Coogee Hotel and Post Office

The former Coogee Hotel was built in 1901, in the heady days of the gold boom, as a honeymoon’ hotel and special events venue.

As an attractive seaside destination, it was close to both Perth and Fremantle and offered a convenient resting point to travels further south.

The hotel and post office are all that remain of a thriving social and retail precinct and destination for visitors, holiday makers and the Coogee community from the 1900s to the 1920s. The precinct comprised a railway station, two racecourses, the popular family beach and the hotel, with the adjacent post office and store built in the 1920s.

For nearly 40 years, the former hotel was run by the Anglican Church, firstly as a children’s holiday camp during the depression years, and later, as a children’s home after World War I until 1968.

The State Heritage Office (now part of the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage) has invested nearly $500,000 in conservation works, site maintenance and planning. Works have been completed to remove intrusive additions to the hotel and post office buildings, followed by repairs to stonemasonry, verandah and joinery.

The works have reversed previous unsympathetic repairs, and present the place in sound condition for a new era of active use.

Today, the former Coogee Hotel and Post Office is owned by Main Roads WA, which no longer requires the buildings.

The conservation works has prepared the former Coogee Hotel and Post Office site to be adapted for a range of commercial or residential uses compatible with its location.