Local Government
Donnybrook-Balingup
Region
South West
163 Thomson Brook Rd Thomson Brook
Donnybrook-Balingup
South West
Constructed from 1901
Type | Status | Date | Documents |
---|---|---|---|
(no listings) |
Type | Status | Date | Documents |
---|---|---|---|
(no listings) |
Type | Status | Date | Grading/Management | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Category | ||||
Municipal Inventory | Adopted | 27 Nov 2013 | Category 1 |
Woodperry is a rare example of a mud brick house in the district and is also associated with the Thompson family.
Woodperry is a single story house with a hipped corrugated iron roof in the Victorian Georgian Style. The initial house was constructed of mud brick (adobe) and has a verandah on all sides. An additional smaller mud brick room was constructed adjacent. A large timber weatherboard addition has been constructed adjacent, doubling the size of the house. The adobe has cracked and the building is no longer lived in and is in very poor condition.
In 1858-9, James Guy Thomson (b. Oxfordshire, 1833; arr. 1855, d. 1890) took up freehold land and extensive pastoral leases, and named his property ‘Brookhampton’ after a family home in England. He was the first permanent settler in the district that took its name from this farm and pastoral station, where he and his family resided from 1861. In the early 1890s, following the death of James Guy Thomson (snr.), his three eldest sons, John ‘Jack’ Thomson (b. 1866, d. 1944) James Guy Thomson (jnr.) (b. 1860, d. 1895) and Mervyn ‘Bon’ Thomson (b. 1876, d. 1966), continued to work ‘Brookhampton’. In c. 1895-6, when the government resumed their late father’s leasehold land for sale to settlers, the Thomson brothers had first choice. Jack chose 2,000 acres to the east of the ‘Brookhampton’ homestead, an area known locally at that period as ‘the Ringbark’. He named his property ‘Woodperry’ after the family home at Oxford, England, and progressively expanded it to 6,000 acres. In September 1896, Jack Thomson married May Edith Yelverton, and their first child was born in 1897. Secondary sources state the homestead house at ‘Woodperry’ was built in c. 1900-01; however, the original part of the house is constructed of sun-dried mud brick adobe and may date from about the period that Jack and May Thomson married. At various periods additions were made to enlarge the house to accommodate their growing family of 10 children. By the late 1990s, the adobe part of the house at ‘Woodperry’ was badly cracked because it had been built without footings. Nonetheless, it is rare as one of the few surviving buildings of sun-dried mud brick adobe construction in the district.
High
Very poor, there is substantial cracking in the mud brick walls which have collapsed in places. The place is no longer inhabited
Ref ID No | Ref Name | Ref Source | Ref Date |
---|---|---|---|
Wise's Post Office Directory 1897 | |||
Frost, A. C. Green Gold: A History of Donnybrook W. A. 1842 to 1974 Donnybrook Balingup Shire Council, 1976, pp. 84-85 | |||
Erickson, Rica (Ed.) Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians pre-1829-1888 University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, 1988, p. 3056 |
Ref Number | Description |
---|---|
68 | Municipal Inventory |
Individual Building or Group
Epoch | General | Specific |
---|---|---|
Present Use | RESIDENTIAL | Single storey residence |
Original Use | RESIDENTIAL | Single storey residence |
Type | General | Specific |
---|---|---|
Wall | EARTH | Adobe {Mud Brick} |
Roof | METAL | Corrugated Iron |
General | Specific |
---|---|
DEMOGRAPHIC SETTLEMENT & MOBILITY | Exploration & surveying |
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.