Leona

Statement of Significance

Leona is a substantial timber weatherboard residence. It was the mill manager's residence for Baxter's Mill and illustrates the operations of an early twentieth century mill.

Physical Description

Situated at the southern edge of Kirup townsite, opposite the Ravenscliffe turnoff. The house is set in a cleared paddock, about 100 metres from the South Western Highway. The house is a large single storey weatherboard structure with the original verandahs on 3 sides and a porch at the back. The original criss-cross timbers below the verandah railings have been replaced with fibro-asbestos sheets, but the verandah floor boards remain. The large front sitting room has its pine dado, now painted, but the hessian walls with trims of strips of wallpaper decoration in brown tonings have been replaced by ceilite. The original ribbed tin ceiling remains, and the fireplace in one corner. Small patches of the brown flowered wallpaper is still visible on the wall of the pay office at the end of the verandah on the east end. The passage has its dado, but the other rooms have been relined completely with ceilite, the work carried out by Hendersons of Bunbury about 45 years ago. The house has a kitchen and a storeroom behind the sitting room, and four bedrooms on the other side of the passage. A new toilet was built off the verandah, near where the step which originally led to the dance hall still remains. The washhouse has been demolished, but a woodshed, toilet and tank stand remain at the back. The site of Baxter & Prince's Mill is on this property and the rail formations are still visible, as well as the remains of the rail engine which pulled the logs between the bush and the mill.

History

Leona is a large timber weatherboard house built as the Mill Manager’s House associated with the sawmill of Baxter & Prince, railway contractors and millers, who re-located their operation from Donnybrook to Upper Capel (as Kirup was then known) in early 1900. In April, a private rail siding was completed with a short spur line into the mill, which was managed by John M. Plewright, who occupied the Mill Manager’s House, as did his successors. The pay office was located on the east verandah, and the house had a clear view to the mill and office etc. and workers’ housing located in proximity. A hall at the western end of the Mill Manager’s House was central to the social life of this community. In c. 1902-03, Baxter sold out to Western Australian Jarrah Saw Mills Ltd., who operated the mill until 1909-10, when they built and open their large new Barrabup Mill. The Kirup mill closed and most buildings were removed or re-located. The hall was re-erected at Benson’s property, Upper Capel, where it survived in use as a hall for some years. The Mill Manager’s House was left in situ, and for more than a century it has served as a farmhouse for the property later named ‘Leona’. In 1923, the Laymans sold it to Leita Sertorio’s parents, and it has been her lifelong home. Her mother (née Creyk, b. 1898), who grew up in the district, remembered when Kirup comprised a hotel, school, boarding house, hall, sawmill and associated buildings. Leita’s father, an Italian sleeper cutter, worked for the Forests Department for sometime while developing the farming property where bush had to be cleared before they began carrying dairy cattle, later switching to beef. The house was little changed. Hessian lining above the timber dado remained intact until c. 1950, when Hendersons, of Bunbury, re-lined all rooms with ceilite with the timber dado in the sitting room and the passage retained. A new toilet was built off the verandah, and timber verandah railings were replaced with sheets of fibro-asbestos. Leita Sertorio continues to live at Leona, and in nearby paddocks an old engine and metal items, and the railway formations are evidence of the bygone mill.

Integrity/Authenticity

High

Condition

Fair

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

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