Greenough Flats History 1968 to 1877

Greenough Flats History -1868 to 1877

1868 J. S Maley's tender to build a schoolhouse at North Greenough was approved and building commenced at the corner of Georgina and Gregory's Roads, reserve no. 275.
1868-1870 The Governor agreed to help rust-affected farmers by supplying seed wheat at cheap rates. They were set to work placing brush on sand hills in the region, in part repayment.
1868 Transportation to Western Australia ended, but convicts were still working out their sentences on public works. A probationer party repaired roads in many places and put in culverts on the Flats.
1868 Public House licences were granted to Peter Reynolds for the Traveller's Rest in South Greenough (Allanooka), and to Thomas Walsh for the Greenough Hotel in Central Greenough.
1869 There were extensive mineral explorations, principally for possible gold bearing ground, in the Upper Greenough.
1870 Census figures for the Greenough and Irwin District (by this time Champion Bay statistics were calculated separately) showed 1,557 inhabitants - 970 males to 587 females. The region enjoyed the highest rate of population growth in the colony over the-preceding 10 years. Occupations listed for 623 people, almost all men, show that the overwhelming proportion - a total of 482 - were involved in agriculture and grazing; 65 were artisans and tradesmen, such as blacksmiths, carpenters and masons; 48 were non-agricultural labourers; while 18 were involved in enterprise and commerce.
1870 There were 19,956 acres in crop in the Victoria District, comprising more than a third of the colony's total.
1870 There were 54 convicts on public works in the Victoria District.
1870 George Shenton Jnr was returned as Member for Greenough at the first election for the Legislative Council.
1870 Henry Laurence was appointed the Resident Magistrate for Greenough District.
1870 There were 162 houses in the Greenough area, and given the sparse settlement of the pastoral hinterland, the great proportion of these homes must have been on the Front and Back Flats. There were 104 small cottages, 56 larger dwellings, but just two large houses of two stories or more. House construction depended largely upon the size of the dwelling. Small homes of less than four rooms were built with stone or timber walls and generally the roofs were thatched. In larger homes, stone was almost exclusively chosen for walls, and most sported shingle roofs.
1870 Work began on a Police Station, Lock-up and Court House on the former tillage lease held by Edward Whitfield, next to the Central Greenough School already on site. The complex included a dwelling, prisoner's kitchen and stabling at the rear.
1870 Drought contributed to the problems of embattled agriculturists on the Flats. For instance, T. Carroll, of the Back Flats, wrote of his inability to pay the tillage lease rent of six pounds four shillings because of partial failure of his crop.
1870 Agricultural technology had advanced by this time with mowing, reaping, threshing and winnowing machines in use, but a lot of work was still done by hand, specially on smaller holdings.
1870 Thomas Clinch planted a half acre of vines and made his own wines, storing the vintage in underground cellars. It appears that Cliff Grange was modified, at this time.
1871 The Greenough Road Board District was gazetted, with election of members set down for February 18, at the Greenough Court House. The board was granted a budget for the year of 550 pounds.
1871 Additional Pensioner allotments were surveyed near the Bootenal Spring, lots X2-X22. Seventeen of these lots were converted to freehold title by 1889.
1871 A quarry was gazetted adjacent to lot no. 232, and Phillips Road (Reserve 7A). Land was reserved for a Roman Catholic chapel, priest's house, cemetery and glebe, on Kennedy Road adjoining lot no. 199 (Reserve 6A) on the Back Flats. The Catholic Church was reserved 15 acres at Bootenal, bounded by Scott and Geraldton Roads, and Pensioner Allotment X 2 (Reserve 14A). These grants on the Back Flats and at the Bootenal show consolidation of sub-centres apart from Central Greenough.
1872 The Greenough Farmers Club began holding agricultural shows at a ground near Walkaway.
1873 Bishop Hale consecrated the first purpose-built Anglican Church, St James, at South Greenough.
1873 Post and Telegraph Offices were completed adjacent to the Court House at Central Greenough, confirming its relative importance as a bureaucratic centre compared with North and South Greenough. The telegraph had enormous implications for a district so isolated from Perth, with the possibility of transmitting messages instantly, when previously they had taken days to arrive. A Rectory was built on location no. 174, a 100 acre farm donated by Walter Padbury near Bridgeman's Cottage west of the river.
1874 First annual meeting of parishioners of St James Church held at the Central Greenough State School on April 7.
1874 A reserve, no. 138A, was gazetted as commonage. Reserving commonages had both physical purpose - they were useful areas of common grazing as the Front Flats became occupied - and symbolic meaning, in that they invoked notions of English village life
Eighty four acres were officially reserved for the Church of England and glebe between Company Road and the left bank of the Greenough, though this appears to have been set aside for the purpose at an earlier date.
1874 Central Greenough was the focal point for key social interactions - for example, the Court House on Gregory's Road was used for special residents' meetings.
1875 John Morrell and wife Mary Waldeck took over Ironbarks Farmhouse property from George Brand.
1875 Despite setbacks in the past seven years, the Greenough was still the pre-eminent grain producing region in the colony, with 14,941 acres in crop. This comprised of wheat 9,437 acres and barley 2,461 acres. By comparison, the next best cropped region, Toodyay, had a total of 9, 023 cultivated acres. Greenough also had significant numbers of cattle, horses, sheep and pigs. However, Red Rust continued to threaten crops. . . 'Rust is very prevalent on the Greenough Back Flats, and there are several cases of almost entire destruction of crop, but the acreage under cultivation on those Flats is comparatively small. On the Lower Flats there is every prospect of a fair average yield'.
1875 Just 19 convicts were on the public works in the Victoria District.
1875 Six schools - three on the Front Flats and three on the Back Flats, at the North, South and Middle - served a total of 141 pupils. There were 76 students at the Front Flats schools, and 65 on the Back Flats.
1875 A local resident, James Smith, was found dead in Clinch's field. Smith had left his house at the bridge for Maley's to the north.
1876 Greenough Common Lands were vested in the local Road Board of John Stephen Maley, chairman, Thomas Clinch, John Eakins, George King, Francis Watson Pearson, and John Wilton.
1877 Reserve 282A, consisting of 4, 900 acres, was gazetted as commonage.
1877 Walter Padbury bought location no. 848, comprising 79.25 acres on Gregory Road, exclusive of government reserves, directly behind the Central Greenough buildings.
 

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1822 - 1856 | 1857 - 1867 | 1868 - 1877 | 1880 - 1899 | 1900 - 1963 | 1963 - 1993
 

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