Mr George Thomas Temple-Poole
- Position
- Member Kings Park Board
- Year of death
- 1934
- Plaque number
- FB2
- Dedicated by
- Kings Park Board on 29 September 1929
- More information
Biography abstract:
George Thomas Temple-Poole (29/5/1856 - 27/2/1934) was born to English parents. His father, Lieutenant-Colonel George Temple, died soon after his son's birth and his mother remarried a cousin named Poole and had her child's name changed to Temple-Poole.
George was educated at Winchester College and trained as an architect/engineer. In 1885, he was appointed Colonial Architect to the Crown Colony of Western Australia.
Soon after, the discovery of the first payable gold in Halls Creek resulted in a goldrush and building boom in Fremantle and Perth.
Temple-Poole designed schools, police stations, hospitals and buildings all over the state - the Old Post Office in Albany, Lighthouse at Rottnest, Leeuwin Lighthouse, Cossack Courthouse, Eucla telegraph station, Perth Railway Station and additions to Fremantle Museum and Arts Centre among them.
He was a close friend of John Forrest and during the 1890s, visited the Forrest home 'The Bungalow' on Sunday mornings as one of an honorary committee of influential men (along with JW Hackett, George Shenton, Colonel Phillips, BC Wood, Alexander Forrest and Arthur Lovekin). There, he took part in plans for the development of Perth and Perth Park (later Kings Park).
A foundation member of the first official Board, he took an active interest in the work of the Kings Park Board for the rest of his life.
His expertise in design has been used for the layout of the park, the zig-zag paths and viewing terraces down the face of Mount Eliza.
Following John Forrest's death in 1918, at his wife's request, Temple-Poole designed the sarcophagus over John Forrest's grave at Karrakatta Cemetery.
Poole Avenue in Kings Park was named in George's honour. He was a member of the Kings Park Board in 1929 during the Western Australia Centenary celebrations.