Hostel Milligan Pearl Villa

2019

August 20: Fragrance Group cease the lease of Hostel Milligan, which Tony Ransom has run for the past 30 years and all tenants are required to vacate the premises.

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October: Tony Ransom and Bill, a 91 year man, are forced to live in a shed until they can find alternative accommodation, since the hostel has closed. Whilst affordable housing is out of their reach, the costs charged by newer hostels are “more than twice for a private room”.

December 24: Fragrance Group lodge a development application (DAP/20/01730) to construct a mixed use development, comprising of a hotel and office block at a cost of $175 million. It’s approved on 9 April 2020.

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2020

February 12: Fragrance Group sign a heritage agreement with the City of Perth State Heritage Council.

April: Singapore based Fragrance Group, who own Hostel Milligan and the buildings that are set to become the Pearl Villa apartment complex, receive approval to build two towers on the site. They are required to “keep the street-facing walls of the 1930s hostel and to preserve the inner 1880’s Pearl Villa”.

October: A small drug cook up is evident in one of the upstairs rooms facing Milligan Street, with an even bigger setup in the adjacent building, which had previously been tenanted by the Print Hotline.

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2021

March 22: A fire damages part of Hostel Milligan, which thankfully doesn’t cause enough damage to destroy the building other than a few charred beams. The fire brigade were called to respond at approximately 1.30am. A man and woman, who were seen leaving the building shortly after the fire was noticed, were taken into custody.

April 8: The Perth Voice Interactive raises concern that the building’s owner, under a heritage agreement they’d signed, wasn’t adhering to it. In the document, they’d agreed to secure the building, prevent break-ins and there were no fire alarms or detectors in place to prevent another fire, the latter being something the City of Perth interestingly doesn’t require.

            In a recent City of Perth council meeting, Tony Ransom asks about the fire warning devices the hostel had, if any. The council’s CEO Michelle Reynolds states there is no requirement for an operation fire system to be in place because the building is classed as inhabitable, it can’t be occupied, is completely sealed up to prevent access and is a police matter if people are found to be trespassing on the site. “Therefore all services to the building have been disconnected”.

          For a number of years until part of the building was demolished, the contracted architect, who was seemingly responsible for ensuring the building was protected as much as possible, was unable to obtain police assistance as they refused to enter the site to apprehend squatters, nor help prevent them in anyway. In words to the effect, ‘there’s nothing we can do’.

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2023

February 6: The man squatting in the DOJO building, who is believed to have been there for most of the last few years, is given a week to pack up all his property and leave, before demolition begins in the following week.

February 13: Most of the buildings forming the developmental site are demolished. The squatter fails to pack up his possessions and doesn’t appear to have taken anything with him, which seems to suggest he may have been remanded in custody sometime during the week.

          Hostel Milligan is boarded up and sealed with hoarding, although a number of squatters and urban explorations have managed to find ways to enter the building since.