26 Riverside Road (map)
architecture
26 RIVERSIDE DRIVE, EAST FREMANTLE JETTY NO 9.
History
Although this site, known as the Oyster Beds is not Heritage listed it was placed on the East Fremantle Council’s Municipal Inventory on 15 Aug 2006.
Before it was an oyster farm set up by the first Greek immigrant to WA, Athanasios Auguste -it may have been the site of an earlier oyster bed…
Early Oyster beds; In December 1892 Charles and Charlotte Tolland opened a London Ham and Beef Shop in Barrack St., Perth. The shop was on the east side of Barrack St, 4 shops short of Hay St, next to Stein & Co (which became Bon Marche arcade). From March – July 1893 the shop seemed to specialise in oysters, which came from Dirk Hartog Island. On 22 November 1893 they advertised: ‘Oysters! Oysters! OYSTERS! Just arrived. Brisbane Oysters at TOLLAND'S, Barrack street’. The Tolland’s purchased these oysters from J Stevens, a wholesale oyster dealer, ‘late of Melbourne’, who brought with him a large consignment of Brisbane oysters.
By March 1894 the shop had been taken over by J (aka Isaac or Ikey) Stevens and had become the Stevens Oyster Saloon. Soon after, to fix a general complaint that oysters were scarce and inferior Stevens started growing oysters at ‘north’ Fremantle (The West Australian, Fri 20 Sept 1895). He ran the Oyster Saloon (Stevens & Millet) in Barrack St until June 1896 when it was taken over by the Sydney Oyster & Fish Co (Phalangas & Co). Ikey Stevens then moved to High St Fremantle and opened the Pioneer Oyster Saloon, adjoining the Town Hall in Fremantle. In 1898 he sold the Saloon and the Oyster beds, which were described as being in EAST Fremantle:
West Australian, Thursday 28 April 1898, page 2
PUBLIC AUCTION,THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1893, At 11 a.m., On the Premises, HIGH-STREET, FREMANTLE. CONNOR, DOHERTY and DURACK Limited, have been favoured with instructions from Mr. Ikey Stevens to Sell by Public Auction, as above, His OLD-ESTABLISHED CONNECTION, Consisting of Wholesale and Retail Oyster Merchants Luncheon and Refreshment Business And Oyster Beds, Which are, without doubt, the best in the river. The business is a good paying concern and in full swing. All the rooms have been recently renovated and furnished by Robertson and Moffat. (Accommodation for about 40 boarders, good lease at moderate rental.
Lot 1. Lease, goodwill, furniture, stock in-trade and sundries.
Lot 2-The Oyster Beds, situated in the river, near East Fremantle.
The Oyster Beds restaurant was originally was set up and operated by Athanasios Auguste (known as Arthur) who came from Kastellorizo in Greece. He came to Fremantle first in 1886, and then again in 1904, having returned to Egypt to marry Panaula Komninos. They had nine children. The restaurant in Fremantle was originally called Auguste's Oysters Beds and they also ran an Oyster Saloon in Perth.
See the full story of his enterprise in the link
All photographs of Auguste and his family are also from this website.
Barry Martin, a well known West Australian diver was responsible for building the pylons- around the late 1960s/early 1970s- on which the Oyster Beds restaurant stood. He also loaned the owner at the time, Dawn Davies, diving helmets and other diving paraphernalia as decor.
In the 1990s the building operated as The Red Herring.
Since 2016 the building has operated as Dome Coffee.
RESIDENTS
1917 - 1920: Auguste, Peter
1921 - 1922: Auguste, Athan
1933 - 1941: Auguste, Mrs. A.
1941 - 1946: Auguste, Mrs. A. (oyster lessee, ref rms)
1947 - 1949: Thornton, W. C. (ref rms)
