The Maylands Amateur Boat Building Yard is located opposite the corner of Johnson and Hardey Roads and runs from Hardey Road to the Swan River. It provides space for amateur boat builders to build, maintain, repair or store their own boats on site.

It has formally been in operation since the 1960s and is leased from the Western Australian Planning Commission.

According to the Heritage Council of WA – Places Database the area around where the existing boatyard is located was subdivided for development and occupancy in 1904. The land was not rapidly settled and those lots adjacent to the water were frequently used for light industry. Access to water and boat transport was an attractive feature.

Aerial photographs indicate that the site of the existing boatyard was largely clear of buildings in the mid 1960s apart from one large shed. Boats were tied up in a haphazard manner to the foreshore or located on hardstand within the grounds.

Between 1985 and 1995, the current long shed parallel to the foreshore was erected and the slipway, jetties and piers erected. Since that time the layout and form of the site appears to have changed little.

The ABC News on19 May 2014 featured a news item titled, “One of a kind boatyard remains for dedicated amateur builders.” Richard Offen, an eminent local historian was interviewed as part of the news item and he stated that:

“After the Second World War leisure boating became much more popular and there was a need for a place to store and moor boats.”

“Most of the yards were for professional boatbuilding so just after the Second World War the state government created the Maylands Amateur Boatbuilding Yard around the two existing cray slipways.”

“Initially the state ran the yard and it was very popular, much to the annoyance of the local residents, due to the noise and activity in the yard.”

“Eventually, during the late 1970s, a large boatshed was constructed as a ‘Work for the Dole’ project, which provided much better facilities for the boatbuilders and a bit of peace and quiet for the neighbours.”

“The yard is said to be the only one of its kind in Australia and it still as popular as ever with amateur boatbuilders.”

Mr Graham Dennis in his talk to the Maylands Historical and Peninsula Association members on 20 February, 2023 outlined how his father, uncle and grandfather operated out of two sawmills they owned at Wanneroo. In 1941 they invented the Dennis Power Saw and they used this saw to cut wooden blocks for the roads in Wanneroo.

Subsequently Schulstad Engineers started manufacturing the Dennis Power Saw under licence at their factory located at 26 Hardey Road.

After Graham’s father returned from the war his father and uncle started working for Bill Schulstad at his Mayland’s factory producing these saws. They later left Schulstad’s to start a business of their own and bought the land at 38 Hardey Road where the current boat building facility is now located.

Initially they built a single building but later they built a larger two storey factory which included an upper level for local community functions.

Later following the invention of the chain their business suffered a major downturn, and they diversified into servicing cray boats. Eventually they had three slipways and catered for between 60 and 70 cray boats a year.

The father later built his own boat the ‘Dennis’ which was large boat that could only just get under the Bunbury Bridge near Claise Brook in East Perth.

Later the uncle, Alby Clements, relocated his plasterboard factory from the new Perth Airport site to the boat facility on Hardey Road.

See our Maylands Amateur Boat Builders Yard Flickr Album for digitised images and other digitised info

MAYLANDS HISTORICAL AND PENINSULA ASSOCIATION