The oldest heritage building in Sri Aman, the Fort Alice, was build in 1864 by Rajah Charles Brooke the second Rajah of Sarawak
The name derived from that of Charles Brooke's wife Margaret Alice Lili de Windt.
The structure was built on a strategic hilltop position and had a commanding view of the river with cannons bearing down to stop any threats coming from upriver.
With a fort served as a defensive structure controlling the Lupar River, Simanggang town played a major role in suppressing piracy, slavery, and head-hunting, while encouraging trade and development and expanding the authority of the Rajah.
Fort Alice was the Simanggang administrative center housing various government departments and even served as a prison.
It was in this fort Rajah Charles used to preside as judge settling disputes among the local Ibans during his visits to Simanggang.
It was built entirely of belian (ironwood) timber. Much of the timber used was taken from an earlier fort, Fort James Brooke, earlier built further upriver in Nanga Skrang.
Today most of the original structure remains substantially intact, but it is in an extremely dilapidated and run down condition and in need of urgent restoration work. Restoration did began in May 2013.
…… and this Fort Alice is only 5 minutes walk from once a wooden house I grew up in. That wooden government quarter, build much later then the Brooks period during the colonial time, however never preserved as a heritage but torn down to make way for concrete government office in the modern Malaysian era.
| Summarized from "Bringing the shine back to Fort Alice – BorneoPost Online" December 2013 FORT Alice has been left to the mercy of the elements after outliving its usefulness as a military outpost, built by Charles Brooke, the second White Rajah, more than 100 years ago to defend Simanggang (now Sri Aman) against attacks by warring tribes. After being abandoned, its dignity as the Division’s bastion of defense during a turbulent period in Sarawak’s history descended to the crass level of “a local den for drug addicts.” And parents were quick to warn their children to stay away from the crumbling building for fear they may get injured by falling shards – or harmed by drug addicts hanging out there. The long-forgotten over a century-old Fort (kubu) has also been passing through different hands and transcending time. The Fort had been given several facelifts to suit the needs of different owners follow prevailing trends. Some added rooms and some added extensions, thus upping the ante for the restorers to bring the original shine back to the worn-down Fort. The Fort resembled a two-storey wooden bungalow although there are ample proofs to show it was a wooden structure built on stilts. During its heyday back in 1864, Fort Alice was the centre of Simanggang town, bringing life to the surrounding jungles and riverbanks. Identifying the different add-ons and dismantling the Fort is a delicate procedure so as not to damage the existing architecture. The original structure is hardier than the newer added on materials, making it easier to tell the old from the new. The dismantled parts were carefully inspected and labeled while some of the rotting timber replaced and the still hardy materials reused. The restoration project started in May, 2013. The whole Fort has been dismantled and replacement parts fitted together piece by piece – like building a house from Lego blocks. The renovated structure sits on a new reinforced concrete pad footing and some of the buried decaying lower parts of the columns which have spliced on the existing woodwork, have been replaced with new belian materials. “The columns have irregular connections because when the originals were coated with modern acrylic paint or bitumen, it was not permeable (the timber can’t breathe) and rotting started to occur from the inside, moving upwards. That’s why we are replacing the bottom parts of the columns........We cut away the rotted parts bit by bit until we reached the solid part of the old column. Then we made a new piece of timber with the same shape and slotted it in like a jigsaw piece,” Mike Boon explained. Architect Mike Boon 溫志堅 is the consultant for the Fort Alice restoration project. |
10 km before reaching Sri Aman town from Kuching is a surfaced road leading to Batang Lupar River with its three tributaries of Batang Ai , Lemanak and Skrang .
Reconstruction of Fort Alice : http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Community
Bringing Back the Shine to Fort Alice : http://pamsc.org.my/wp-content/
Fort Alice Conservation : http://johntingarchitect.blogspot.com/2013_07_01_archive.html
FRIENDS OF FORT ALICE : http://friendoffortalice.blogspot.com/2013/08
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