Barracks Arch, Perth

Designed by Richard Roach Jewell, the Barracks were originally built from 1863 to 1866 to house the Enrolled Pensioner Force.

Architect Jewell designed the three-storey building in Tudor style that resembled a medieval castle. The building was brick, rather than more expensive stone, and horizontal lines emphasised by using lines of paler colour bricks underneath the windows. The roof was made of timber shingles. The building was finished in 1866, and was later extended to house an additional 21 families. Each family apartment had two rooms, each measuring some 13 by 11 feet (4.0 by 3.4 m), with at least one fireplace. The outbuildings included a cookhouse, firing range and gun-room, wash-house, stores and stables, and a fives court constructed later.

A fire in 1887 destroyed the timber flooring of the east wing and the second floor of the central section, all of which were later restored. The Barracks were gradually converted to offices for the Public Works Department, between 1900 and 1904, becoming its headquarters in 1904.

After the departments moved to their new location in the 1960s, the Government intended to demolish the Barracks for its obstructing the view from Parliament House down the length of St Georges Terrace and visa versa, as well as to facilitate the construction of the Mitchell Freeway.

Pursuant to this plan, at some point, the third and fourth bays of windows were demolished, but the arch itself had survived thanks to the public outcry to keep it in place. Therefore, the Public Works Department had retained the arch and landscaped the surrounding area.