Richard Offen - A Perth Camera

Ernie Poliss pin-sharp depiction of ordinary Perth street scenes will provide a lasting record of the late 20th-century city.

Pavilion Books

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by Pavilion Books

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2022

Text Copyright Richard Offen

Photo Copyright Ernie Polis

Richard Offen asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN: 9781911682738

eBook ISBN: 9781911670117

Version: 2022-10-06

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Ernest Polis was born in October, 1921 at Virbi, Latvia, the only child to Fricis and Olga Polis. At the age of 10 he bought his first camera and during his high school years studied photography and learnt to develop film and print photographs. After high school he studied architecture, but the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 brought this to a premature end.

After the War, Ernie found himself in Wurzburg, Bavaria, where he was reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Austra, and they married in 1947. Unable to return to their beloved Latvia due to Soviet occupation the couple decided to leave war-torn Europe and migrate to Australia.

Arriving at Fremantle in September 1949, Ernie and Austra were eventually transferred by train to Lake Biddy, just north of Newdegate. Living in tents, Ernest was obliged to work for the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) as a fettler.

Whilst living at Lake Biddy, Ernie made friends with Tom Marsden, a local bank manager, who quickly discovered Ernies talents as an artist, draftsman and photographer. Tom managed to convince Government officials that Ernies skills could be better employed elsewhere. As a result, after a year at Lake Biddy, Ernie and Austra moved to Perth, where Ernie was taken on by the State Planning Department as a draftsman. Ernies photographic skills were soon put to use, and he began taking photographs for government publications.

In 1965 Ernie gained a position with the City of Perth as Chief Draftsman in the Planning Department and was later appointed as the Councils official photographer. This gave him accreditation as a press photographer, which he discovered would gain him access to many events and functions without a ticket.

Photography was his passion and he managed to purchase high quality cameras and accessories, building a large dark room with state-of-the-art equipment. In the early 1970s he entered the world of colour film processing, much of which was self-taught.

In his spare time, Ernie continued to perfect his photographic skills, joining various camera clubs in order to do so. This led, in 1957, to him winning the Kodak Trophy for the best amateur photo taken in Western Australia. He continued to win the award for the next nine years until 1965, when he was made a judge, putting an end to his winning streak!

Following success in numerous state, national and international competitions, Ernies abilities were given further recognition when he was admitted as an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain in 1969.

Ernie never left home without a camera and the shutter was constantly clicking away wherever he went: social events, picnics, weddings, or just a walk through Perth City all became subjects of his photographs.

Ernies early interest in architecture probably helped him to realise the historic value of photographic records and he often commented, what is here today is gone tomorrow and people forget. This resulted in commissions from historians and authors, with his photographs being published in a wide range of books and publications across Australia.

Ernie and Austra had two children, son Ernest Jnr born in 1951, and daughter Ina born in 1966. Both grew up with the never-ending experience of staring into the lens of a camera, the enduring memories of which now survive and are cherished by the Polis family.

Ernest died in 1993 aged 72 and the world of photography lost one of its masters.

The Royal Hotel, Wellington Street from the corner of Horseshoe Bridge in the 1950s and still with us today.

A view of Perth Railway Station in the late 1950s, with a low-rise cityscape.

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During the period immediately following World War II the Perth metropolitan area experienced a housing shortage, with an estimated 250-300,000 homes needed to accommodate a rapidly growing population. This shortfall was exacerbated by a lack of raw materials and skilled labour to make the Australian dream of home ownership a reality.

At about the same time, the Federal Government created an Assisted Passage Migration Scheme as part of their Populate or Perish policy. Adult migrants, principally from Britain, were charged only 10 for their fare, with children travelling free. Those who took up the scheme became known as Ten Pound Poms.

Around a million Britons took up the scheme during the 1950s and 60s, of whom three-quarters made Australia their permanent new home. As a result of this influx, the population of Perth changed in size and character during the 1950s as immigration brought new cultures and traditions to the city.

By 1952 it became clear that a carefully formulated strategy was required to create a systematic and well-planned way to accelerate city expansion to accommodate the growing population.

To achieve this, the State Government invited renowned town planner, Professor Gordon Stephenson, to draw up plans for the future development of the metropolitan region. Together with local planner Alastair Hepburn, Stephenson put together a blueprint that was to shape city planning for the rest of the 20th century.

The Stephenson-Hepburn plan accepted that the age of the automobile had arrived and envisaged a system of freeways and major highways enabling commuters to cross the city easily from far-flung suburbs. The rush to modernise Perth began.

A major phase of development, spurred on by further mineral booms of the 1960s, 70s and 80s saw skyscrapers built and the city skyline radically change, at the cost of much of its built history and heritage. For many this was an inevitable trade-off, a casualty of progress.