Golden Valley

Statement of Significance

Golden Valley is a good example of a Victorian Georgian homestead house which is sited in a picturesque location and is a landmark on the Old Padbury Road. The place is associated with Charles Fox Roberts and his son William and illustrates early building techniques in the colony, as well as the lifestyle of the early European settlers. It illustrates the development of the Balingup area and is associated with a number of prominent locals.

Physical Description

Located on Old Padbury Road, 2km south of Balingup townsite, Golden Valley comprises a homestead (c. 1880s) and workers' accommodation (1880s). The homestead house is a single storey rendered mud brick house with a moderately pitched gabled corrugated iron roof in the Victorian Georgian style. There is a verandah at the front and rear. The front facade is symmetrical with two doors and two pairs of Georgian windows. A large organ room was added to the north side in the early 1900s with a similar roof pitch but in 1991 there was a reconstruction of the roof and the pitch was substantially lowered, although the tall red brick corbelled chimney remains. Internal accommodation consists of four bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dining room and organ room, outside toilet, bathroom and laundry. Most of the joinery is jarrah. The central core of the building was pit sawn, butt joined boards. The workers' accommodation is a two roomed dwelling which is timber-framed with exterior walls of corrugated iron, and interior walls of pressed metal and lathe and plaster, with a corrugated iron roof. It is set in former farmland and an arboretum. The front hedge has been removed and a new hedge planted with seeds taken from original hedge.

History

In 1885, Charles Fox Roberts (b. 1844) obtained Nelson Location 165. National Trust of Australia (W.A.) assessment notes a two room corrugated iron building (extant, 2012) was believed to have been the first house on the property, worked by his son, William Charles Fox Roberts (b. 1865), who married Mary L. Longbottom (b. 1864) in 1895. The present homestead, in the Victorian Georgian style, constructed of soft burnt bricks in mud mortar, with mostly jarrah joinery, and a corrugated iron roof, was built as their family home. The central core of the building was pit sawn jarrah, with butt jointed boards. There were verandahs at the front and rear. In the early 1900s, at the north-west side a large room was added with one end built up to accommodate a pipe organ, and the room became known as the organ room. It has not been ascertained if it was added under Roberts’ ownership or after the place was sold to Mountray Frederick Richardson in 1904, or Francis Craig, who owned it from 1906. (During World War I, his son, Colin, married the daughter of General Birdwood, Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Imperial Forces, and after the war they returned to Golden Valley. When General Birdwood visited he agreed to plant the first tree and open the Memorial Park hence known as Birdwood Park.) In 1920, Edmund Peter Blakeney purchased Golden Valley, which he owned, occupied and worked until 1945, when he sold it to David Bruce Goyder, who resided there with his family. In 1946, it was transferred to Jean Barbara Goyder and David John Barr Goyder, who continued living there. In 1963, John Tomlinson purchased Golden Valley. In 1977, the Forests Department (now Department of Environment and Conservation) acquired it for its pine planting program. In 1981, some conservation work was done on the homestead. A committee was formed under Balingup Progress Association to raise money for the work, manage the project, and to develop an arboretum as a joint project with CALM on an area of 60 h.a. to be set aside for the Golden Valley Tree Park that would comprise two sections at the west and east sides of Padbury Rd. In 1984, new Certificates of Title issued for Lots 10 and 11 replaced those for Nelson Locations 102 and 165, with the homestead at Lot 11 (9.9128 h.a.). In 1991, conservation and other works were implemented, directed by architect John Pidgeon, with input from the National Trust, which later recorded removal and unsympathetic replacement of the organ room. For most of the subsequent period the homestead has been occupied for residential purposes.

Integrity/Authenticity

Mostly high although the modification to the roof of the organ room in 1991 is an intrusive element.

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Last Update