Eli Ashby House

Statement of Significance

Eli Ashby House has historic and social significance has an early homestead in Wanneroo lived in by the Ashby family, early pioneers of the district and for its associations for the 10th Light Horse campsite and canteen during World War II. The house has some aesthetic significance as an example of Australian rural vernacular architecture in Wanneroo in the early twentieth century, however it is not intact.

Physical Description

Eli Ashby House is located on Lot 25, 77Ashley Road Tapping. It is accessed from the east end of Ashley Road within the City of Wanneroo's North Ward. The homestead is situated at the east end of Tapping Road and faces west with trees and shrubs including a row of palm trees on the west side. The property was part of a market garden although it is currently being subdivided for residential development and the land cleared. The house is a single storey rendered masonry building with a corrugated iron hipped roof with a rendered chimney. There is a skillion roofed verandah which returns on the south side and is supported on timber posts and has a concrete floor. The front and western elevation have timber double hung sash windows. The rear and eastern elevation has been enclosed. Internally, the house was originally four rooms which have timber floorboards and tongue and groove boarded ceilings extant. The house has been modified internally.

History

The suburb of Tapping is named after an early settler family in the Wanneroo area. Mr. William Tapping arrived in 1886. His descendants Misses Molly and Dolly Tapping were long time Postmistresses in Wanneroo. The name for the suburb was approved in 1997. The house on lot 25 was probably built circa 1920. Eli Edward (Jack) Ashby was a market gardener and dairy farmer and together with his wife Edith Prangle Capom and children, including daughter Elizabeth Prangle Curtis, lived at the Ashley Road property. The army used the property during WWII as a camp for the 10th Lighthorse Brigade and the homestead became a canteen for the soldiers from the nearby army medical camp. Eli Ashby was an involved community member and a member of the Wanneroo Road Board from 1915-1949 and Chairman from 1935-1944. He was also President of the Agricultural Society for 18 years during 1930s and 1940s. Eli Ashby died in 1951. In 1984 Elizabeth Curtis (who died in 1985 at aged 86) visited the homestead and noted the verandah had been removed and the walls cement rendered.

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Historic Themes

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