place

Old Farm, Strawberry Hill

1827 establishments in AustraliaHeritage places in Albany, Western AustraliaMiddleton Road, AlbanyNational Trust of Western AustraliaState Register of Heritage Places in the City of Albany
Use Australian English from August 2015
Oldfarmstrawberryhill
Oldfarmstrawberryhill

The Old Farm, now known as Strawberry Hill/Barmup is located on Strawberry Hill in the suburb of Mira Mar in Albany, Western Australia. It is known as being the first farm in Western Australia.The hill on which the property is situated rises to a height of 72 metres (237 ft) and is a spur of Mount Clarence. The soil is a mixture of clay and gravel with rich black loam on the lower side.The farm was initially established in 1827 as a government farm when the first Europeans settled at King George Sound. Edmund Lockyer, Alexander Collie and John Lawrence Morley selected the site as a government farm. Originally it occupied an area of 622 hectares (1,536 acres) but only 2 hectares (6 acres) remain today. The next three commandants of the settlement, Captain Wakefield, Lieutenant Sleeman and Captain Collet Barker, followed Lockyer's plan of continuing to develop the farm. Alexander Collie was appointed Government Resident of Albany in 1831 and moved into a wattle and daub cottage situated on the farm. He named the property Strawberry Hill after the small plot of strawberries he was cultivating. Collie retired in 1832 and his successor was D. H. Macleod but it was the farm superintendent John Lawrence Morley who handed the property onto Richard Spencer. Spencer was appointed as Government Resident in 1833; he acquired the farm and resided there with his wife, Ann, and his ten children. Spencer arranged for the erection of a granite two-storey building at the rear end of the original wattle and daub structure at a cost of £100. The garden was now well established and producing blood oranges, raspberries, grapes, asparagus, figs and almonds. The first visitors to stay in the new building included Charles Darwin and Captain Robert FitzRoy, of HMS Beagle.The old thatched roof wattle and daub part of the main residence burned down in 1870. A second cottage was built by Charles Miner in the same year.Francis Bird, the Chief Architect of Western Australia, acquired the property in 1889 and changed the name from Strawberry Hill to the Old Farm. His family retained ownership of the farm until the 1950s.The site lay derelict for many years until being purchased by the Federal Government in 1956 and it was then vested in the National Trust of Australia in 1964. Conservation work commenced shortly afterward and it was later opened to the public.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Old Farm, Strawberry Hill (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Old Farm, Strawberry Hill
Middleton Road, Albany Mira Mar

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Old Farm, Strawberry HillContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N -35.018194444444 ° E 117.90013888889 °
placeShow on map

Address

Middleton Road

Middleton Road
6330 Albany, Mira Mar
Western Australia, Australia
mapOpen on Google Maps

Oldfarmstrawberryhill
Oldfarmstrawberryhill
Share experience

Nearby Places

Dog Rock
Dog Rock

Yakkan Toort / Dog Rock is a large, natural granite outcrop that is located along Middleton Road between Middleton Beach and the centre of Albany in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The rock is a prominent landmark and has the shape of a dog's head when viewed from the western side, leading to the name. Dog rock has become a popular tourist attraction for the area. The Noongar people know the rock as Yacka which means "wild dog tamed"; it is thought to be an ancient territorial boundary marker. Local Aboriginal people will not camp near the rock or shelter beneath it, although the reason is not known.In 1921 the Council proposed demolishing the rock with explosives so as to widen the road. The idea was met with protests and petitions along with an angry exchange during a council meeting resulting in the proposal being quashed.The Royal Automobile Club labelled the rock a danger to traffic in 1938 as it encroached onto the road. The local authorities then painted the distinctive white collar around the base of the rock to make it more visible.In the 1960s, the manager of the local radio station 6VA, suggested that the rock should be moved to the roundabout of Albany Highway, Denmark Road, North Road and Chester Pass Road. He believed that this would make it a more central tourist destination, and that the rock could be cut into slices and moved piece by piece and then rebuilt at the new site. The rock was classified by the National Trust in 1973 and adopted into the municipal inventory in 2001.The feature was dual named in 2021 to Yakkan Toort / Dog Rock.

Stirling Terrace, Albany
Stirling Terrace, Albany

Stirling Terrace, Albany is a street in the centre of Albany, Western Australia adjoining York Street. As a historic street and part of a historic precinct it has a number of listed heritage buildings that look out over the Albany Harbour, including Argyle House.Stirling Terrace has appeared on maps of the town since 1834 and is named after James Stirling, the first Governor of Western Australia. The 1835 Hillman survey plan established the road as the prime location in the town, with a variety of social, commercial, leisure, institutional and service functions. The town jetty and railway station both had frontage along Stirling Terrace making it a transport hub of the town. The Empire theatre was also built along Stirling Terrace. During the 1870s and 1880s much of the frontage along Stirling Terrace to the east of York Street was filled. John Moir built a store, the Argyll buildings were erected, and a branch of the National Bank (known as Vancouver House) was constructed in 1881. Alexander Moir established Glasgow House and Edinburgh House in 1882, the Union Bank of Australia building (known as Albany House) was built in 1884, followed by the Royal George Hotel in 1885 and then the White Star Hotel. The Commercial Bank building, later a branch of the Western Australian Bank, was built in 1891.The 1897 development of Jubilee Gardens along the slope between the upper and lower terrace made the area created a recreational centre for the area. The Jubilee Bandstand, found within the gardens, was opened in 1898. It was the main street of early Albany and by 1900 four hotels, three banks, three department stores, shipping agencies as well as numerous other small businesses were found along the Terrace.The laying of the foundation stone for the Albany Courthouse was held in 1896, with the building completed and opened in 1898.The London Hotel was built along Stirling Terrace in 1909. It was built on the site of the Chusan Hotel which had stood on the site since 1849 and was rebuilt in 1871.The Empire Buildings were constructed on the corner of Stirling Terrace and York Street in 1912, comprising a 1,000-seat theatre and shops.To the west of the intersection with York Street is the Albany Courthouse. To the east of the intersection, there are a number of heritage properties including the Jubilee Bandstand and Albany Post Office on the southern side of the terrace and the White Star Hotel on the northern side. Like York Street, it was frequently photographed as streetscape representative of the prosperity of the town.