Early Farm Years
In November 1835, an expedition led by Governor James Stirling joined another party led by the Surveyor General John Septimus Roe in King George Sound. Roe had made arrangement for both parties to return to the Swan River Colony via an alternative route. The route was intended to join the settlements of King George Sound, York and the Swan River Colony along with the newly established settlement of Williams. This expedition passed through the area of Avondale sighting the Dale River and a granite hill that Roe name Bald Hill on 27 December. Bald Hill was to become the primary reference point for surveying the region.
In 1836, the surveyor Thomas Watson returned to area and used Bald Hill as the principal trigonometric reference. Watson was to map out a number of lots in the area including the western boundary for Beverley town site. Two of the lots surveyed were Avon location 14 with 5,000 acres (20 km2), and Avon location K with 4,000 acres (16 km2); location 14 was given to Captain Mark Currie, Fremantle Harbour Master, while location K was given to Stirling. Stirling as Governor and Currie as harbour master were not paid salaries by the colony but given land grants as compensation for their services. In 1978, surveyors using current equipment were engaged to determine the exact location of these original holdings, and commented on the remarkable accuracy of Watson's survey 142 years before.
Currie sold his grant of land to a Nicholas Carey in September 1838 for ₤330. Carey entered into a lease agreement in December with Governor Stirling for his grant, which included Carey purchasing the property at the end of the lease for ₤750 in 1846. Carey also purchased 3,000 acres (12 km2) to west of location 14 he also received an additional grant of land in 1849. With all the land in the vee formed by the Avon River and the Dale River the property was now 13,330 acres (53.9 km2) in size and was named Avondale Estate. During the late 1840s Carey moved to Guernsey leaving Avondale to be operated by an unknown caretaker.
Upon Carey's death in March 1889, Avondale was inherited by his 16 year old grand nephew William Herbert deLisle. deLisle arrived and took up residence there in 1893, and assumed the land title in 1894. Avondale had been a pastoral property until deLisle's arrival, over the next ten years sections of the estate were sold off to fund its development. During this period, the house was expanded and the stable built, which included 20 horse stalls with hollow walls and an overhead loft. The hollow walls enable feed from the loft to gravitate directly to the feed bins in each stall.
The remaining 5,232 acres (21.2 km2) were sold to William James Butcher and Charles John Hunt Butcher in 1904. The brothers purchased adjoining properties adding 4,403 acres (17.8 km2) which enlarged Avondale to 9,635 acres (39.0 km2). In 1908 they offered to sell Avondale to the Western Australian Government for £5/10/- per acre. The Government countered with an offer of £5/5/- per acre, which was accepted. Avondale was purchased in March 1910 under the Agricultural Land Purchase act for a total of £51,494/12/6, equivalent to approximately A$5,500,000 in 2006.
Read more about this topic: Avondale Agricultural Research Station
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