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Mount Elphinstone, Western Australia

Great Southern (Western Australia)Towns in Western AustraliaUse Australian English from December 2020

Mount Elphinstone is a locality in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. It is located 2.7 km (1.7 mi) from Albany.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Mount Elphinstone, Western Australia (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Mount Elphinstone, Western Australia
Lower Denmark Road, Albany Mount Elphinstone

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Wikipedia: Mount Elphinstone, Western AustraliaContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N -35.020219444444 ° E 117.85316944444 °
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Address

Lower Denmark Road

Lower Denmark Road
6330 Albany, Mount Elphinstone
Western Australia, Australia
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The Rocks, Albany
The Rocks, Albany

The Rocks, also referred to as Government House or Government Cottage, is a residence in Albany in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The building was constructed in 1882 for William Grills Knight, a prominent local identity, and his family. Knight later served as mayor of the City of Albany from 1886 to 1888 and the family remained at the property until 1910, the last owner being his daughter, Mary Knight. The building was sold to Mr Dymes who sold to Mr Butcher in 1910, who made various improvements on the building.The building is set on 8,196 square metres (88,221 sq ft) of manicured gardens situated on the side of Mount Melville and overlooks the town of Albany and Princess Royal Harbour.The Government of Western Australia acquired the property in 1912 to utilize as a summer cottage for vice regal dignitaries. During World War I the house was used as a convalescent home for wounded servicemen up until 1921 when the government started using the building again for vice regal visits. By 1937 the governor no longer required the building and it then served several purposes including being used as a school, maternity and general hospital. During World War II it was once again used by returned servicemen, and became a private hospital again in 1941.In 1944 it became a private residence and then in 1950 the building was used as a hostel for girls attending Albany Senior High School, with 30 girls taking up residence; this was later increased to 40. The Country Women's Association were managing the enterprise.The building was classified by the National Trust in 1977, and placed on the register of the National Estate in 1980. In the early 1990s it was once again briefly used as a hospital.The property is used as tourist accommodation and is the only five star heritage accommodation in Western Australia. The house is important as an example of the restrained architecture typical of Albany and of a large house of the period. It has a federation filigree style with seven bedroom, eight bathrooms, billiard room, library with Victorian styling and jarrah floorboards.In 2005 the building received a A$50,000 grant from the state government to assist with the cost of conservation work including the replacement of the aluminium windows and doors with jarrah frames.

Albany Woollen Mills
Albany Woollen Mills

Albany Woollen Mills, also known as the Western Australian Worsted and Woollen Mills Ltd., was a woollen mill located in Albany, Western Australia. The idea of having a mill in Albany was first proposed in 1920, an article in the Albany Advertiser suggested the town was a strong contender due to the good supply of fresh water and local climatic conditions. A local solicitor, S. G. Haynes, gifted 30 acres (12 ha) of land for the project. In 1921 the Minister of Industry, John Scaddan, announced that Albany had been chosen over sites in Perth, Bunbury and Collie.The mill was the first woollen mill to be built in the state of Western Australia. Construction commenced in 1923 with a foundation stone laid by the premier, James Mitchell on 7 March. Later the same year a contract was awarded to L. Hinks and Company of Melbourne to build the Mill for £85,000. The cost did not include site levelling or the erection of the power house. Hinks decided to purchase land for the mill adjacent to the railway line at the foot of Mount Melville rejecting the gifted land that was too far from town. The main building had a frontage of 352 feet (107 m) and a width of 166 feet (51 m) with the interior divided into 11 bays. The 16 feet (5 m) high walls are made of reinforced concrete and roof was made of corrugated asbestos held aloft by 60 steel stanchions. Two 400 horsepower Babcock boilers were installed and connected to a 100 feet (30 m) smokestack.It opened in 1925 as a way to increase employment and bring economic benefits to the Great Southern. The company opened in 1925 with £116,331 owed to shareholders. In 1926 rumours were rife that the mill was on the brink of closing prompting the Chairman of Directors, Ernest Augustus Lee Steere, to express his surprise in local newspapers at the idea.The mill continued to struggle on making a loss for most of the early years. The site was poorly chosen as the noise and smog were constant problems for the town and the wool produced was too distant from markets. The factory itself was found to be of a poor design and inefficient.Directors of the mill gave 100 workers a week's notice of dismissal in early 1931 as a result of an overburden of stock. Operations at the mills then stopped for a period of approximately six weeks; the Premier Mitchell reopened the mill after meeting with directors.The mill employed over 120 workers in 1934 and had an annual turnover of £150,000 compared to £54,000 the year before.An annual profit of £17,306 was recorded in 1953 followed by a £24,500 profit in 1954. The chairman, F. T. Heron, announced his intention of continuing to build up the efficiency of plant and equipment.In 1963 the mill was one of four to be awarded a contract to produce a total of 160,000 army blankets worth a total of £400,000.Robert Holmes à Court acquired the mill in 1970 when it was in danger of closing. Holmes à Court persuaded the state government to waive a A$500,000 loan guarantee in exchange for keeping the mill open; he then turned the business around so that it was financially viable again. Shortly afterward he acquired Bell Brothers Holdings, which, with the mill and his other business interests, were incorporated into Bell Group Limited. The investment arm of Bell Group, J. N. Taylor, sold the Mill in 1988 after Bell had been taken over by Bond Corporation. At the time the mill had annual turnover of A$30 million and was the biggest independent carpet yarn spinning mill in Australia.The mill was under administration in 1996 with the state government offering assistance to other companies interested in purchasing the operations. The Regional Development Minister, Hendy Cowan, was keen to see the mills become a more vertically integrated wool processing company that manufactured more than yarn.