Thomas Watson was a surveyor and early settler of the Swan River Colony in what is now Western Australia.
Little is known of his early life, but he was trained as a surveyor before arriving at the Swan River Colony as part of Thomas Peel's settlement scheme, on board Gilmore in December 1829. He brought surveying instruments with him, but at first he did not seek surveying work, preferring to establish himself as a farmer upon his grant. [1] He was independently wealthy and had brought servants with him to work his land grant. But in February 1830 his camp was burnt out in a bushfire and he lost £600 worth of goods, including most of his surveying tools. He used his remaining capital to support himself and his servants for the next year, but in 1831 he had no money left and had to release his employees from their agreements. In April 1831 he married Ann Smythe. [2]
Watson was granted 1000 acres of land at the southern end of Thomsons Lake, which he used to source timber. It corresponded roughly with today's Wattleup. [3] In May 1833 he was advertising his timber for sale as "30 tons of very superior mahogany, in the log, well seasoned". [4] The timber was tuart. [2] He obtained an order for 50 tons of timber, but could not find the men to cut it and by the time he had enlisted a labour force the men who had placed the order had already left the colony. He attempted to obtain a government contract for his timber, and in the meantime transported planks to Thomas Peel's Clarence settlement to be exported. The export ships never arrived, and Watson gave up his attempts to work his timber grant. [5] In 1839, his entire grant was bought for £60 by George Leake, a Fremantle solicitor. [6]
Due to his financial hardships, in 1831 he applied to the Governor for a job and was offered the position of temporary chainer in the Survey Department, which he carried on side by side with his timber enterprise. Later he worked for the Department of Council and Audit, assessing settlers' property holdings to calculate how much land to grant them, but this position became redundant as the flow of settlers fell to almost zero. Finally he took a position as a clerk in the Colonial Secretary's office for a very small wage, but eventually gave up his hopes of living in the Perth area and quit to head south. [2]
In 1834, Watson moved to the town of Mandurah, in order to participate in the extensive surveys scheduled for the Leschenault district. He was involved in several large surveys, including the original survey of the Bunbury town site, along with work in York and Mandurah itself. Evidence suggests that at least some of Watson's work was inferior in quality. Some of his surveys had to be re-done by others, and his Bunbury plans were discarded. [1]
In October 1835 he took a group of people intending to settle new land to the Murray River, near Thomas Peel's land. From there he continued on and completed a partial survey of the Murray River east to the Serpentine River and Pinjarra, recording the type of land, bush, flora and fauna he encountered along the way. [7]
The late 1830s saw Watson paid for two surveys; one unspecified in connection with roads and bridges to the southern districts, and one for a road from Fremantle to the Dandalup ford. It was stated that the roads that Watson and others had surveyed in these districts were "perfectly impassable for 7 or 8 months of the year" due to flooding . [8]
Watson is credited as having recorded the Aboriginal word "Kougee" in 1841, which became the word Coogee and refers to a lake and settlement area in Cockburn. [9] Similarly he is credited as recording the name Banganup Lake in the Cockburn area during his 1841 surveys. [5] He is also credited as naming The Spectacles in modern-day Kwinana in the same year. [10] The maps of these surveys are held in the State Records Office of WA. [11] [12]
Watson became the first mail contractor for the Murray District in 1841, [13] receiving £80 for the year to travel between Pinjarra and Bunbury. He surveyed the Pinjarra-Fremantle Road in the same year. He lost the tender in 1842, and focused on working the ferry crossing and running a hotel at Mandurah. [14] [15]
In 1847 Watson's tender to carry mail between several south-west settlements was accepted by George Fletcher Moore, the Colonial Secretary. [16] He was to carry mail once a month "from Fremantle to Albany via Mandurah, Australind, Bunbury, Busselton, and Kojonup; also a branch mail between Mandurah and Pinjarrah". Until this time, it had been assumed that the journey between Fremantle and Albany took two weeks. Watson discovered a new route and managed the journey in five days. He guarded the specifics of his new route for fear that the government would undercut him and he would lose his contract. [17] Later that year his diary of one of these journeys was published in the colonial newspaper, describing the hardships of bushland, weather, and poor roads encountered along the way. [18] He also took passengers on this route, and advertised his prices for parcels and transport between the towns he visited. A return trip between Fremantle and Mandurah cost 15 shillings, and a return trip between Fremantle to Albany cost £8. Parcels under 1lb cost 1/6 to send to Albany, parcels over 1lb cost 4 shillings. [19]
During his time as mail carrier he continued to survey roads and build bridges, using soldiers stationed at Albany and Kojonup to carry out the work. In 1848 his report on the improvements of roads outside Albany was published in the newspaper. [20]
He was generally held to have performed his role well and was highly regarded at the end of his contract in 1849. [21]
Bunbury is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, approximately 175 kilometres (109 mi) south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's third-largest city after Perth and Mandurah, with a population of approximately 75,000.
Mandurah is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated approximately 72 kilometres (45 mi) south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's second-largest city, with a population of approximately 97,000, ahead of that of nearby Bunbury.
The Peel region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located on the west coast of Western Australia, about 75 km (47 mi) south of the state capital, Perth. It consists of the City of Mandurah, and the Shires of Boddington, Murray, Serpentine-Jarrahdale and Waroona.
The Armadale railway line is a suburban railway line in Western Australia that runs from Perth to Armadale, and continues as the South Western Railway to Bunbury. The line crosses the Swan River at East Perth via the Goongoongup Bridge, and formerly had crossed it via the Bunbury Bridge.
The Australind is a rural passenger train service in Western Australia operated by Transwa on the South Western Railway between Perth and Bunbury.
Pinjarra is a town in the Peel region of Western Australia along the South Western Highway, 85 kilometres (53 mi) from the state capital, Perth and 21 kilometres (13 mi) south-east of the coastal city of Mandurah. Its local government area is the Shire of Murray. At the 2016 census, Pinjarra had a population of 4910.
North Dandalup is a small town in the Peel region of Western Australia along the South Western Highway between Serpentine and Pinjarra. Its local government area is the Shire of Murray. At the 2011 census, North Dandalup had a population of 346.
South Western Highway is a highway in the South West region of Western Australia connecting Perth's southeast with Walpole. It is a part of the Highway 1 network for most of its length. It is about 406 kilometres (252 mi) long.
The Pinjarra massacre, also known as the Battle of Pinjarra, is an attack that occurred in 1834 at Pinjarra, Western Australia on an uncertain number of Binjareb Noongar people by a detachment of 25 soldiers, police and settlers led by Governor James Stirling. Stirling estimated the Binjareb present numbered "about 60 or 70" and John Roe, who also participated, at about 70–80, which roughly agree with an estimate of 70 by an unidentified eyewitness.
The Shire of Murray is a local government area of Western Australia. It has an area of 1,710.1 square kilometres (660.3 sq mi) and is located in the Peel Region about 80 kilometres (50 mi) south of the Perth central business district.
The South Western Railway, also known as the South West Main Line, is the main railway route between Perth and Bunbury in Western Australia.
The Murray River is a river in the southwest of Western Australia. It played a significant part in the expansion of settlement in the area south of Perth after the arrival of British settlers at the Swan River Colony in 1829.
Mandurah Road is the name given to two roads in the cities of Perth and Mandurah, Western Australia, which link together at Stakehill Road, Karnup.
The Sunday Football League Western Australia, commonly known as the Sunday Football League (SFL), is a defunct semi-professional Australian rules football league that was based in the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. The League was in operation from 1984 to 2008, and Kenwick Royals was the most successful club with eight senior team premierships.
Transport in Perth, Western Australia, is served by various means, among them an extensive highway / freeway network and a substantial system of commuter rail lines and bus routes. Public transport is managed by the Transperth agency.
Transperth Trains is a division of the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia. It is responsible for operating Perth’s urban passenger rail system, as part of the Transperth network.
The Peel Football League (PFL) is a country football league based in the Peel region of Western Australia. The competition was formed in 1992 when teams from the Metropolitan Football League and Murray Districts Football League merged. There are currently eight clubs fielding a league reserves and colts team.
Forrest Highway is a 95-kilometre-long (59 mi) highway in Western Australia's Peel and South West regions, extending Perth's Kwinana Freeway from east of Mandurah down to Bunbury. Old Coast Road was the original Mandurah–Bunbury route, dating back to the 1840s. Part of that road, and the Australind Bypass around Australind and Eaton, were subsumed by Forrest Highway. The highway begins at Kwinana Freeway's southern terminus in Ravenswood, continues around the Peel Inlet to Lake Clifton, and heads south to finish at Bunbury's Eelup Roundabout. There are a number of at-grade intersections with minor roads in the shires of Murray, Waroona, and Harvey including Greenlands Road and Old Bunbury Road, both of which connect to South Western Highway near Pinjarra.
Robert John Sholl was a government administrator, magistrate, explorer, journalist, entrepreneur, harbourmaster, customs official, postmaster and lay reader in Western Australia (WA), during the colonial era. Because of his multiple, simultaneous roles, which carried judicial, political, cultural and commercial power and influence, Sholl is regarded as a significant figure in the history of North-West Australia, at an early stage of its settlement by Europeans.
Rockingham is a city and primary centre in Western Australia south-west of the Perth city centre and south of Fremantle. It has a beachside location at Mangles Bay, the southern extremity of Cockburn Sound. To its north stretches the maritime and resource-industry installations of Kwinana and Henderson. Offshore to the north-west is Australia's largest naval fleet and submarine base, Garden Island, connected to the mainland by an all-weather causeway. To the west and south lies the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park.