Recently arrived in WA, Alec Coles is well-qualified to implement his grand plans for the state’s museum.
AN empty grey and brown building has cast a bleak shadow over Francis Street on the edge of Perth’s cultural centre for the past seven years. Once, the 1960s-style building housed exquisite marine corals, sacred Aboriginal artefacts, rare books, mounted animals, ancient fossils and meteorites. They’re all gone now and, early next year, the condemned Perth Museum building will also be knocked down.
Enter one happy English chap, in Perth only a few months but who has a vision to transform the site into a bustling retail, cafe and residential centre mixed with pieces of the past.
Alec Coles has been living out of a suitcase since he moved to Perth in April to take up the position of museum CEO. He was the director of Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums in the UK, and oversaw the development of the Great Northern Museum.
Mr Coles’ passion for museums is obvious; this year he was awarded an Officer of the British Empire for his services to museums in the UK, and his enthusiasm for their value is infectious.
“Museums should be at the centre of society,” he says.
“They shouldn’t see themselves as a kind of add-on and they shouldn’t seem themselves either as just a collection of materials or as a destination.
“They have all sorts of roles to play in terms of community identity, people exploring themselves and relating to the rest of the world.
“It should be the heart of the city. Not just a place you visit on a wet Sunday afternoon.”
So what was it that attracted him to Western Australia with its relatively short history to set up a new museum?
“You know, I’ve had a couple of people tell me I should know better, that I’ll find it strange here because there’s only 200 years of history,” Mr Coles says.
“And I say, well, I think there’s a few indigenous people who might have something to say about that because you’ve actually got arguably the oldest continuous civilisation in the world and evidence of it.
“It’s an absolute biodiversity hotspot.
“It has about 10 times the number of native plants that the UK has, that’s just in WA.
“Every year we record dozens of new species that haven’t been recognised by science. It doesn’t happen in very many places in the world.”
The future direction of the Perth Museum has been in flux for the last few years. In 2008, the Carpenter government announced it would build a $500 million museum at the old East Perth Power Station, but the Barnett government scrapped the plan last year.
Mr Coles sees it as an opportunity, and is undeterred.
“There aren’t that many cities in the world of this status and of this wealth that have not redeveloped their museum into a really outstanding cultural venue,” he says.
“We haven’t done it yet. We have the opportunity to do it, and I want to be part of it.”
And he says it should be about more than just the museum.
“I think everything about the site says ‘keep out’,” Mr Coles says.
“I want to see the site much more permeable.
“You would probably have some independent retail here, some restaurants on Beaufort Street. You’d probably have some underground car parking. You’d even have some high-value residential living. It would be a signature location living in the cultural centre.
“I think all of those things would generate revenue that would help to support the museum going forward, but would also activate the cultural centre in a completely different way.”
And Mr Coles says the radical plan is not just about generating revenue to fund a new museum.
“I think it is a creative way of generating income that is needed to sustain the new museum going forward.”
When pushed, Mr Coles says it could cost more than $300 million to build the new museum.
“We have to do it properly because we’re only going to do it once in my lifetime, perhaps even yours,” he says.
“And that’s the key; we mustn’t let our ambition be constrained. And that doesn’t mean wasting money, it means being bold and aspirational and building something that is a credit to this state, which is a great state and a wealthy state.
“I was at an event with a number of arts and cultural people and there was a lot of ‘hand-wringing’ about how there’s not enough money for culture. And you can see in the museum, there’s not enough money investment in it.
“We need to persuade government [that] investment in a museum is a sound investment that will repay itself not in cash terms but in terms of benefit to the people of WA.”
Mr Coles knows that, when the Francis Street building comes down it will leave a big hole.
“It will serve as a reminder that something’s got to happen here,” he says.
“I’ve got various ideas of things I want to happen … but I’m keeping those to myself at the moment, because some of them are outrageous.”
What intrigues you about Perth?
I’ll give you two things, one of which amuses me and one of which frustrates me.
The thing that amuses me is that WA has such vast distances. You know, if I wanted to go north I’d be mad to drive it, I’d be better to take a plane. But within Perth people get anxious about travelling distances across Perth. I was renting a place in Scarborough and my office is down in Welshpool, and people says to me, ‘It must be terrible going all that way from Scarborough to Welshpool’. The thing that frustrates me is that in so many of the shops you can never find the price. Everything is set on the wrong shelf with the wrong price.
One thing you miss about the UK?
I guess I miss my friends actually – my friends and family. You kind of take all that into consideration when you move out here.
If you were premier for the day?
I would immediately grant all the money needed for a new museum. That’s about it, really.
Favourite book?
I think my favourite book is On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin because it’s set not very far from where I grew up, which is just the English side of the Welsh border. It’s the tale of two brothers and is just a beautifully written and very poignant tale. Even as I sit here I can feel myself well up as I think about it.
