CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · Places & Architecture

William E. Bold

town clerk in Perth, Western Australia

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 24, 2025
Entity authorityQ8005679 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Ernest Bold (6 May 1873 – 25 November 1953) was a long-serving municipal clerk of Perth, Western Australia. He is generally acknowledged to be the founding father of urban planning in Western Australia.

Bold Park in the Perth suburb of City Beach is named after him, and Reabold Hill, "the highest natural point in the metropolitan area on the Swan Coastal Plain", is named after Bold and Francis Rea, a former mayor of the City of Perth.

Editorial summary

“William E. Bold” enters the record as town clerk in Perth, Western Australia. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, Bold and town can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1873, 1953—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1873-05-06. Its strongest next move is a source search built around William, Bold and town.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“William E. Bold” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, William, Bold and town provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 24, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q8005679. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1873 and 1953.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William E. Bold”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William E. Bold primary sources, William E. Bold archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William E. Bold”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William E. Bold” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.