Southampton homestead

Southampton homestead is a Victorian-Georgian historical homestead located on the banks of the Blackwood River in the south west of Western Australia.

It was constructed in 1862 by Richard Thomas Jones and his two sons Richard Jr and William with mud-bricks fired on the site and took two years to construct. The heritage property sits beside the Bibbulmun Track, and located some 12 kilometres south of Balingup in the Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup.

At the height of the settlement's prosperity, the Jones Family managed some 27,500 acres of land. The family and workers produced wine, wheat, fruit and ran 600 head of cattle. Infrastructure included the Homestead proper, kitchen/bakery, flour mill, Dairy, workshops, brick kilns, jetty, boat shed and workers cottages.

History

Southampton Homestead was so named after the United Kingdom Port of Southampton near which settlers Richard Jones and his wife Louisa and their five children sailed on the Lotus from in 1829 to pursue opportunities in the new Swan River colony of Perth, Western Australia. Arriving in 1829, the Jones's originally purchased a property on the corner of St Georges Terrace and Barrack Street in the city of Perth.

Tragedy struck in 1830 when Louisa became the first European woman to die in the new colony, succumbing during childbirth at the age of 29. The baby boy, Joseph, passed away 3 months after his mother. They are both buried in the historic East Perth Cemetery. This left Richard Jones a widower with five children. He subsequently engaged the services of a housekeeper, a Malaysian man John Allum, who remained in the service of the family for the next 40 years.

Richard sold his city-central piece of real estate for 8,000 pounds in 1855 to buy 10 acres of newly-released land on the Blackwood River South of Balingup on which he built a Wattle and Daub homestead. This first homestead was dramatically flooded by the Blackwood River the next winter. Its location was only recently discovered during archaeological investigations in June 2007.

Richard and Louisa's Daughter Mary McHard was widowed when her husband was killed in an industrial accident in Perth in 1864. Mary brought her four daughters with her to live on the property in 1864.

Richard Jones spent the remainder of his life at the Homestead with his two sons (William and Richard) and daughter Mary and her children. Neither of his sons married and hence there was no heir. John Allum died at the age of 83 and is buried on the hill behind the homestead overlooking the Blackwood Valley.

Richard died aged 84 in 1876 and the sons and daughter continued working on the property. William, Richard Jr, and Mary remained on the property until as late as 1903. It was in this year that, on suffering depression from his failing health and eyesight, William took his own life.

Southampton Homestead then changed hands numerous times in the next 50 years, falling into disrepair and being procured by the Forest's Department in 1960. Extensive Pine plantations "Pinus Radiata" were then established. The property was largely forgotten for the next 30 years until its heritage qualities were identified and the site slated for restoration in the late 1990s.

Mary Jones's four daughter's produced the only direct descendants, who live in the Perth and the Southwest region.

Archaeology

A team of 15 Archaeologists from the University of Western Australia and University of Notre Dame Australia and the Archaeological Society of WA have begun to survey the property as part of Phase 2 of the Conservation plan commissioned by the [http://www.heritage.wa.gov.au/ Western Australian Heritage Council] . Excavations in June 2007 began an historical and forensic investigation of the Heritage site.

There were seven buildings originally on the property and the archaeologists goals were to identify the location, role and fabric of some of these buildings. At present, there still remains only rudimentary evidence of them.

Heritage

The property is highly valued by the local community and the government. It was recently awarded a triple-heritage listing with Local, State and Federal [http://www.gov.au Australian government] . The Conservation Plan outlines a three-phase program. Phase 1 focused on the salvage and restoration of Southampton Homestead and adjacent Bakery Cottage. This work was largely complete by 2002. The homestead proper is typical of mid-19th century constructions and fortunately there has been no clumsy restoration work attempted that was typical in this region in the latter half of the 20th century. The building's fabric is wonderfully preserved because of this.

Ecology

References

Links

* [http://register.heritage.wa.gov.au/PDF_Files/S%20-%20A-D/Southampton%20Hstead%20%28P-AD%29.PDF Assessment documentation] - Register of Historic Places.
* [http://register.heritage.wa.gov.au/PDF_Files/S%20Reg/Southampton%20H%27stead%20%28P%29.PDF Permanent entry] - Register of Historic Places.