Noongal Station Group

Statement of Significance

The Noongall Station Homestead has historic significance for its long association with the pioneer Rodan and Morrissey families and the development of the pastoral industry in the Yalgoo district. The Complex of buildings has further historic significance for its link with the goldmining town of Noongall which was established in 1896. The built fabric illustrates developments through time with variations in style and use of local materials reflecting the requirements of the owners and workers. Noongall Station has both aesthetic and rarity value for the handpainted pressed metal ceilings which are also a feature of the Carlaminda Station Homestead [Place 23] and Melangata Station Homestead. [Place 24]

Physical Description

The Noongall Station Homestead Complex consists of the house, the original house, stables, kitchen, workers' and shearers' quarters and shearing shed. The current homestead, built 1920, is a large stone building with wide, surrounding verandahs. The external stonework features black pointing while the internal walls are rendered. Timber framed french doors lead out from the rooms onto the verandah. The house features pressed metal ceilings in the four large rooms and central passage which were handpainted by H.C. Jermy. Corrugated iron roof sheeting joins the main house to two separate buildings immediately to the north which include the kitchen, bedrooms and school room. The schoolroom was originally the kitchen which was transformed into the formal dining room in the 1950s. The current owners use the room as a schoolroom. The bedroom section is a later extension built post war. It is timber framed with walls and roof clad with corrugated iron and plaster walls and ceilings. The original house (cl910) is of stone construction with a corrugated iron roof and original surrounding verandah which is enclosed at one end. The roof form is a combination of hips and gables. Internally the walls are lathe and plaster with pressed metal ceilings, ceiling roses and timber floors throughout. Two of the ceilings are painted like those in the current homestead. The house, which is in poor condition, originally had additional rooms to the rear of corrugated iron construction which were demolished in the 1940s and reused on the current homestead for the bedroom additions. Adjacent to the house stands the Meat House and the Bathroom/Laundry block which features a handpainted ceiling rose. The outbuildings consist of a large timber framed corrugated iron clad shearing shed with substantial yards, stables of stone and mud construction with a corrugated iron roof (c 1890s), and a corrugated iron clad Blacksmith's Shop. The original section of the Shearers' Quarters has stone walls which have since had corrugated iron additions and a corrugated iron hipped roof. Tree branches have been used for verandah posts, the verandah running the full length of the building. The Kitchen/Dining Room is a corrugated iron clad building which features a breezeway between the two rooms. A second Meat House stands adjacent.

History

In the 1890s Charles Rodan acquired a number of leases in the vicinity of the Noongall townsite which he brought together to form Noongall Station. Rodan, who lived in the town of Noongall where he also owned the hotel, had several teams which carted goods to the Yalgoo district prior to the construction of the railway. He and his family moved out to the station in 1913 and lived in the older of the two houses on the property, thought to have been built before 1910. In the early 1920s Rodan's son James had the present house built by H.C. Jermy, a well known builder in the Yalgoo district. It is believed that Monsignor John Hawes may have designed the house. (Lorna Morrissey) Noongall was sold to the Morrissey's in 1930. [A. Palmer, Yalgoo, pl56-158]]

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: Good Degree

Condition

Variable

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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