Ellensbrook

Last updated

Ellensbrook
Ellensbrook, May 2006.jpg
Ellensbrook in May 2006
Australia Western Australia location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Ellensbrook
Location of Ellensbrook in Western Australia
General information
Type Station
Location Yebble, Western Australia
Coordinates 33°54′37″S114°59′31″E / 33.9103°S 114.992°E / -33.9103; 114.992 (Ellensbrook)
Website
www.nationaltrust.org.au/places/ellensbrook/ OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Designated17 August 2012
Reference no. 115

Ellensbrook is a heritage-listed property in Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park in the locality of Yebble, Western Australia near Margaret River. [1] [2] Also known as Ellensbrook House [2] or Ellensbrook Homestead, [3] the property is managed by the National Trust of Western Australia. [2]

Contents

History

The site where Ellensbrook is located was historically a Noongar camping ground named Mokidup, [1] close to the sacred site of Meekadarribee Cave. [4]

In 1857, settlers Ellen and Alfred Bussell decided to build a new home on the site. The location was desirable due to its protection from storms, supply of fresh water, and the fertility of the soil. The homestead was built in stages over several decades using the labour of ticket-of-leave convicts, sailors who had deserted, and the local Noongar people, and was named after Ellen Bussell. [1]

While Alfred and Ellen moved away from Ellensbrook in 1865, the Bussell family remained involved. Their eldest daughter Fanny managed the property from 1871 to 1877, expanding the homestead, and it was later the home of the second-born daughter Edith. Edith started the Ellensbrook Farm Home for Aboriginal Children at the property in 1899, which lasted for seventeen years. During this time there were further extensions to the main building. [1]

Restrictions on females owning property meant that Alfred's daughters were unable to inherit the property following his death in 1882; however, Edith eventually succeeded in acquiring the freehold title to Ellensbrook, including 900 acres of land, by the late 1920s. [4]

A third generation, Lennox Terry (Alfred and Ellen's grandson) and his wife Frances owned the property from 1950 to 1956. They privately funded restoration and conservation works, as did a subsequent owner from c.1967 to 1979, John Norman (Jack) Williams. [4]

Ellensbrook was donated to the National Trust in 1979. [5] The trust, through a six-year conservation program beginning in 1984, restored the site and converted it into a museum. [4] It was added to the State Register of Heritage Places in 2012. [4] A Lotterywest grant in 2016 funded further restoration of the property; it was reopened in February 2019. [6] [7]

Description

The Ellensbrook homestead is a single storey vernacular style building. It is constructed from locally sourced materials, including granite, limestone, paperbark, and timber. the homestead is situated in a grassed clearing, close to the Ellen Brook, natural bushland, and coastal dunes. [5]

Other features are a family grave site from the 1850s, a stone dam wall flume and waterwheel dating from the 1950s. Various trees and other flora are present, having grown from plantings in the 1950s or earlier. These include a mulberry tree, Moreton Bay figs, Norfolk Island pine, flame tree, pepper tree, and hydrangeas. A tea tree hedge previously existed, but was destroyed in a 2011 fire. [5]

Despite various alterations, the original use of the property remains evident, and the site is largely intact with a high degree of authenticity. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret River, Western Australia</span> Town in Western Australia

Margaret River is a town in the South West of Western Australia, located in the valley of the eponymous Margaret River, 277 kilometres (172 mi) south of Perth, the state capital. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park</span> Protected area in Western Australia

Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park is a national park in the South West region of Western Australia, 267 km (166 mi) south of Perth. It is named after the two locations at either end of the park which have lighthouses, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste. It is located in the Augusta-Margaret River and Busselton council areas, and is claimed to have the highest visiting numbers of any national park in Western Australia. The park received 2.33 million visitors through 2008–2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Busselton</span> City in the South West region of Western Australia

Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately 220 km (140 mi) south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton Port in 1972 and the contemporaneous establishment of the nearby Margaret River wine region have seen tourism become the dominant source of investment and development, supplemented by services and retail. The city is best known for the Busselton Jetty, the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shire of Augusta–Margaret River</span> Local government area in Western Australia

The Shire of Augusta Margaret River is a local government area in the south-west corner of the South West region of Western Australia, approximately 270 kilometres (168 mi) south of Perth. The shire covers an area of 2,243 square kilometres (866 sq mi) and had a population of over 14,000 at the 2016 Census, about half of whom live in the towns of Margaret River and Augusta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bussell family</span> Family of early settlers in colonial Western Australia

The Bussell family were a family of early settlers in colonial Western Australia. The four brothers John, Joseph Vernon, Alfred and Charles emigrated from England on Warrior, arriving at Fremantle on 12 March 1830. Lenox, Frances and Elizabeth arrived at Fremantle on Cygnet on 27 January 1833, and Mrs Frances Louisa and Mary arrived at Albany on 19 June 1834.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Leeuwin</span> Most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian continent

Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augusta, Western Australia</span> Town in Western Australia

Augusta is a town on the south-west coast of Western Australia, where the Blackwood River flows into Flinders Bay. It is the nearest town to Cape Leeuwin, on the furthest southwest corner of the Australian continent. In the 2001 census it had a population of 1,091; by 2016 the population of the town was 1,109.

Captain John Molloy was an early Irish settler in Western Australia. He was one of the original settlers of Augusta and an early settler of Busselton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bussell</span> Australian politician

John Garrett Bussell was an early settler in Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Bussell</span> Australian politician

Alfred Pickmore Bussell was an early settler in Western Australia.

Dunsborough is a coastal town in the South West of Western Australia, 254 kilometres (158 mi) south of Perth, on the shores of Geographe Bay.

Samuel Yebble Isaacs was an Aboriginal Australian stockman and farmer from the South West of Western Australia, who was best known for his role in the rescue of the SS Georgette in 1876, together with Grace Bussell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bussell Highway</span> Highway in the South West region of Western Australia

Bussell Highway is a generally north–south highway in the South West region of Western Australia. The highway links the city of Bunbury with the town of Augusta and is approximately 140 kilometres (87 mi) in length. The highway is signed State Route 10, except in Busselton where the construction of the Busselton Bypass in 2000 resulted in this stretch being changed to Alternate State Route 10 with the Bypass signed State Route 10.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karridale, Western Australia</span> Town in Western Australia

Karridale is a small township in the south-west of Western Australia. It is located just north of Augusta and south of Margaret River between Caves Road and Bussell Highway. A newer township was built a short distance north east of the original Old Karridale following fires that destroyed the town in 1961. At the 2006 census, Karridale had a population of 285.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boranup, Western Australia</span> Locality in Western Australia

Boranup, in the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River in the South West region of Western Australia, is the site of a large coastal dune blow out known as the "Boranup sand patch" as part of the Boranup beach, and the site of a former M. C. Davies timber company mill. The sand patch area and sand blows affected the alignment of the Busselton to Flinders Bay railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wallcliffe House</span> Homestead in Prevelly, Western Australia

Wallcliffe House was a heritage listed two-storey stone, shingle and corrugated iron homestead located near Prevelly and the mouth of the Margaret River in Western Australia. It was built by George Holland Knapton for owners Alfred and Ellen Bussell between 1857 and 1865 in the Victorian-Georgian style, using limestone quarried on the property and pit-sawn jarrah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surfing locations in the Capes region of South West Western Australia</span> Surfing locations in South West Western Australia

Caves Road is a 111-kilometre-long (69 mi) scenic route in the South West region of Western Australia. It connects western Busselton with Augusta, running along or to the west of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste ridge, and is an alternative route to Bussell Highway. Caves Road is also a major component of the route from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin, in what is known as the state's Capes Region.

The Wonnerup massacre, also known as the Wonnerup "Minninup" massacre , was the killing of dozens of Wardandi Noongar people by European settlers in the vicinity of Wonnerup, Western Australia in February 1841. The massacre on Wardandi-Doonan land in the south-west of Western Australia took place after Gaywal/Gaywaar, a Wardandi Man, speared and killed George Layman, a settler at Wonnerup on 21 February 1841. The leaders of the punitive massacre were Layman's neighbours John Bussell and Captain John Molloy, resident magistrate of the district. Settlers from the Wonnerup, Capel, Busselton and Augusta area joined them to commit "one of the most bloodthirsty deeds ever committed by Englishmen".

Yebble is a locality in the South West region of Western Australia in the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River. Established in 2021 from parts of the localities of Gracetown and Burnside, its name honours Sam Isaacs, whose Aboriginal name was Yebble, a stockman who was involved with Grace Bussell in the rescue of the SS Georgette in 1876. The locality is mostly covered by the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park and also contains Ellensbrook homestead and the Meekadarribee Falls, which are significant to the local Wardandi people. Yebble is near the land that was granted to Isaacs by the Western Australian government.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Ellensbrook". National Trust of Western Australia. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Parks and Wildlife Service. "Ellensbrook House". Government of Western Australia. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  3. Parks and Wildlife Service. "Leeuwin-Naturaliste". Government of Western Australia. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Heritage Council of Western Australia (17 August 2012). "Register of Heritage Places - Assessment Documentation: Ellensbrook" (PDF). Government of Western Australia. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Shire of Augusta-Margaret River (10 May 2019). "Ellensbrook". inHerit. Government of Western Australia. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  6. "Restoration for historic Ellensbrook property". Government of Western Australia. 29 September 2016. Archived from the original on 19 October 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  7. "Ellensbrook community open day with the National Trust". Augusta-Margaret River Mail. 19 February 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2020.

Further reading