Hillside Farm

Statement of Significance

The original homestead at Hillside Farm has historic value for its association with early settler Stephen Gibbs who made a significant contribution to the development of the district.

The place has social value as an example of a simple residence used by working families in the late 19th century.

The place has historic value for its association with the development of educational facilities for specialised agricultural programs.

Physical Description

Hillside Farm is located on the west of Ellis Brook Valley Reserve and the east of the suburban development of Martin amidst a semi-rural environment. The former farmhouse building is one of a number of buildings on the site that now serve an educational function. The former farm house is located in an isolated position to the south west of the main complex of structures.

The original homestead is of rammed earth construction to the majority of the property though the western wall has been replaced with concrete blocks. The roof is gabled roof and is clad with short sheet corrugated iron with a slight break of pitch to form the verandah canopy. The verandah extends around three elevations, supported on timber columns with a timber balustrade to the southern elevation as the ground drops away at this point. The windows are timber framed casements. An addition has been constructed along the eastern side of the property.

Other buildings on the site include old machinery sheds of timber framed construction with corrugated iron cladding; corrugated iron and brick barn; a relocated school building of timber framed construction with fibre cement cladding.

History

The Hillside Farm residence was built for dairyman, Stephen Gibbs (1847-1928) and his wife Eliza in the 1880s. Stephen was a teamster in the 1860s and during the 1870s he was publican of the 47 Mile Inn on Albany Road, now Albany Highway.

Stephen Gibbs married Eliza White in 1879 and it is believed the couple lived on Hillside Farm around 1880, when Stephen began to take up extensive properties, mainly for dairying. He found a piece of quartz with gold traces in 1888, but nothing was done about the find until 1909, when others tried to establish a gold mine.

In I909 mining speculators Rowlands and LLoyd financed WJ Ross and Son to prospect for gold in the granite behind the Gibbs homestead. A 300ft tunnel was dug into the hill. They applied for a government grant to extend the tunnel but after investigations by the State Mining Engineer and the assaying of samples the grant was refused because the samples proved negative. These results conflicted with the reports by the prospectors. The mine was later abandoned and in later years part of the tunnels have collapsed making the site unsafe.

Gibbs undertook other commercial projects aside from his dairy farm at Hillside. He established an orchard in the 1890s, built the Forest Inn near the Victoria Reservoir construction works in 1890 and was involved in establishing Cannington’s second hotel, the Hotel Cecil. He also had quarrying interests. In 1907 he was elected to the Gosnells Road Board. By 1914 Stephen Gibbs had left the district to take up residence in East Perth, where he died in 1928 at the age of 80. His son William married Hilda Dellar and they lived at Hillside.

The property eventually came under the jurisdiction of the State Government and many proposals for development of the site were considered such as a golf course or a cemetery, both of these were deemed inappropriate.

In the early 1990s, the Education Department was granted a 40% share of the property, with the rest to be used by other groups. In a Draft Concept Plan drawn up by the Education Department in May 1994, Hillside was to be managed by several committees but this was later simplified to management by the Hillside Farm Management Committee. The philosophy behind the management arrangement was to provide a community farm that promotes ecological and sustainable living practices through education and recreation opportunities. User groups included the Aboriginal Koomarl Association and the Girl Guides.

For some time the property was known as Fratico Farm. A change of name back to Hillside Farm was made in 1996 and work on the property was carried out in conjunction with a LEAP program (Linking Education and Parents Program). A 1920s school building was relocated from Tuart Hill Primary School, to be used as a classroom for an Education Department agricultural school.

Hillside farm is currently leased to the Education Department, with a clause to permit community access. Most of the 54 hectare farm is used as a training facility, through the Kelmscott Senior High School, to impart agriculture based skills to young people with urban backgrounds, with one of the teaching staff serving as a live-in caretaker, is resident in the homestead. A paddock on the downhill side of the farm is sublet to the Darling Range Wildlife Shelter for the purpose of rehabilitating native fauna.

As well as the former Tuart Hill school building, which is hired out for meetings and an added camping facility, there is a straw bale shelter used by community and commercial groups and a former school lunch shed, relocated from Orange Grove Primary School, which is used as an interpretive centre. The place has camping facilities for groups of up to thirty people.

Hillside Farm now falls under the responsibility of the Kelmscott Senior High School.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: Low to moderate degree
Authenticity: Moderate degree

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.