differ, but in either 1895 or 1907 the State Government purchased the land, declaring it a Class A reserve, and in 1912 the Melville Roads Board (now the Melville City Council) was appointed to manage it. The reserve officially opened on 30 November 1914. Decline The canal at Point Walter continuously silted up, and the difficulty of upkeep led to the Caporns departing the site. After the Caporns had left the area, the local authorities did not engage in upkeep, and the canal fell into further disrepair. Steamers on the Swan River stopped using the sandbar's narrow and shallow canal, instead travelling the full distance around it. By the 1860s the canal was unused. A campaign by businessman George Randell, then controller of river traffic due to his ownership of a steamboat service, attempted to reopen the canal, but due to the cost of £2,000 it was not completed. The lack of steamer traffic caused a drop in popularity for the tea rooms, and with the drop in patronage from the introduction of the Fremantle-Perth railway on 1 March 1881, Point Walter became a "quiet backwater". In January 1923, to secure funding for the Point Walter memorial avenue, a three day carnival was held at Point Walter. By this time, the Melville Roads Board was receiving £100 a year for grounds maintenance, which was proving inadequate to keep the grounds in order. A further decline in use was due to the increased use of ocean beaches by the public; as a result, control of the site was passed to the Parks and Gardens Board in 1929. In 1914, a tramway was constructed between Canning Road and Point Walter, which was not considered a success as it rarely ran at a profit outside the summer months. Despite this, the line was not closed down until 1939. Further troubles came from the Depression of the 1930s, during which another drop in recreational use was experienced. World War II further decreased patronage, and Point Walter fell into a state of disrepair. World War II to modern day In 1941, the Melville Army Camp was constructed on the land and was used for training soldiers for waterborne warfare. In 1947, the camp was converted to a migrant reception centre, which was operated until 1969 by the State Government and from 1969 until closure in mid-1971 by Commonwealth Hostels. During the time the migrant reception