The town of Toodyay, Western Australia, was not always known by that name. Initially Toodyay was located in what is now West Toodyay before repeated flooding caused the town centre to migrate to the area around the Newcastle convict depot creating the town of Newcastle. After approximately 50 years of confusion the name of Newcastle was changed to Toodyay and the original Toodyay became known as West Toodyay.
The original townsite of Toodyay was determined in 1836. Following serious flooding in 1857 and 1859, the decision was made to transfer the town to the site of the Toodyay Convict Depot located approximately 5 kilometres (3 mi) upstream. [1]
The new township, to be known as Newcastle, was gazetted on 1 October 1860. [2] The name "Newcastle" was derived from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Duke of Newcastle. [3] The township of "Old" Toodyay continued to exist, although it ceased to expand.
In August 1909, the Federal authorities urged the town of Newcastle to change its name. The towns of Newcastle in New South Wales and Newcastle in Western Australia were being confused. All too often the problem of duplicated place names was causing mail to go astray.
One instance of mail going astray concerned an item discovered by Sir John Forrest. A beautiful French ormolu clock had been delivered mistakenly to Newcastle, New South Wales, where it had sat unclaimed. Forrest recognised that the clock belonged to William Demasson of Newcastle, Western Australia, and arranged for it to be restored to its rightful owner. This incident is known to have contributed to the call for change. [4]
In February 1910, the Municipal Council held a referendum and, by a slim majority, it was decided to change the name of the town to Toodyay. [5] On 6 May 1910, it was declared that the town of Newcastle would henceforth be known as Toodyay and the old town of Toodyay would henceforth be known as West Toodyay. [6]
The French Ormolu clock, long held by the Demasson family, was purchased by the National Trust of Western Australia in 1987. In turn, the clock, together with its documents was offered to the Toodyay Historical Society. On 21 October 2007, the clock was welcomed back to the town of Toodyay. [7]
There are no records for the meaning or the origin of the name Toodyay, which derives from Toodye or Duidgee in the Noongar language. [8] In 1929 during Western Australia's centennial year, Victor Riseley published an article in The Sunday Times in response to other publications during the year that had tried to define its origins. Riseley contended that the definition of "beautiful", while the perfect description of the region, was not a descriptive for which the Ballardong people had any use, as their place names were related to the necessities of daily life. Riseley concluded that Toodyay was derived from Toodyeep, the name of the wife of one of the trackers who accompanied George Fletcher Moore in 1836 to the valley known as Gabbia-Yandirt. [9]
Another possible origin is that toodyay is derived from an account written by James Drummond of a party taking up land grants in the region in 1836. As they proceeded onto Drummond's grant, and finding an area of good land and water, their guide Babbing said the area was known as Duidgee. This area was said to be a favourite of the Ballardong people because of the abundance of reed mace, whose thick roots are a good source of starch and mucilage. [10]
In recent years, other origins for the name have been proposed by anthropologists. Professor Len Collard's Noongar language project provides the meaning as "today it is misty and foggy". [11] Another proposal was that the name is derived from the song of a bird such as the restless flycatcher (Myiagra inquieta) which is said to sound like duidjee-duidjee or toodjee-toodjee. This bird is found commonly in the region as well as the Canning region where Babbing grew up. Anthropologists Ken Macintyre and Barb Dobson speculate that Babbing was describing the sound of a bird. Drummond didn't enquire into the meaning of the word, as he did for other words during his account of the 1836 journey. Macintyre and Dobson note that Toodyeep was from the area but that Aboriginal people were named after the place where they were born or raised rather than the place being named after them and therefore dismiss this as a possible origin for the name Toodyay. [8]
By 1842 Drummond in his correspondence was referring to the area as Toodyay while referring to Duidgee Catta as the name of a pool on his estate. [12]
Toodyay, known as Newcastle between 1860 and 1910, is a town on the Avon River in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, 85 kilometres (53 mi) north-east of Perth on Ballardong Noongar land. The first European settlement occurred in the area in 1836. After flooding in the 1850s, the townsite was moved to its current location in the 1860s. It is connected by railway and road to Perth. During the 1860s, it was home to bushranger Moondyne Joe.
William Sykes was an English convict, transported to Western Australia for manslaughter.
The Newcastle Gaol Museum is a prison museum on Clinton Street in Toodyay, Western Australia, founded in 1962. The museum records the history of the serial escapee Moondyne Joe and his imprisonment in the "native cell".
The former Toodyay Court House in Toodyay, Western Australia has been used as municipal offices for Toodyay since the 1950s.
West Toodyay was the original location of the town of Toodyay, Western Australia. It is situated in the Toodyay valley, 85 kilometres (53 mi) north east of Perth. The Toodyay valley, discovered by Ensign Robert Dale in 1831, was opened up for settlement in 1836. The original site for the town of Toodyay was determined in 1836 and its boundaries were finalized 1838. The first survey of the town was carried out in 1849. After several serious floods, the decision was made to move the town of Toodyay to higher ground. In 1860, the new town of Newcastle was established 3 miles (4.8 km) further upstream. Newcastle was renamed in 1910 to Toodyay, and the original site became known as West Toodyay.
Joseph Strelley Harris (1811–1889) was a pastoralist in Western Australia. Between 1840 and 1888, he was a resident magistrate, serving in the towns of Williams, Toodyay, Busselton and Kojonup.
Michael Clarkson was one of the early settlers in the Swan River Colony and the Avon region of Western Australia.
William Amed Demasson, a carpenter and wheelwright by trade, was one of Toodyay's citizens who made a substantial contribution to the civic life of the town. Among the many organizations that he belonged to, he is particularly associated with the formation of a branch of the Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity in Toodyay, or Newcastle, as it was known at the time.
Alfred Durlacher was the fifth resident magistrate to be appointed to Toodyay, Western Australia, serving between 1861 and 1865.
Owen Hackett (1809–1862) was one of a number of Enrolled Pensioner Guards (EPGs) that came to the Swan River Colony between 1850 and 1868. Their role was to guard and oversee the work of the prisoners transported to Western Australia.
Francis Kirk was one of a number of Enrolled Pensioner Guards (EPGs) who came to the Swan River Colony between 1850 and 1868, to guard and oversee the work of the prisoners transported to Western Australia.
John Acton Wroth (1830–1876) was a convict transportee to the Swan River Colony, and later a clerk and storekeeper in Toodyay, Western Australia. He kept a personal diary that recorded life on board the transport ship and his experiences at the country hiring depots of York and Toodyay. This diary is lodged in the archives of the State Library.
David Gailey (1807–1881) was one of a number of Enrolled Pensioner Guards (EPGs) who came to the Swan River Colony between 1850 and 1868. Their role was to guard and oversee the work of the prisoners transported to Western Australia.
The ford crossing is a natural feature of the Avon River in West Toodyay, Western Australia. It was used by the early settlers in the area to cross the river before the construction of the West Toodyay Bridge.
The Toodyay Barracks and its stables, erected in 1842, were the first buildings constructed in the townsite of Toodyay, Western Australia. The Barracks were also the first government buildings within the Toodyay district. Situated on the left bank of the Avon River and a little upstream from the ford, the Barracks overlooked a long pool, which soon became known as the Barracks Pool. In the early 1840s, Toodyay Resident Magistrate John Scully had requested military protection as a means of controlling a problem with the local indigenous people. Governor John Hutt agreed at the time to temporarily station a mounted native policeman to keep order.
The Queen's Head was a hotel in West Toodyay in Western Australia in the latter half of the 19th century.
In 1851, the Toodyay Convict Hiring Depot was set up in the original township of Toodyay, now called West Toodyay. Temporary accommodation for the Enrolled Pensioner Guards was also constructed and surveys were carried out to enable more permanent accommodation to be built close by. The Enrolled Pensioner Guards were men who had either completed their duty of service or who had sustained injury while on active service. They had then volunteered as guards on the ships transporting convicts to Western Australia. Once the men were released from permanent duty, other duties of a peace keeping or military nature were expected of them. Many of these men became warders in charge of convicts.
Toodyay Gaol stood on lot R66, close to the first Convict Hiring Depot, in the original townsite of Toodyay, now known as West Toodyay, in Western Australia. Although generally referred to as a gaol, it was technically a lock-up, holding prisoners only until they were brought before the resident magistrate.
The Toodyay Valley School was the first government school in Toodyay. It opened on 1 October 1855 with 55 children enrolled. Boarders were received on moderate terms.
The Church of Sancta Maria was the first Catholic church built in the original townsite of Toodyay in Western Australia. It was consecrated in 1859, and served as church, priest's residence, and schoolhouse for the Toodyay Valley Catholic School. It later housed the Toodyay Valley government school.