T
he University of Western Australia
is turning the Nedlands Park
Masonic Hall into a co-working
and innovation hub for graduate
and alumni-owned businesses.
While the space will not solely be for
mining equipment, technology and services
players, it is likely a number of the businesses
that take up the ofer will be of that bent.
he Masonic Hall co-working space, to be
known as the Innovation Quarter Exchange,
will also be at the cross roads of a burgeoning
innovation corridor on Stirling Highway.
It falls under the UWA Innovation
Quarter program, which has the mission of
fostering enterprise, industry engagement
and entrepreneurship for UWA researchers,
students and staf.
Along that east-west thoroughfare is the
Centre for Entrepreneurial Research and
Innovation, which is the brain child of mining
entrepreneur Charles Bass, who co-founded
Aquila Resources with Tony Poli in 2000, and
Bloom Lab at St Catherine’s College.
CERI is more aimed at teaching the
concept of entrepreneurialism.
hat is a concept that WA was once
famous for and then fell out of favour as
those famous entrepreneurs, such as Alan
Bond and Laurie Connell, fell from grace.
CERI’s program consists of three modules:
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset;
Proof of Concept; and Start-up Formation.
Bloom Lab is a student run not-for-proit
providing innovation space for under 30s.
It provides low cost services to help those
budding entrepreneurs reine their start up
ideas. South of the Masonic Hall is UWA’s
new EZone, which is aimed at turning out
engineering and mathematical sciences
graduates.
he rebirth of Masonic Hall will no doubt
be welcome to nearby residents who have
watched the building gradually lose its lustre.
Indeed, the building’s grimy, worn façade
bodes ill for the state of masonry, free or
otherwise, in WA.
Creating the co-working space within the
80-odd year old building will also activate
the western corner of UWA’s Crawly campus.
he space is not aimed at start-ups but
rather those businesses that have gone
through the start-up phase and are looking to
grow. It will give them the opportunity to base
themselves at a property on the UWA campus
and run their business from that space.
According to UWA the co-location at
UWA would give graduate enterprises the
opportunity to work alongside some of the
world’s leading researcher and student talent
as well as accessing multi-million dollar
facilities and infrastructure.
hey will also get access to UWA’s gym,
childcare centre and the UWA Club.
Options to access the space range from hot
desking and co-working to holding oices.Members will also have access to quiet
spaces, meeting rooms, a board room and
training and seminar facilities.
Masonic Hall will join a number of
innovation co-working spaces in Perth
including Spacecubed and Flux, which
includes the Core innovation hub.
It is not planned for the hall to be a
competitor to those, but rather to ind its
own place in the innovation ecosystem.
One thing Masonic Hall has going for it
is what sounds like a fairly unique working
space.
he irst loor co-working space includes
many unique features associated with the
Freemasons who once used it, including
an elaborate throne area, loor artwork,
mouldings and lighting depicting masonic
symbols and rituals.
he ground loor, which was once a public
hall, will continue to support community
activity, as well as innovation and enterprise
training and workshops.
UWA IQ program manager Dr Jo Hawkins
said universities are hotbeds of innovation
and IQX represented a distinctive ofering in
the competitive co-working space.
“Our tenants will gain unprecedented
access to research, student talent,
infrastructure and facilities,” she said.
“As part of our community, they’ll
contribute industry insights into research,
and help enrich teaching and learning.”Innovation highway
An old masonic lodge could hold the keys to some of the most exciting mining
technology developments of the coming years. By Noel Dyson
http://www.miningmonthly.com December 2017 AMM 17
NEWS