Radio broadcasting in Western Australia began with 6WF on Wednesday 4 June 1924, from a studio in the Westralian Farmers building in Perth.
The owner Westralian Farmers Ltd started the station with the purpose of providing “information and entertainment to rural areas”. The radio station began operating from the top floor of the company’s Wellington Street building. The original broadcast footprint covered most of the state of Western Australia.
In 1929 the radio station was sold to the Australian Broadcasting Company.
The Australian Broadcasting Company (1929-1932) period coincided with The Great Depression, a severe worldwide economic downturn, which started in 1930 and continued until the industrial effort for World War II lifted the economy out of the doldrums.
In 1930, the 6WF operation moved from the Wesfarmers building to the first floor of the English, Scottish and Australian Bank (E.S. & A.) building at the corner of Hay and Milligan Street, Perth. Under WA manager Basil Kirke’s direction, 6WF extended its programs and introduce new features. The value of this was shown by the rapid increase in licences, so that after three years, the company had increased the licences from 3,900 to 12,500.
The Australian Broadcasting Company was nationalised by the Commonwealth Government, following a Royal Commission in 1927.
The Australian Broadcasting Commission was founded in 1932, and 6WF became part of the national network.
The ABC studios and 6WF moved again in 1937 to The Returned Soldiers’ Institute, also known as the Stirling Institute on St George’s Terrace, behind the Department of Agriculture and located in what was once the State’s only botanical gardens, Stirling Gardens, west of the Government House Ballroom and north of the Supreme Court buildings. The building was erected 21 years earlier and became the headquarters of the WA Branch of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia (RSL) in 1918.
The RSL moved to the original ANZAC House at 28 St George’s Terrace in 1934. The ABC then leased the institute building from the State Government and renamed it Broadcast House, though as early as 1938, the Perth City Council had its eyes on the site for a new Town Hall.
The ABC in Perth managed for many years with substandard accommodation until purpose built facilities were constructed for both radio and for the introduction of public owned television in Western Australia in 1960.
After the ABC had moved to its new studios in Adelaide Terrace, construction on Council House began on the Stirling Gardens site in 1961. Rather than build a new town hall on the site, the Perth Concert Hall was built to the east of Government House Gardens, and opened in 1973.
The then ABC Perth studio complex in Adelaide Terrace was built in 1958, on the former site of Rose Hill House, at 191 Adelaide Terrace. ABC radio moved to the new facilities in 1959, whilst work continued on the television building on the lower part of the site, facing Terrace Road.
On Saturday May 7, 1960, ABW Channel 2 in Perth opened.
Hence the old Broadcast House site had served many uses over the years, firstly as public offices, post office, the Legislative Council and then Agriculture Department buildings, which stood in front of the former Soldiers’ Institute building, that later became the ABC’s Broadcast House, until they moved to Adelaide Terrace, and the launch of ABW Channel 2 in 1960.
The buildings on the Stirling Gardens site were demolished in 1961, to make way for the present Council House.
Much of the credit for the ABC building in Adelaide Terrace goes to Basil Kirke, who returned to Western Australia as manager in 1952 and lobbied tirelessly for new offices and studios. He fell seriously ill in 1957 and died in 1958, before the move to the new premises took place. In 1961 the large orchestral studio 620 was named in his honour.