Perth, Western Australia (Old Edition) Home Write a Letter Time Out Special Coverage Crime & Justice Classifieds Search Real Estate Trades & Services Submit About Contact Us Advertising Legal	Remember the Devon Rd brothel? Rosemary Byrne has been uncovering secrets in her research on Smith Street - Photo by Paul McGovern. Loves lost and found, scandalous secrets and memories of safer days have been recorded for posterity in Claremont. Rosemary Byrne, who works at the Claremont Museum, has finished a history of Smith Street, in Claremont. Rosemary's history is one of four to be researched by students at the Research Institute for Cultural Heritage, at Curtin University. Smith Street, Agett Road, Devon Road and Second Avenue have had books written about them. The histories look at the land use, the people, why houses were built, and why the streets were named as they were. Rosemary said: "The books look at a lot of different perspectives of each street." Big secrets such as Devon Road's brothel are let out of the bag, but the histories are more a record of the "little people' who have lived and loved in them. Two residents grew up as children in the street and went their separate ways but met later in life, married, and now live in the street again. People never used to worry about security at all, until the 1960s, when serial killer Eric Cooke was terrifying Perth. People started to lock their doors and close their windows. One woman remembered running home every night after leaving her work at Memorial Gardens. In order to write the books, the students looked through information at the Claremont Museum, rate records, death notices, electoral roll, Karrakatta cemetery's records and newspapers. They also talked to current and past residents of the streets, and got oral histories of the changing scene of the streets. -Jen Cunniffe BACK TO TOP < PREVIOUS - HOME - NEXT> Copyright © 1999 - 2006 Post Newspapers Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.