Special features Ward Family of Pleasant Grove & Mandurah. Jan Baker.

Regular features. From the MDO . Nicholas Reynolds. Education Matters. Katrina Gauci Spotlight on Volunteers. Jan Baker Secretary’s report – Phyl Hardy

Friends of Mandurah Community Museum Newsletter February 2017

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The Ward Family of Mandurah.

Alfred Ward (born 1833) came to Mandurah in 1852 on the barque Mary from England on 26

th March 1852.

Alfred was a gardener, and settled along the Old Coast Road to the south of the town. Alfred married Elenor Eacott in 1866. Elenor was the daughter of Thomas Eacott and Charlotte Tuckey, very first settlers of Mandu-rah.

Alfred built a bark hut, and cleared 20 acres with one axe at what became Pleasant Grove and their home for many years. Alfred took in work splitting shingles in Mandurah, and ferried these across the inlet in John Tuckey’s boat to sell at the market. Soon, Ward built a limestone house 50 metres from the Peel inlet. He split the shingles out of she-oak for the roof, cut the stone, and kilned the lime. Later, he built a larger home on higher ground, about 200m west of the limestone house. He grew fruit trees, especially figs and mulberries, and planted onions and potatoes. Fruit was taken by horse and buggy to Freman-tle which would take from the afternoon until early morn-ing and the return would take the same time.

In 1878 Alfred Ward was to find a body from the wrecked ship, the James Service bound for Melbourne. He buried the body in the dunes, this was one of several bodies found along the coast of Mandurah and either buried in situ or taken to Mandurah to be buried.

Ward also worked taking harvested barley to the other side of the inlet to be ground into flour at Cooper’s Mill, and then carting the flour back to Pleasant Grove. He later built a small punt with a hessian sail with which to cart the grain and flour. The original house of limestone was leased out to the Leighton brothers as a fish cannery factory for 1/- a month, later both brothers were drowned.

In 1891, Alfred Ward died of appendicitis, leaving his son Freder-ick and widow Elenor to run the property.

Fish factory at time of

Louis Dawe.

Elenor Ward with granddaughters Hilda Stinton & Eva Eacott-

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Elenor Ward nee Eacott, as mentioned before is be-lieved to be the first white woman to be born in Mandurah and to settle in Pleasant Grove. She was born in 1839 and married in 1866 dying in 1927 at the age of 89 years. The couple were married in the first Anglican Church in Mandurah. They had 5 children all of whom survived into adulthood.

It is said that early in her married life she would walk to Fremantle one day with fruit and vegetables leading a cow carrying the produce, she would then return the next, however, it is also recorded that her husband took goods to Fremantle by horse and cart over roughly that period so it may be that rather than walk she joined him on his trips, or maybe both applied.

Elenor was especially important to the women living in Pleasant Grove, as she came and assisted with the birth of their children (interview with Allan Dawe and Stan Dawe). Assisting in delivery of babies is in keeping with both her mother Charlotte’s activities as a midwife, and also her aunt Emma Mewburn the school teachers’ wife.

It appears that Elenor lived with her son Frederick and his wife after the death of Alfred. The Pleasant Grove School built by Louis Dawe in 1906 was built on land leased for 1/- a year from Elenor Ward.

In 1890 Elenor, known widely as Granny Ward sold the Pleasant Grove property to Dick Adam of Murray Bend in what is now Ravenswood, and went to live with her daughter Elizabeth (Stinton). The Pleasant Grove prop-erty had a lovely old mulberry tree on it and there is a legend that it cracked in 3 when Elenor left.

Where Elenor was living with her daughter Elizabeth Stin-ton, and where Frederick and Seymour came to live with their families was close to where several of the other Eacotts were living and where she first grew up. Elenor died in 1927.

Most of the couple’s children were to continue to live in Mandurah, some marrying cousins. Many of the grand-children and great grandchildren of Alfred and Eleanor also continued to live in Mandurah. This article cannot possibly follow the paths of all but several will be men-tioned following the list of children.

Seymour, 8 children in Mandurah married Clara Eva Wal-pole 1892.

Elizabeth, appears also to have married a cousin – Stin-ton, they had 6 children.

Frederick, also marries a cousin – Celia Rosa Eacott they had 3 children.

Alice, married a cousin Eacott and they had 12 children.

William married Alice no information in Eacott book. From articles in the paper her married Jean McRay, a scots woman employed by Sir Winthrop and Lady Hackett as a nurse girl. It appears that William Ward may have become a Government Surveyor and he is recorded in the South Western Advertiser as having drowned in Geraldton in 1929.

MDO Report

On the 13rd of November the Museum shared a tent at the My Park Grooves event at the Falcon foreshore with the Library and partnered in delivering education pro-grammes to the attendees at the event. The Museum’s activities were focused around the significant Bindjareb elder Yaburgurt and were drawn from the education ma-terial produced as part of the Yaburgurt public artwork soon to be installed adjacent to the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. Museum volunteers were also on hand to assist in delivering the programme.

From December 2016 the Museum has taken full respon-sibility from the Visitor’s Centre for the management and conduct of the City’s Foreshore Heritage Walk Tour. De-veloped originally in cooperation between the Museum and the Visitor’s Centre the tours have previously been conducted by Visitor’s Centre volunteers. The walks have been a driver of increased visits to the Museum and as such are a worthwhile activity both for this reason as well as their role promoting the heritage of Mandurah to the city’s visitors.

The Museum has been approved for inclusion in the 2017 National Trust Heritage Festival programme. The festival is a nationwide celebration of heritage and the benefits that it brings to the national community. It acts as an overarching way to promote individual local organisa-tions and the role that they play in their community. The Museum will be featuring the Foreshore Heritage Walk and we look forward to the new promotional opportunity this national level event will bring. The Australian Herit-age Festival will be officially launched at Government House, Canberra on April 18th.

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EDUCATION MATTERS

Basket Weaving Basket Weaving sessions were held at the Mandurah Community Museum over six days during the January school holidays for children aged 9+. The sessions were held twice a day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during two weeks of the school holidays.

Each session gave the children time to learn the craft of basket weaving and create their own basket to take home.

The children followed instructions and either worked in-dependently or worked cooperatively with a friend or adult to make their basket. This took time, patience and accuracy.

All the children successfully made a basket. Every bas-ket was unique.

The Basket Weaving sessions weren’t well attended compared to some other activities held in January at the Museum, however all the children and parents who at-tended enjoyed the activity and were proud of their crea-tion. A total of 62 children and 36 adults attended the sessions.

Get Hooked on Fishing these April School Holidays Have fun learning about fishing techniques, fish filleting, knot tying and more All fishing equipment and bait will be supplied. Certificates and prizes awarded.

What’s On: Fishing Clinics

Where: Mandurah Offshore Fishing and Sailing Club Address: 115 Breakwater Parade, Mandurah

Dates: Tuesday 11th, Wednesday 12

th, Thursday 13

th

Fishing Clinic One: 10.00am-12.30pm

Fishing Clinic Two: 1.00pm-3.30pm

(Choose a day and a session time)

Ages: 6+

Cost: $5.00 per child

A limit of 35 children per session applies so book early! (Note: parents must accompany children)

To book call Mandurah Community Museum on

9550 3682 or email museum@mandurah.wa.gov.au

In May 2017 the Mandurah Community Museum will be

hosting The Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift Suitcase Kits.

This is a travelling Art exhibition belonging to the National

Gallery of Australia.

A key feature of the Wolfensohn Gift Suitcases is that the art

works can be handled. The shapes, surfaces and tactile quali-

ties of each work can be explored, examined and enjoyed.

The art works in the red case entitled Myths and rituals is

filled with works that draw upon beliefs and symbols from

different countries around the world. Works featured in the

yellow case Form, space and design, present a mixture of

concepts that show great humour and originality.

Workshops will be held at the Mandurah Community Muse-

um with Artist Bec Inwood to explore the art works and pro-

vide an opportunity to create your own artwork.

Where: Mandurah Community Museum

When: Tuesday 2 May, Wednesday 3 May and Thur sday

4 May. (Workshops could be held in the afternoon if there

are enough participants interested)

Time: 10am-11.30am

Cost: $5.00 per Person

A maximum of 15 participants per session applies.

For bookings and further information please call 9550 3682

or email museum@mandurah.wa.gov.au

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These awards are designed to encourage and re-ward community participation in the recording of the history of Mandurah through photographic memo-ries. Entry forms are available at the City of Mandu-rah Libraries, Mandurah Community Museum, Sen-iors and Community Centre, by emailing muse-um@mandurah.wa.gov.au for a copy or download-ing a copy from www.mandurah.wa.gov.au

Essence Of Place Essence Of Place is a workshop that will endeavor to show participants how to portray the intangible quality of the ‘Essence of a Place’. Using Mandurah as our subject, participants will be taken on a walk thru Mandurah both physically and historically and asked to explore what ‘Essence’ still exists despite the change of the physical sur-round and time. Participants will be shown how to develop their ide-as for portraying their Essence Of Place in the form of a shadow box using mixed media. The workshop will be run over a course of two days. Day 1 will be exploring the Essence Of Place, developing their ideas for a final piece. A week in between to refine their ideas. Day 2 will focus on compiling their shadow boxes. Shadow Boxes and building materials (glue, cutting tools, rulers) supplied along with some mixed me-dia items. Participants are required to bring a digi-tal camera or smart phone and encouraged to sup-ply their own mixed media to personalise their final piece. Expressions of Interest are sought from participants interested in attending this workshop. Email your interest to Heather Moseley via hmose-ley@westnet.com.au before the 1st of March 2017. Workshop Details Monday 27th March 2017 9:30AM – 2:30PM Monday 3rd April 2017 9:30AM – 2:30PM Location: Mandurah Museum

Phyl Hardy is presented with a 10 year award. Volunteering with the museum for these past ten years, Phyl has also been an office bearer with the Friends of Mandurah Community Museum and is currently the Secretary.

Toni Maisey (above) is currently preparing the book of the fact sheets and information sourced during last years’ in depth research featured in this newsletter during 2015.

Cherry Burton (middle of photo on left) was pre-sented with an oral history undertaken with her during 2016. Also pictured Colleen Robertson and Jan

Julie Brown (left) has been preparing most of the souvenirs on sale at the Museum. She also undertakes specific re-search for Kat. Emily Chambers (right) has been volunteering on Saturdays for several years. Emily is enjoying a summer break from her university studies but continues with her volun-teering. Many fact sheets have been re-searched or completed by Emily.

Christmas fun at the Museum

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Harvey Memorial Shrine. The memorial shrine is the only road-side shrine of its kind in Australia. During World War II, German and Italian migrants living in allied countries were interned in camps such as Harvey Camp 11. In 1941, one of the prisoners instigated the construction of an altar made of stone, depicting the Catholic faith. The shrine still stands today and was enclosed in a chapel in 1992.

Volunteers Christmas Heritage tour took place

on 1st of December and we gathered at the museum for a bus tour which had been planned to be of heritage and other interest. Following the Old Coast Road we diverted across through Yarloop to see the damage caused by last year’s bushfire. As a volunteer group we had visited here twice over the past 15 years and it was distressing to see what had happened to the workshops. Earlier this year John Jackson had given a presentation at the museum with some before and after photographs. However seeing it ourselves really brought it home. It was good to see many of the trees recovering with green tips and leaves showing. There is still much to be done to bring Yarloop back to the small community town it was.

Following morning tea the group moved nearly next door for a very pleasant visit to:-

Stirling Cottage and Gardens The Stirling Cottage is a replica of James Stirling’s cot-tage The Hut. Built on the banks of the Harvey River, it was also the house that author-illustrator May Gibbs lived in as a child. The replica cottage is surrounded by the Harvey River and beautiful replica Heritage Gardens which feature an elegant 19th century-style fountain.

The Hidden Valley Discover the story of the Harvey Valley by visiting a dis-play at the Harvey Visitor Centre. The display reveals the story of three historic homesteads – Nicklup, Jardup and Glentana. The houses and surrounding farmland were inundated by water when the new Harvey Dam was built in 2000-2002 as part of the Stirling-Harvey Redevelop-ment Scheme. The original Harvey Weir, built in 1916 and raised in 1931, was also inundated by the new dam.

Wokalup Tavern On 6 November 1920, nine people were killed after a pri-vate mill train ran out of control down a steep gradient. The 32-wagon train, loaded with sleepers, departed the Mornington Timber Mill en route for Wokalup 10 km away where it would then travel to Perth or Bunbury. The train was estimated to weigh 600 tonnes and only three wag-ons had vacuum brakes. The line to Wokalup was almost all downhill and shortly into the journey the train started to gather speed at an alarming rate. The train left the line on a sharp 'S' bend. Most of the 32 wagons were derailed with some lying on their side. Seven mill workers, the driver and fireman died.

Leaving here we proceeded to the Harvey Cheese Facto-ry where we all enjoyed tasting cheeses and they man-aged to sell some merchandise. Timing was right and we then arrived at the Wokalup Tavern where they soon had our lunches on the ta-bles. Time to relax and catch up with all the happenings over the year at the museum. These outings are essen-tial to provide volunteers and staff with time to get to know each other, especially those volunteers from other days or the weekends where many are only able to attend monthly and rarely see what is hap-pening during the other days.

Our final stop was at Alverstoke, step back into the past and see heritage buildings, vintage farm machinery, old tools, saddlery, horse-drawn equipment, and a large dis-play of school memorabilia. Alverstoke was established in July 1842 by Marshall Waller Clifton, who named it af-ter his birthplace in Hampshire, England. He and his wife Elinor, along with their family of 13 children, developed it into the first farm in the district, growing wheat, barley and potatoes, and producing milk and cream from their dairy herd. The heavily timbered bush was cleared and a sawmill was established in 1844. A number of thatched buildings were erected and most are still standing having been restored. These include an original cottage and stables (c1842), dairy, barn, homestead (1886), and the Clifton School. A Heritage Rose Garden contains over 200 roses including Bourbons, Teas, Gallicas, Hybrid Musks and Rugosa varieties.

This being our final stop we headed back to the museum where we all thanked Frank our bus driver for his care.

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Above - Harvey Shrine built by internees of Camp #11. Many of the descendants of the ‘enemy alien’ internees still live in and around the community of Harvey. Nicholas has a book relating to these people in his possession. Our bus driver was a descendant. Side - Inside the Shrine building. Below - There was a wonderful turn out of volunteers attending our tour. Most of these are pictured below. (Please note, this is a collage of 2 photographs which I have tried to blend, apologies if I have given anyone extra body parts. - Editor)

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Mandurah Community Museum, 3 Pinjarra Rd, MANDURAH WA 6210. Telephone: 9550 3680. Email: museum@mandurah.wa.gov.au Internet: www.mandurah.wa.gov.au/Facilities/Museum/Friends Opening hours. Tuesday to Friday. 10 am to 4pm. Saturday & Sunday. 11 am to 3pm. Closed Mondays and Public Holidays. The museum is assisted by volunteers every day it is open. Volunteers are especially needed for Sun-days.

Friends of Mandurah Community Museum, 3 Pinjarra Rd, MANDURAH WA 6210. Meetings are as notified, minimum 4 per year. The mission of the Friends is to provide assistance and support to the Museum in all its endeavours. The ‘Friends’ also seek to promote the heritage and history of Mandurah, and to assist other like minded bodies. Membership of the Friends is by a yearly member-ship fee of $10 due each August. Office Bearers of the Friends are:- Chairman Vacant. Secretary Phyl Hardy. Treasurer Julia Lindley. Committee members. Emily Chambers.

Marine Moorings. Maritime projects team report Work on the historic ves-sel Canopus continues at a steady pace. I men-tioned in my last report that Brian was sourcing the timber to make new gunwales, he was successful in acquiring suitable material allowing construction and fit-ting of the new gunwales, this involved cutting the timber to the requisite size then steaming it and clamping it on to a preformed metal jig that exactly replicated the shape of the Canopus hull, it had to stay like this for a number of weeks before the clamps could be removed allowing it to retain the shape required. At this point I feel Brian should get a special mention for getting up at 04.30 to light the fire under the home made steamer to enable it to get up a good head of steam before the arrival of Len and I at 08.00 to assist in bending the hot steamed tim-ber.

Perhaps it might be prudent to give a better insight into how the team have approach project Canopus, firstly it was never intended to make her look like a new boat but rather to show how she would have looked when she was in service but at the same time to realize she is an artifact, thus we have used as much of her original timber as possible, unfortunately a lot of the original timber was missing. To get over this problem it was decided that due to lack of original materials to restore one side of the ves-sel only and leave the other side in the condition in which we found her, thus the port side from stem to stern has been rebuilt using new materials to replace missing parts, we have replaced the floor joists, the floor boards, the lining boards, the deck beams, the decking boards, the Gunwales, the toe boards, the seats, the flotation tank supports, the stem post and a lot of other small jobs all done using a mix of old and new materials.

Secretary’s report. A special meeting has been called

for the Friends of the Mandurah Community Museum on

14 March at 11.00 am. The main item of business is to

elect a new Chairperson. Unfortunately Robert Hewer

has resigned as from 3 February and we need to find a

replacement. Thank you Rob for volunteering your time

for the few months you were in the chair. If you would

like to nominate yourself or a friend, please contact me

on Wednesdays at the museum.

Following the election, we will be organising events for

the coming year. Your input is vital for the successful

operation of your organisation. Phylis Hardy

I often report on the activities of various members of the maritime projects team but feel I have been very remiss in not reporting on one very important member of the team Brain’s wife Kaye, who has been supporting the team for a number of years, first for more than three years whilst we were rebuilding one of the Tunnel stern fishing boat that we now have as a floating fishing museum and since 2013 whilst we have been working on Canopus. Kaye provides us with mid-morning tea, Tim-tams/biscuits and coffee at lunch time. This is very much appreciated by the team.

I can now report that Canopus and one of our Wilson tun-nel stern fishing boats are now featured in the National register of Australia’s most important historic ves-sels. This has taken a while because David Payne at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney and the curator of the register told me the register had to be completely rewritten and a new computer program designed before our vessels could be entered. This means that Mandurah can now proudly boast of having three vessels in this prestigious register the third vessel being the Peel Prin-cess (currently moored at the Mandurah Ocean Marina)

David Austin