Woodlands Homestead Group

Statement of Significance

Woodlands is a good example of a Victorian Georgian homestead house and together with the barn, illustrates the design and building techniques of the early settlers to the Preston Valley. It also demonstrates early farming techniques and the development of the Preston Valley

Physical Description

Woodlands is located on the southern bank of the Preston River and comprises a single storey brick house with a hipped corrugated iron roof in the Victorian Georgian style and a timber barn. The house is constructed of bricks made by hand on site using clay from the nearby Preston River. The bricks are laid in Flemish bond with mud mortar. The red clay brick is used on the stretcher bricks and fired blue bricks provide a contrast in the end bricks. The front facade was originally symmetrical with a central front door and a single double hung timber sash window on either side. A verandah runs along the length of the front (south) facade. In 1902 a school room, with an open fireplace, and a bedroom were added to the west side. Internally the entrance door opens into a large living room with a partially raking ceiling. The main bedroom opens up off the left wall. At the rear is a kitchen and service area with the original washhouse now a bedroom. In the 1950s a gable roofed fibro granny flat addition was added to the west end perpendicular to the original house. A laundry has been built in the north western corner of the western verandah and a bathroom and toilet have been added at the back of the enclosed area behind the kitchen and second bedroom area. Over the years John McLaren has inlaid wedges of timber on the door sills to build them up to their original height. The barn, about 35 metres to the east, is about the same age as the original part of the homestead. It is a gable structure made from pit-sawn timber slabs laid vertically on bush poles. Across the front can be seen three distinct 'rooms'. These were the chaff room which was divided from the hay shed by a full wall. In the stable section large steel rings used for tethering horses can still be seen. The high pitched roof has a 'hay door' at each end of the roof.

History

George Hambeldon Chapman, his brothers, Alfred, Edward and Thomas, and their brother-in-law, Samuel Chandler, built Woodlands Homestead as his family home in 1892-93, on the north side of the Donnybrook-Boyup Brook Road, with the house and barn set back from the road toward the bank of the Preston River. Chandler was an experienced brick maker/brick layer, and they hand-made the bricks and mortar from clay dug from the river bank. Some bricks were fired and others left unfired. They felled jarrah trees and pit-sawed timber for the roof and floors. The original house comprised two main rooms at the front and two smaller rooms at the rear, with a 6 ft. wide verandah at the front. The barn built about this period was constructed of pit-sawn timber and bush poles, and comprised three distinct 'rooms': the chaff room, divided from the hay shed by a full wall, and the stable section, where large steel rings used to tether the horses remain extant. There is a 'hay door' at each end of the building. In 1893, George Chapman married Sarah Jane Gibbs. They took up residence in the newly completed house, where their eight children were born. There was no running water in the house and Sarah had to cart water from a well some 150 metres away. Along the bank of the Preston River, George planted his Granny Smith apple and stonefruit orchard. After Alfred and Mary Chapman died their two sons came to live at Woodlands. In c. 1902, a school room and a bedroom were built at the western side of the house. Chandler and George Chapman made and fired the bricks on site from clay dug about a quarter of a mile downriver. The mortar is white, indicating lime may have been added. In the 1890s, George Chapman planted his orchard above the bank of the Preston River. Fruit trees the Chapman brothers obtained from Two Bays Nursery, Victoria, included two trial apple trees that originated in New South Wales. They grew well and produced a late maturing, greenish-yellow skinned apple. Some local settlers made grafts of Chapman’s Late as the variety became known and marketed under this name in Western Australia until post-World War I, when it became prominent under the name given in New South Wales, Granny Smith, a popular apple for domestic and export markets for decades. George Chapman died in 1941, and his widow resided at Woodlands until her death in 1950. Then the property was sold to J. D. McLaren and his wife, who continue to own and occupy it in 2012. At some date the verandah floor was replaced with a tongue and groove timber floor that was replaced with brick paving in the 1990s. The timber floor in the kitchen was replaced with cement, but pit-sawn timber floors remain in some other rooms. The wash-house opposite the kitchen was converted to a bedroom; a new laundry was built in the north-western corner of the western verandah; and a bathroom and toilet were added. At the south-western corner of the house the McLarens added a granny flat. Over the years John McLaren has inlaid wedges of timber on door sills to build them up to their original height. The McLarens continue to own and occupy Woodlands in 2012. This property is not the only one in the Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup that is or was called ‘Woodlands’ or ‘Woodland’.

Integrity/Authenticity

Generally high, a Granny Flat was added in the 1950s

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

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.