served two terms as Vice-president under the Presidency of Ralph Hoare. This was a period when the Council and State were considering a lot of things in Fremantle and not all of it was good, things like a 10 storey office block on the site of a National Trust Heritage Listed building in the Phillimore Precinct and demolishing the North Fremantle Town Hall to build a Used Car lot! Saving the heritage of Fremantle was just the thing for Bryn to get his teeth into.
Bryn Davis taking a stroll down the cappuccino strip. [Fremantle Herald]
While he wasn’t on every committee to save our heritage, thank goodness he was on more than a few to ensure these “hideous developments” as he put it, didn’t get approved, and thankfully they succeeded in saving many historic buildings from being demolished, but sadly not all. It was a continual cause of frustration to him that Governments used or changed legislation to sell land for development.
He campaigned heavily to save Buckland Hill and also joined the Leighton Action Group as his ultimate goal was to have Government create a Regional Park that was for recreation rather than conservation. This would have been the only park in Perth linking the Swan River with the Indian Ocean.
Early lobbying and activism was to protect Buckland Hill and Clontarf Hill and he suggested the State create a green belt around Fremantle as well as green links between the river and the ocean. The bushland barrier between Mosman Park and Fremantle, that was Buckland Hill, was an important part of his proposed Green Belt and Bryn was incredibly fearless in his defence to protect this barrier from any development. He wasn’t easily intimidated and even a legal threat for damages from Westpac did not silence him. Eventually the Council took up and expanded upon Bryn’s Green Belt Plan into its Green Plan, but like all things it has been slow to eventuate. We all need to get together to fulfil that dream for Bryn.
After partly losing the Buckland Hill battle he became aware that there were a range of “Buckland Hill Battles” popping up all over Perth, Hepburn Heights, Helena Valley and Leda were a few.
Having said that, we look today and see that even his partial wins were great: 30% of Buckland Hill, 40% of Hepburn Heights, and then there was the No Barge Harbour on South Beach and Leda Parklands near Kwinana.
When 1988 came along there was another issue to tackle for which Bryn had strong objections and became involved through the Fremantle Society: Notre Dame University. His argument about the University creating a monoculture at the West End was valid and he objected vehemently as we all did to the University having a Non Rateable status allocated to its buildings. He objected to elitism. Bryn had gone to The Premier, Peter Dowding’s office to request a meeting to discuss the Notre Dame saga including the Alkimos land grant to Notre Dame but was refused a meeting.
Later Peter Dowding bought a house on Attfield Street at the top of Charles Street. Never one to forget, Bryn would later get his revenge when one day Peter Dowding came down the street to enquire if he could have/buy the recycled pile of bricks in front of Bryn’s Charles Street home “Caporn Cottage”. Bryn very quickly reminded him that as Premier he had refused to make time to see him all those years ago and he could not have the bricks and could bugger off! He wasn’t intimidated and always had a strategy for every occasion. Another situation saw him attend the Council or a Parliamentarian’s office, I can’t quite remember, but he asked to see the person and was told by the secretary that they were busy. Quick as a flash and prepared, Bryn said I can wait. Still standing at the counter, he took a book out of his bag, the unabridged edition of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, opened the book at page 1 and started to read, looking up at the receptionist and occasionally smiling. He eventually got his interview and presented his case.
He was tireless and determined with his campaigning and it included working towards saving the Beerliar Wetlands from the Roe 8 proposal. It was incredibly important that these areas be preserved for the rich flora and fauna and the natural links for the migrations of birds, but also to help create a green environment for this and future generations.
He was constantly telling me how hard it was getting anywhere with these issues and frustrating beyond belief when people would say to him, knowing that he was a seasoned campaigner “ Why don’t you write a letter to so and so to get something done, his reply quick as a flash was, “well why don’t you, it is something we should all be doing, not just a few” , and a few did and do write letters but sadly many don’t, then complain!
Intergenerational Justice was a term he liked to use to ensure future generations don’t inherit the mess created by past generations. It was another constant battle he fought. He was a very early fighter and believer in Climate Change and the damage it is doing to our environment.
1994 was a busy year for Bryn. He was heavily involved in lobbying to have the E Shed on Victoria Quay saved. Along with the Fremantle Society and others, they managed to convince the Fremantle Port Authority to save the building and have it relocated within the port site and it now functions as a market. This was also the year that he was involved, again with many others, in campaigning to ensure the development at North Bank, between the Fremantle bridges was sympathetically developed.
He was incredibly passionate about ensuring the river and ocean foreshore was totally accessible to the public and would often write, for want of a better word, stern but very articulate letters to the politicians and newspapers complaining about elitist Yacht clubs and the like preventing public access.
In 1996, The Inaugural Fremantle Festival Painting competition subject “Reminiscences of South Beach” saw him enter a piece “The Death of Dog Beach”. He spoke to me and was unsure over how to represent the dogs and I suggested he turn the painting upside down and paint a few dogs on their backs. He thought this was an excellent idea, and received an honorary mention and that Christmas gifted me the painting which hangs proudly in my home. He was actually quite an accomplished painter and a few of us were lucky to have works by him.
Then 1997 saw his suggestion about a major exhibition of Fremantle Artworks, originally suggested for the 1996 Heritage Week programme, brought into play for the 1997 Silver Jubilee for The Fremantle Society. The exhibition titled “Fremantle 6160” was a great success. It was also the year he convinced Premier Richard Court and Heritage Minister Graham Kierath for a guided inspection through the South Fremantle Power Station and the importance of it as Industrial Heritage, it worked and it was saved.
The aforementioned actions and achievements were some of the reasons he was nominated in 1998 for Fremantle Citizen of the Year by his treasured friend Teresa Rocchi. Wonderfully, he won. Whilst for some that may have been the culmination of their achievements, for Bryn that was just a stepping stone to other things. He was 56 when he won that accolade. A very humble man, he accepted that award not only as personal recognition but on behalf of all those who had stood with him in preserving Fremantle’s Heritage for the future. He had been campaigning since his early 20’s and he was only stopped from spearheading other campaigns and successes the last 5 years due to the advancement of his Parkinson’s condition and symptoms.
He was honoured again in 2010 with a Pontoon at South Beach being named after him. His loved and late sister Gloria was there along with many others to celebrate.
When I told John Dowson of his passing he was very sad to hear he had gone and remembered that Bryn was a real purist in his desire to protect and save Fremantle’s Heritage and was a prolific letter writer and lobbyist. John told me that The Green Belt around and through Fremantle was an important passion for Bryn.
This was never more evident than his self appointed job as the “Phantom Planter” A title he held with great pride. Fremantle is littered with the many trees he planted, from Moreton Bay Figs, Norfolk Island Pines, Plane Trees, Simon Poplars, Box Elder Maples and other species. He also enlisted the help of another Fremantle friend and local identity Annie Benjamin in planting three palms on the south eastern side of the old Fremantle Traffic Bridge. They still survive today having been once fire bombed many years ago. Annie told me they weren’t the best choice but at least there was something there.
If you walk through the Charles, Coral, Silver and Louisa streets precincts you’ll come across streets lined with Plane Trees, I guarantee Bryn had a part in the planting of them. He was passionate about planting trees. I spoke to Ken Ferguson during the week, another of Bryn’s long time friends and fellow member from the Fremantle Society, who told me that Bryn created a shady green legacy with all the trees he planted, something we can all enjoy. When Bryn had the idea to save Clontarf Hill he approached Ken about joining the Clontarf Hill Action Group, he asked Bryn, how many people he had signed up so far...”Just me” was the reply. But it all started with one person.!
Ken also said to me that you always knew which way the wind blew with Bryn, and that was very true and he was incredibly tenacious. If he didn’t like something you’d done or chosen, he would not hesitate in telling you it was “hideous”. This was something Ken recounted hearing Bryn say to a woman, who was standing next to them at a nursery formerly at the Roasting Warehouse café. She was admiring a flower and said how beautiful it was whereas Bryn replied it was so hideous!
An unsympathetic new building or addition would more often or not be “Hideous beyond belief.” But, he also had a good eye and was able to give you sound advice to transform a building or garden into something more beautiful.
He was passionate about preserving Western Australia’s heritage buildings, whether in Fremantle, Perth or Northampton. Anywhere there was a building of significance, no matter how small or large. He said that it all played a part in our history.
I remember his timber house in Gold Street was condemned by the council and severely damaged by termites, but this was no deterrent for Bryn. He did his best to save it, stripping the paint using caustic and a garden hose. Not the safest work environment. Unfortunately the Council won that battle and this one had to be demolished. Ever the optimist, he managed to preserve the timber from this house and used it on another of his restorations.
We were trying to calculate how many houses he had renovated and came up with the following: houses in South Perth, Guildford, Coral Street, Gold Street, Louisa Street, King William Street, Charles Street, Hulbert Street, Jenkins Street.
An impressive portfolio by any means. The City awarded him a Most Highly Commended Certificate for his work on Caporn Cottage at 17 Charles Street. Each of his homes were blessed by the “Bryn Touch”, a recipe for success. It worked, and they were sought after and several of them appeared either as features in the Local Fremantle Herald or House and Garden magazines. He always admitted to me that you shouldn’t look too closely at the paint job. White covers a multitude of sins! But they were always a place where people met and he had a constant stream of visitors wherever he lived.
He was well known for his garden design of green on green, not the “hideous mish mash” as he put it of “bloody Cocos Palms” and colour seen in many modern gardens and houses. His design worked wonderfully well, but he did throw a little colour in and blue was his favourite. He loved to show people through his garden, whichever house he was in. He also managed to receive a Certificate of Significant Recognition from the Australia’s Open Garden Scheme for 1996-1997 Season and signed by the President and wife of former PM Malcolm Fraser, Tamie Fraser.
He used to regularly accompany me to visit a friend, Richard Williams at his Northampton farm. Ever the optimist in trying to further his greening of the planet we would take trees, seedlings and saplings to phantom plant on Richard’s farm. The three of us laugh about the lack of success. Never give up, he would tell me.
His culinary skills were famous for all the wrong reasons, and he had been known to make a red crock pot with red ingredients one week, then the next week his friend Mary would make a green one, not a hit as we all know his aversion to vegetables unless it was roast potatoes or chips! Peter and I were surprised how someone can survive for so long on cheese sandwiches, chocolate cake, ice cream with slatherings of cream. I know that now Bryn has gone we expect a few chocolate cake shops and ice cream companies to go out of business.
Bryn suffered a lot of adversity during his life, but those who knew him liked and loved him and accepted him for who he was. I remember Bryn telling me many, many years ago that “He would rather be hated for who he is, than loved for what he isn’t”. The fact that you are all here today shows how much you felt about and respected him.
I think that if anyone deserves a “City of Fremantle/State Memorial Service” and a permanent memorial, maybe a tree lined park it is Bryn Davis.
We are all richer for having had him in out lives and will miss him dearly. No more his calling card of a small branch and leaves left at the front door.
Thank you .
A selection from the many posts to Facebook @ 13 December 2023.
Fremantle legend, tireless campaigner to save Fremantle from overdevelopment, and Phantom Tree Planter, Bryn Davis has passed away after a long illness.
A wonderful man lost to Freo, and to all his friends. Remember his clandestine planting, his wonderful green spaces, and his wicked humour.
I’m glad he’s out of the suffering from Parkinson's. Lovely man missed by many of us. RIP Bryn.
Thank you Bryn, the trees you planted along Silver Street will stand tall for a long time and all the other ones.
I spent many a happy hour with Bryn, over many cups of tea drunk at his lovely Charles Street home. Bryn inspired me to plant trees and care for trees and helped introduce me to benefits and beauty of some exotic trees in urban landscapes. He inspired me to rescue an old house that was well past its best years! We plotted over Clontarf Hill and South Freo Tip site futures.
We all have the joy of walking and sitting in the shade of the canopy of Bryn.
What a legacy!
I recall how, years ago, newly not being able to drive his famous yellow Ute any more, he'd ride his trusty pushie. He told me that things were 'OK' when moving along, but that stopping was a nightmare.
He recycled like a legend, cycled like a bat out of hell and really loved guerilla gardening. I planted my liquid ambers under his advice. I would often come home to a note on the door and pile of recycled pots. You’re free now Bryn. No more struggling. You bought so much joy to so many. We should all meet on the Bryn Davis pontoon in his honour. He’d have loved that.
I sat with him just the other day and thought how strong he seemed and how he was surely up for a few more decades. Bryn was an epic guy in so many ways! For me he was my longest time best friend, my mentor and inspiration. His style, his values, his fierce love for Fremantle heritage and greenery and his tireless action for what he believed in formed and empowered me. His unassuming wise life perspectives combined with his wicked humour helped me through my hard times. So many memories! He was a much loved honorary dad to my kids. Vale Bryn. Fremantle is a better place for you having been part of it. Missing you already!
I don’t think l will ever know anyone like him. Razor wit, talented artist, great storyteller, Bring out your Dead recycler extraordinaire, a real nature lover of trees & everything green “above all everyone’s friend”. I’m sad that he’s no longer with us & yet rapt that he’s free from Parkinson’s & that he’s free. I shall miss his recipes most of all “Very Unsavory Mince“. May he live & laugh in our memories and in places he helped preserve around Freo, e.g the Pontoon. May you cause a bit of raucous where ever you may be.
Lovely man. I think it’s safe to say Bryn left the world a better place than he found it.
Vale to our neighbour “The Guerilla Gardener”. May he rest in peace within the forest amongst the trees and birds.
A great Freo man and an inspiration. The Phantom Tree-planter. He brightened my Gold St days.
Dear Bryn, I can feel your release finally, and I know you'll be dancing freely amongst the poppies and jasmine, and under the tree ferns and jacarandas, and flying with the birds, and laughing with Mike.. all your favourite things.
Thank you for being so wonderful Bryn. We were all so lucky to have you touch our lives.
Bryn was a inspiration to many of us he tackled his disease with such grace and never ever gave up I’ll miss our chats RIP my good friend I’ll still keep the mulberry tree trimmed the same way you taught me xxxx
Brynmor Davis was a member of the committee of the Fremantle Society 1988-89, 1994-96, and 2001, and vice president 1997-98.
References and Links
Facebook @ 13 December 2023.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 13 December, 2023 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/davisbryn.html (it was last updated on 26 December, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.