OUR HERITAGE AT RISK - WESTERN AUSTRALIA - 2009
MOST AT RISK PLACES:
Place: Berkshire Valley Farm
Threat: Deterioration
Statement of Significance:
Berkshire Valley Farm comprises a farming property incorporating a number of Colonial farm buildings in the Victorian Georgian style. The place
has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
• The place is an outstanding and rare example of an early colonial farm with substantial evidence of farm buildings dating between 1842 and the
1900s;
• Through its setting and fabric, the range of original and adapted buildings provides important evidence of farming practices and technologies
from the 1840s to the 1900s and evidences farming practices to the present;
• The fabric is of local materials, demonstrating a range of farm related functions; many of these buildings are fine examples of Victorian
Georgian and Vernacular architecture;
• The place is historically and socially important for its origins as a farming property taken up in 1842 by James Clinch and later Richard
Hamilton and his descendants;
• The place is historically and socially important as a centre for social activity and later tourism in the district; as a staging post where
mails were delivers, and where prominent people stayed or visited while journeying through the Victoria Plains district.
(Heritage Council of Western Australia assessment documentation)
Statement of Risk:
Degree of Risk: At Risk – no solution agreed
Threats/Risks: Deterioration
Fate/outcome: Suffering
Description of Risk:
Many of the buildings and structures that comprise this place are deteriorating. The owner is aware of the heritage value of the place but is
unwilling to have his property listed by the state so the place was removed from the State Register.
Desired Outcome/Vision:
The Heritage Minister of Western
Australia should be approached and the importance of this property conveyed to him and the property reinstated on the Register. The National
Trust, the Heritage Council and the Shire of Moora should form a partnership to ensure that conservation works are implemented on this property
and attempts should be made by the National Trust to discuss the implications of heritage listing with the owner.
Place: Grey Shack Community
Threat: Destruction through government policy
Statement of Significance:
Grey Shack Community has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
• The settlement forms a unique cultural landscape due to its isolation and enclosure by Nambung National Park. It is a living remnant and fine
example of a vernacular recreational environment.
• The Grey Shack Settlement is an excellent example of a coastal settlement originally established by farmers and fishermen in the 1930s to
1950s, and later becoming more permanent through holiday makers and recreation activities which contributed to the growth of other towns such as
Lancelin and Jurien.
• The Grey Shack Settlement has high social value through the leaseholders and their friends and family. The popularity of shack settlements is
evident through the formation of the shack Associations and the high level of interest that the government’s removal policy has
brought.
Statement of Risk:
Degree of Risk: Immediate risk – no solution agreed
Threats/Risks: Destruction
Fate/outcome: Surviving
Description of Risk:
Under the State Government’s Squatter Policy, communities such as Grey have been removed. Grey, along with Wedge are the last remaining squatter
settlements north of Perth. These communities have strong historical and social values and their removal will not only have a physical impact but
will destroy a tradition and way of life which has existed for many decades across Australia.
Desired Outcome/Vision:
Heritage recognition and a management plan developed which incorporates equitable tenure arrangements but also conserves and promotes the
historical significance of Grey and protects the surrounding environment of the area, following the example that has been put in place for other
shack communities (e.g. Royal National Park, NSW).
Place: Gwambygine Farm
Threat: Destruction
Statement of Significance:
Gwambygine Farm and Pool has
cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
• The place is a rare example of a rural homestead dating from the 1830s, the early settlement of WA and its regions;
• The homestead, the barn and shearing shed, the pigsty and the post and rail fencing, are representative examples of a Colonial Vernacular style
in the design, use of materials and construction methods adopted by early settlers on the original farming Land Grants in the Avon Valley and
elsewhere;
• The place is historically and socially important for its origins as a Land Grant taken up in 1830 by the Colonial Chaplain Reverend John
Burdett Wittenoom, and for its associations with the Wittenoom family, with Thomas Carter, a highly regarded settler in the district, and
subsequently with the Hicks and Clifton families who later acquired the property;
• The place has strong links to the historic development of the York district and the Avon Valley, an area which was important to the ongoing
economic survival of the Swan River Colony; and
• Gwambygine Pool is important for its natural ecosystems and riparian vegetation, for historic and social associations with the homestead
together with the farming pursuits on the associated farm, and now as a rare natural deep pool on the Avon River.
(Gwambygine Farm and Pool Conservation Pool 2007 – edited)
Statement of Risk:
Degree of Risk: Immediate risk – no solution agreed
Threats/Risks: Deterioration
Fate/outcome: Suffering
Description of Risk:
Due to a lack of use, absence of ongoing maintenance and poor quality repairs using concrete, the farm, its buildings and other structures are
deteriorating. The farmhouse is at risk of collapsing due to the poor condition of the roof.
Desired Outcome/Vision:
Conservation works are required to
stop deterioration and ensure this place is adequately maintained. A management arrangement with the National Trust or other community
conservation group would provide access to funds to allow urgent works to take place.
Place: Phoebe Abbey’s House, Busselton
Threat: Destruction (demolition by neglect)
Statement of Significance:
Phoebe Abbey’s House, a single
storey stone and iron building constructed in vernacular style, has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
• It is a rare example of an 1860s building which has survived in the town of Busselton;
• It is an example of the expertise of early builders in the Swan River colony and the Busselton district;
• It is associated with Christopher Weetman, an early master builder and the Abbey family, one of the early pioneering families in the
district;
• The building demonstrates physically the extent of the Busselton townsite in the 1860s; and,
• The place has retained a high degree of integrity.
Statement of Risk:
Degree of Risk: Immediate risk – no solution agreed
Threats/Risks: Destruction
Fate/outcome: Surviving
Description of Risk:
Phoebe Abbey’s House has been vacant for
some years and is its condition has deteriorated (an example of demolition by neglect). The building has been subject to lack of maintenance,
vandalism and recently was almost destroyed by fire.
Desired Outcome/Vision:
Secure building against further illegal entry. Ensure building is weatherproofed. Discuss conservation of building with present (or future
owners) and request that the place be added to the Heritage Council’s assessment program.
PLACES CURRENTLY ASSESSED AS MEDIUM TO LOW RISK
Place: Gwalla Mining Precinct
Threat: Destruction
Statement of Significance:
Gwalla, comprising the Gwalla Mine (1859), the Gwalla Church ruins in a stone walled yard (1861), Gwalla Cemetery (1861), the stone cottages of
Gwalla Village (1860s), the stone boundary walls (1860), the first Northampton Railway Station site (1879), the old Gwalla School (1860s) and the
Second Railway Station site (1913), has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
• Gwalla Church was the first church, and the only non-denominational one, constructed in Northampton, and Gwalla Cemetery the first cemetery to
be established in the Northampton district;
• the establishment of a non-denominational church is in itself unusual in the development of nineteenth century settlements; the provision of a
non-denominational church by one man for a community is considered to be rare;
• the Church was once the centre piece of the Gwalla Mining Precinct and important amongst Joseph Horrock’s well-remembered philanthropic works,
the place was an important development of the mine community at Gwalla, foreshadowing the eventual development of the town of Northampton;
• the place comprises the only remaining visible elements of the Gwalla Mining Precinct, which played an important role in the development of
Northampton and Western Australia’s early mining industry, an industry that was considered vital to the on-going survival and success of the
colony;
• the first government railway was constructed between Northampton (Gwalla) and Geraldton and the later extension of the line to Ajana was linked
to the revival of the mining industry at Northampton in the 1910s; and,
• the place is associated with prominent figures in the history and development of Northampton, particularly with Joseph Horrocks, an ex-convict,
convict ship’s surgeon and important figure in the development of Gwalla.
(Heritage Council documentation & from the Gwalla Precinct Conservation Plan - edited)
Statement of Risk:
Degree of Risk: At Risk – no solution agreed
Threats/Risks: Destruction
Fate/outcome: Surviving
Description of Risk:
The inclusion of the Church and Cemetery
on the state's Register of Heritage Places is to be commended. However, the ruins of the stone cottages that once housed the workers together
with the stonewalls that once delineated the "village" and the Gwalla Mine shaft and associated archaeological ruins together with the site of
the first railway station have not been included in thelisting. The importance of all of the sites in the precinct needs to be recognised and
included in the listing.
The ruins of the stone cottages have all been incorporated into an older
residential sub-division and their current fate is not known. The town of Northampton is expanding and the Church and Cemetery, the Gwalla Mine
and associated shafts have recently been incorporated into a new suburban sub-division of sixty-eight lots, all of which are a little more than
2,000m2. This sub-division has been approved and an archaeological report is currently in the process of being prepared. However, the
sub-division will completely obliterate the linkages between the Church and the Mine while the importance of the remaining stonewalls has been
completely lost.
Desired Outcome/Vision:
The recommendations of the Conservation Policy have not been followed - retaining site lines to the Church, retaining the agricultural fields
around the Church site. The presence of the stone cottages and their place in this precinct has already been seriously
compromised.
The Precinct is a cultural landscape and should be retained as such with no
sub-division allowed on the southern and western sides of the site. Further grants should be sought to ensure that the ruins of the Church, the
remaining stone walls and the first railway station site are all stabilised. Interpretation panels need to be prepared and a heritage trail
developed. This trail could also include the Wanerennooka Mine site that lies to the north of Gwalla Mine.
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