Beaufort Cottage

Statement of Significance

The building is important for its connection with the first European settlement of the area and for its association with pioneering families. The building is a fine example of the style, construction methods and use of building materials in this period.

Physical Description

The two roomed stone cottage is situated some 30 metres north of the Beaufort Station homestead. It is build of stone with a steep pitched roof. The northern end has the only external entry (facing east) and a external stone fireplace below the roof line - evidently this section was the cooking/kitchen area. An internal door leads to the second room which has one window (also facing east). The kitchen area still has evidence of shingles, but the southern end has not. The northern room has two small openings in the stonework - portholes rather than windows.

History

This cottage is likely to have been the first building of the 'Beaufort Station' precinct (about 1860) Edward (Ted) Cavanagh who worked as a teamster for Cornwall in 1898 had a son Edward (Gus) born in a stone hut alongside the Beaufort homestead, as had been Thomas Cornwall 35 years before. In 1891 Cavanagh was cutting sandalwood near Arthur River with a licence from the W.A. Land Company. Cavanagh then managed the 'Tabelup' (Arthur River) property for C.A. Piesse and the family lived here for some time. It was not until 1903 that Cavanagh was to select land at the Beaufort. Here they built a house on their 500 acres between the river and the Albany Road. John Leggoe recalled in 1983 his family's move to the Beaufort Homestead in 1920. "The Cornwall's stockman who camped at 'The Beaufort' in the men's quarters was Ted Cavanagh. He had a small farm and a large family on the west bank of the Beaufort River, north eas of the Martup Well". "Ted was an authority on everything and claimed to be the couintry's greatest sheep counter. Wlien a mob was being counted out Ted would take charge and rush the mob out the gate about 10 abreast as he went through elaborate motions of counting. As the last sheep shot through the gate Ted would announce with authority - Seven hundred and ninety eight". No one could dispute the count because no one knew, least of all Ted. In later years when Ted moved to Kojonup he spent most of his time around the saleyards where he appointed himself honorary adviser to the various auctioneers and stock firms and bank managers ". "The other regular member of the homestead staff was old Harry Austin, who I think had worked for Seabrooks in York. He was a big taciturn man with a heavy moustache who lived in the men's quarters and ate in the kitchen. He did the gardening (he had a beautiful vegetable garden down near the well), milked the cows, chopped the wood, fed and harnessed the horses, emptied the dunny, killed the sheep for meat and did any repairs and odd jobs around the place. He was one of a race, common in those days, of men content with a simple life in return for a home and good food and a few bob to buy his clothes and pipe tobacco ".

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