House Site

Statement of Significance

The site is important for its connection with the first European settlement of the area and for its association with pioneering families.

Physical Description

The original house site appears to be the south west of the present homestead built in 1920. This has large rooms and is plastered internally above the wooden dado. Adjoining is the dairy/coolroom also made of solid matt batt construction and some 40 metres to the west is a similarly built garage. Several hundred metres to the NW is the chaff and grain shed. Abutting the dairy is a toilet - constructed of much larger mud bricks. Between the house and the Boyamine Waterhole are the orchard remnants including almond and fig trees.

History

Elijah Quartermaine (Jun) was the first settler west of Round Pool. Apart from the wandering sandalwooder and few shepherds, his was a very lonely existence. He built a two roomed mud batt house on bis Boyaminning selection. There are a number of accounts of the events that surrounded his life. Some say that he had arranged for a school teacher from England to marry him. This did
not work out and she returned to England allegedly taking with her 200 pounds belonging to Elijah. Another says that he was jilted by a woman at York who married someone else.

Elijah did not get married and lived for many years up until his death with an Aboroginal woman, Mary (Wontum). Even more differing are the accounts of her arrival into the Boyaminning household. One elaborate account tells how Mary lived at Kojonup with her man, and for some unknown reason was to be killed. The Aborigine involved was a fierce and bad man and the others sought to shield her. The group set off for Williams with the men leading and the women following with the children and the frail. At an opportune time, the women managed to slip her away from the group and she fled eastwards. When the escape was discovered, the angry men set off in pursuit and tracked her almost to Boyaminning where they lost her tracks in some stony ground. Mary in the meantime concealed herself in the forks of a huge York gum tree near the shed. Abandoning the chase the men set off back to Kojonup where Mary's husband died soon after. Mary had wandered down to the house once she was sure the pursuit had been given up and Elijah took her in. She stayed there for the rest of her days bearing 12 children.

After Elijah's death in 1916, the farm was left to his daughter, Fannie who had married Henry Rodney. Barely two months after Elijah's death, Fannie also died and the property was left to her two children Emma and Eva. Two of Elijah's daughter's, Ellen (Nellie) and Louise, remained on the farm after his death and in 1920 the farm was sold to his brother Eli Quartermaine and his son Morton, who moved across to live there. Four years later he married Mavis Becker, building a new mud batt house which is still standing today. Once their children were grown up, the farm was sold and Mort and Mavis retired to live in Albany during the 1960's.

Integrity/Authenticity

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Creation Date

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This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.