Abbey Farm

Statement of Significance

Abbey Farm, consisting of two adjacent single storey farmhouses, the original timber construction two room farm house in a vernacular style and the second brick construction farm house in the Victorian Georgian style, has cultural heritage significance as one of the first houses in the district and one of the places that relates to opening up the district to small farms in the 1860s. It is significant for its associations with George Guerrier, an early settler in the Vasse district, and with the Abbey family who were early farmers in the district. The original farmhouse is important as a demonstration of construction techniques that are no longer practiced. Both places are important for their intrinsic aesthetic appeal and as a pair in the juxtaposition. The places are also important for their contribution to the community’s sense of place and for their capacity to demonstrate the life ways of early settlers.

Physical Description

The early farm group consists of two adjacent buildings in a rural setting.The buildings were set about 2m apart and there is a difference in floor levels to each house. The original house (1864) is designed in a Victorian vernacular style and had two rooms; one had stamped earth floor, the other jarrah floorboards. External walls are jarrah planks, and partly wattle and daub. The roof was originally shingled, later sheeted with corrugated iron and has been re-shingled. The verandah extends around three side of the house and the roof over the verandah is set very low. The second house (1870s) was designed in the Victorian Georgian style and has solid brick walls, a high-pitched roof that was intended for attic rooms though this plan was not realised in the Abbeys time. The roof was originally shingled and is now corrugated iron.

History

Abbey Farm, situated about 8 kilometres south of Yallingup townsite, has two adjacent farmhouses, one built by George Guerrier in 1864 and the other by Nathaniel Abbey in the 1870s. Guerrier arrived in the Swan River Colony in 1845 as a sergeant in the 21st Regiment, found work in the colonial police force and then tried his hand at farming. By the 1840s he was farming in the Vasse district and in 1864 took up the land on which Abbey farm is located. There he built the Jarrah plank and shingled roof farmhouse. In 1871, his third daughter, Adela, married Nathaniel Abbey whose parents had migrated from Ireland and worked for John Bussell from the 1840s. The Abbeys had four children and Nathaniel and his brother John were twins. Nathaniel and Adela took over Guerrier’s property and built the second house in the 1870s. This house was constructed with limestone footings, solid brick walls and had a shingled roof. The Abbeys remain childless and eventually retired to Busselton. The place was then taken over by Major Daniel who sold it to the government after World War I at which point the land became part of the soldier settler scheme. The place was then acquired by H. Curtis and was later acquired by Robert and Julie Salmon and has been conserved and adapted by them.

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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