Perth Coast

Distinguished and Famous people from Perth Coast

🏡 John and Elsie Curtin

John and Elsie Curtin moved to Cottesloe in 1918 and later built their family home in Jarrad Street. For John, the beachside setting differed sharply from his earlier life in crowded Melbourne suburbs. Work as editor of the Westralian Worker preceded federal politics and his wartime prime ministership. The surviving house preserves the domestic side of a career usually described through national decisions. Elsie’s family and community responsibilities belong in that history too. The modest home places a household, garden and neighbourhood behind one of the most demanding public roles an Australian has held.

🎨 Shaun Tan

Shaun Tan grew up at Hillarys when its dunes and bush were giving way to roads and new houses. In his own account, the unfinished suburb was a place of displaced lives, family ambitions and a strong sense of being at the edge of a much larger world. Those experiences help illuminate books such as The Arrival, whose wordless migration story drew on family histories. His art makes familiar environments appear strange enough to examine afresh. The childhood landscape supplied more than scenery: its mixture of emptiness, construction and belonging became material for a distinctive imagination.