Nangetty Station Homestead - Site of

Physical Description

1905 - construction of a stone homestead containing five rooms with a central hallway and verandah surrounding. The stone was quarried nearby in large, adzed blocks and the internal walls were constructed of boulders set in mud mortar. The ceilings were 12 feet (3.8m) in height. French doors led out from all rooms and each room contained a fireplace. Windows were double sash. The front door was timber and leadlighting with a leadlight surround leading into the hall. Embellishments were in the style of Art Nouveau. The verandahs were timber and the roof iron. A separate block was built approximately 30m north of the main building which contained a kitchen, men's dining room, cook's bedroom, store, bath, laundry and meatroom/dairy. This was constructed of timber and iron.
1926 - additions were added on the north aspect of the homestead. The same stone blocks were used but cut square mechanically and the internal walls were also square cut-stone. Dimensions of scale matched the first area with ceiling height and similar doors and windows. The later part contained four bathrooms with septic toilets, kitchen, three bedrooms, butler's pantry, inside scullery and outside scullery also serving as a men's dining room, and continuation of the centre hall way. The fireplaces in the three original bedrooms were replaced by washbasins with hot and cold water piped through. The bathrooms were tiled up three quarters with white vitreous tile sheeting in oblongs with black tiling strips between. The kitchen and bathrooms had floors of 4 x 4 inch terracotta tiles. All bathrooms opened onto the verandahs. The original kitchen block was retained as staff quarters. A separate building to the east of the main homestead and close to the verandah contained an office and store. This was constructed of timber and iron. Surrounding the whole complex was a hedge of old-man saltbush (Artiplex nummularia) with tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala) and river gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) at intervals between. A circular carriage-way lay in front of the homestead with a lawn in the centre and a date palm on each side. Beyond the carriage way grew a plumbago hedge and beyond that lay an orangery, later replaced with antbed tennis court. To the east of the carriage way lay an oblong lawn, bordering the long drive-way past the homestead. In the shrubbery east of the homestead stood oleanders, caribs, tecoma and other bushes. To the west of the homestead grew a fig tree and a trellis with grape vines overhead and violets underneath. Water was piped via gravitation from wells on the sandplain west of the homestead and 200 feet above the homestead location in the valley.
1956 - the homestead was extensively modified and "modernised". Iron on the roof was replaced with cement tiles. The walls were buttressed to stabilise them and a cement verandah with pillars replaced the timber flooring and lattice. Internal access was made to one bathroom from the hall. The floors in three bathrooms.
1972 - further modifications. The kitchen remodelled. A marble fireplace replaced the original in the dining room. An arch way cut between the dining room and the living room and most of the wall removed between the butler's pantry and the inside scullery to make a family room. The outer scullery partitioned to provide, a staff bedroom and a store/men's dining room. A laundry and coolroom built on the north west corner of the verandah. A free standing meat house built to the north. One bathroom gutted to make an internal storeroom and a connecting doorway made to the adjacent bathroom. The separate office/store building converted to a garage/storeroom. A three car garage of timber and iron built alongside. Garden built up once more. Lawn revitalised, further shrubbery planted and palms. Creepers and more grape vines established. A vegetable garden built.
1987 - the original kitchen building removed and swimming pool constructed on the site.
1994 - the main building demolished, leaving the laundry and coolroom, meathouse, garages and storeroom.

History

1850s - Nangetty land was originally leased and grazed by John Sydney Davis of Tibradden, one of the original colonists at Champion Bay (Geraldton). Davis built a stone shepherd's hut on the sandplain at the edge of the breakaway and cleared a paddock beside it with a well sunk nearby. Thomas Broad was employed as a shepherd and herdsman. In the 1880s he lived in the hut with his wife (Elizabeth, nee Wheelock) and family.
1890s - The land was resumed and granted to the Midland Railway Company who sold it, cl900, to Holmes Brothers.
1902 - Richard Smith, from South Australia, purchased Nangetty. He built the first part of the homestead down in the valley and added supporting buildings, including a sixteen stand shearing shed (the largest in the district at the time). He also fenced thirty three paddocks, all supplied with water from the sandplain and twelve large dams built down in the valley. Nangetty carried over 20,000 sheep, 600 head of cattle and numerous horses. The earliest hay crops were grown on the rich clay soils of the valley. The sandplain was left uncleared with its cover of banksia species, tammar and understorey scrub. Smith employed a manager, Thomas Wells, originally from Victoria, who had worked in the Murchison for some years.
1912 - Smith's son, Gordon Law Smith, took over the general management.
1926 - Law Smith sold Nangetty to J & C Butcher, pioneer pastoralists in the Murchison and Gascoyne areas. The homestead was enlarged by over half again, using the same materials and in a sympathetic style. James Butcher lived at Nangetty and improved the property extensively with further watering points, fencing and additional buildings. The Butcher brothers took stock numbers up to over 30,000 sheep and numerous head of cattle, thereby denuding most of the indigenous Atriplex species.
1949 - Owing to the premature decease of four male members of the family, probate duties forced the sale of Nangetty to H & W Butcher (no family connection). William Butcher, with his family, lived at Nangetty and continued to consolidate the property. Under his active management the first large scale tilling took place and wheat was grown commercially by H & K Stokes under a share-farming agreement. Stokes also cleared the sandplain under contract and started growing cereals there. The area was subdivided into paddocks with water piped from various depressions which became permanent pools after clearing.
1956 - Butcher retired and placed J Minson on Nangetty to manage with his wife and family. Minson continued to implement the progressive policy of the owners establishing sub-clover pastures and carrying out, on the sheep flock, a heavy culling program. Rams were purchased from South Australia annually and Nangetty held a large sheep sale at the end of every season. A new staff house was built near the homestead and another share-farmer complex built up on the sandplain to accommodate Graham Preston and his wife, Glenyse (nee Mills) and their family. The program of cereal growing was divided between Stokes and Preston.
1971 - Butcher's daughter, Nan, and her husband, Leonard Broad, with their four children, took over the management. They brought with them J Narrier as head stockman, with his wife and family. Preston and Stokes, during the next few years, moved to their own farms.
1973 - The homestead was modified once more and an original staff house demolished. A new transportable staff house was built further north from the homestead. The stables were renewed and new cattle yards erected.
1985 - Broad's son, Ian, with his wife, Dianne and two children, took over the management of Nangetty. A conservation policy was implemented, of resting paddocks to rejuvenate the soil and building banks on the contour to hold runoff water. A new machinery shed was constructed at the homestead and several years later the original shed was removed to make way for a second new shed.
1986 - The Hereford herd was crossed with Angus cattle (an Angus herd was pastured in the 1940's - 1970's) A cereal cropping program of 5-6000 acres was implemented with furrow sowing and minimum tillage.
1987 - A policy of fencing off degraded areas on heavy country commenced. Tagasaste planted on weaker sandplain country.
1988 - Lucerne planted on seepage areas of sandplain. Reasonably successful. 1990 - Crutching carried out with permanent staff and continued annually. 1994 - Sheep shorn, 15000 (with 2000 lambs). Cattle 750 head including calves.

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