Balmoral Station Homestead Group (fmr)

Statement of Significance

Balmoral Station has high historical significance as one of the early sheep stations of the region. The shearing precinct is representative of post-war Pilbara stations, reflecting a highly organised workforce, with the provision of disciplined live-in working environments in the form of utilitarian quarters, mess, kitchen and wool shed. Each element of the built environment in the station’s shearing precinct is intact, complete and largely unmodified since its post-war construction. It thus provides a rich source of evidence about the shearing industry in c1947 as well as having aesthetic value because of the uniform style of building within the precinct.

Physical Description

Balmoral station complex includes evidence of 16 identified buildings and structures dating from a range of periods and in various conditions. Many of the buildings date from post 1945, when a destructive cyclone devastated buildings at the site. Key historical structures are described below (Refer to the site plan for corresponding numbers): Washroom (1) – This serviced the shearers quarter’s complex. It has a corrugated iron roof and open walls with metal posts and concrete floors. Worker’s quarters (2) – This has a corrugated iron roof and iron walls above the dado, with a wooden frame and concrete floor and dado. The building has 12 workers bedrooms, with walls formed from corrugated iron and timber. The hallway has a concrete dado and timber truss frames in the open roof, with a bathroom and larger dormitory at the north end of the building. The three shower cubicles, constructed from corrugated iron and timber, remain in the bathroom, some with shower heads and pipes intact. A 44 gallon drum is rigged up on the exterior for the supply of water. There is a simple wooden shelf with four sinks. The building has wooden doors and wooden awning style windows. Kitchen and mess (3) – This is a smaller building with a corrugated iron roof and walls above a dado. It has a wooden frame and concrete floor and dado. Quarters (4) – These are smaller quarters, presumably an overseer’s cottage. It is constructed of corrugated iron roof and walls above dado, with a wooden frame and concrete floor and dado. The interior has walls of fibro panels (probably asbestos). Toilet (5) – This structure has a corrugated iron roof and walls, wooden frame and concrete floors. Sheep yards (7) – Constructed from concrete posts and four wooden rails in fair condition. Shearing shed (6) – This structure is in a good condition and is constructed of the local cajuput timber resistant to termites, from the paperbark Maleleuca Ieucadendra and is very rare. The building has a corrugated iron roof and walls, with a concrete and timber floor. There are ten stands for shearing and the engine room is intact. The shearing shed and shearers quarters remain one of the most intact and complete examples of a disused shearing complex in the Shire. Work shed and garage (12) – This structure has a corrugated iron roof and walls, wooden frame and concrete floor. Homestead (14) – This was rebuilt after the 1945 cyclone. The building has a corrugated iron roof, fibro panels above the dado, weatherboard walls below the dado, a wooden frame, metal verandah posts and a concrete floor. The south end has been enclosed with a bathroom and the north end enclosed as a kitchen. There is evidence of other buildings around the site, with the floors and footings visible. There is a derelict water tank and a bore with windmill remaining, which is now powered by a solar pump. There is evidence of horse yards adjacent to this.

History

Balmoral Station was established by Robert and David Fraser c1866. The adjacent Mardie Station was first leased in c1867 by David Simpson and Malcolm MacIntosh, who worked with the Frasers in the early years until both stations’ stocks increased. In the mid-1870s it is likely the parties separated continuing to work each station as separate enterprises.1 The landing at the mouth of the Fortescue River was built to enable supplies to be brought in and wool clip to be loaded onto ships. This was in use until the 1940s. In 1878 the post office on Balmoral Station was erected, approximately 3 kms west of Tom Bull Pool, about 6 km from the landing. In the late 1870s/early 1880s the overland telegraph line passed through Balmoral and Mardie Stations. In 1910 James Munro purchased Balmoral Station from David Stewart, who had owned Balmoral at least as early as 18862, and the station was managed by ‘Baron’ Aarnold Berthold Camerer. In 1916 Samuel Peter ‘Sam’ McKay and H. Green purchased Balmoral from Munro with 18,000 sheep and 5,000 lambs for £27,000.3 McKay’s grandfather had established Mundabullangana Station, and the McKays also went into successful pearling. The family, and Sam in particular, were known for ‘shocking treatment of natives on their luggers and the station.’4 It is unknown if Sam McKay continued such cruel practice on Balmoral; he died in 1923. Frank E. Venn, the adopted son of Henry Whittal Venn, who was a member of the Denison Plains Pastoral Co., purchased Balmoral in 1924. Balmoral was managed by a war veteran Donald Cox at this time. Historian Peter Gifford quoted Venn’s letters to Dalgety’s that he: ‘like[d] the Balmoral country – must look very nice in a decent season. I have seen a good deal of Sharpe and Moseley – Mardie Sheep look well. Karratha rotten, dying everywhere.’5 In 1925 Balmoral and Mardie Station were amalgamated, with Benjamin Sharpe taking over Balmoral. During the next decade the Balmoral-Mardie Station ‘reached its zenith in terms of sheep – 52,000 shorn in 1934 for 1,280 bales of wool.’6 In 1945, Robert ‘Bob’ Sharpe took over the lease from his father, with his wife Phyllis. In March 1945 a destructive cyclone hit Mardie and Balmoral Station. Twenty thousand sheep were lost overnight; 500 miles of fencing, two homesteads, two woolsheds, the shearer’s kitchen and mess were also destroyed. There was also extensive damage to the staff quarters, blacksmith shop, windmill man’s cottage and stables.7 The present homestead, woolshed, and shearers’ kitchen, mess and quarters were built after 1945. Balmoral Station was taken over by Robert’s oldest son, Benjamin Sharpe, in 1968. Ben Sharpe operated the station for another 11 years, before selling it to Philip Blackman, a Victorian, who in turn sold it to a professional fisherman David Thompson in 1999. In 2000 sheep were abandoned for beef cattle. In 2007, Citic Pacific Mining purchased the Station for iron ore mining. An oral history with Dorrie Wally who was born on Mardie Station indicates that the Aboriginal name for the country of Balmoral Station is Kulimpan.8

Archaeology

Balmoral Station shearing complex has architectural and stylistic integrity. It is a relatively intact set of buildings clearly reflecting the post-war period, and the disciplined working life of shearing.

Integrity/Authenticity

Fairly intact

Condition

Sound

Uses

Creation Date

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