Tom Turner's Cottage and Turner's Spring (Site)

Statement of Significance

Tom Turner’s Cottage and Turner’s Spring (site) is of significance: • For its associations with the Turner family, who were among the first pioneers of Augusta and instrumental in the original settlement’s development. • For its specific association with Thomas (Tom) Turner, a colonial artist who, amongst other works, painted the first representation by an early European settler of Augusta • For its potential to retain archaeological evidence of the original phase of colonial settlement at and near Augusta. • As a remote bush site that is evocative of the environment that would have been faced by the early colonial settlers in the south-west region.

Physical Description

The former site of Tom Turner’s cottage is accessed by a narrow bush-walking track from Skippy Road down to a lower level of the valley. The site itself is in a small clearing marked by a wooden post with a sketch of the cottage and brass plaque: Here stood Tom Turner’s cottage 1830-1840 Note: Turner’s Spring was not located during the site inspection.

History

Colonial Settlement (c.1830-1849) • The Establishment of Augusta Tourism (c.1890s-Present) • Wine, Food, Natural Environment and Cultural Heritage Tourism. Thomas Turner came to Augusta in 1830 as a 16 year old, with his father James, stepmother Maria and six siblings, aboard the ‘Emily Taylor.’ The family had substantial capital and seven labourers, three of whom were accompanied by their own families.James Turner built ‘Albion’ as his family home at the Augusta townsite.(See Place # AU-23). As an 18 year old, Thomas Turner established a property four miles up the Blackwood River from ‘Albion’ and, with the help of his younger brother George, he built a cottage, several outhouses and a large shed. He named this property ‘Turnwood.’ The brothers cleared and farmed the land, however ‘Turnwood’ was abandoned in 1836 after local Aborigines burnt the place down. By then many of the Turners’ fellow landholders had abandoned the area, as did most of the indentured labourers.Late in 1838 Thomas, George and John Turner rebuilt at ‘The Spring’. Here they ran cattle, sheep and goats, but again this proved commercially unviable. In 1840 Thomas, George and John Turner resettled at the Vasse, a place Thomas had earlier surveyed and mapped. At Dunsborough, Turner married Elizabeth Heppingstone in 1846. They left for the Victorian goldfields in 1852, later living in Melbourne and then Sydney.Thomas Turner, [painter, architect, surveyor] depicted Augusta in watercolour paintings and maps dating from 1830 to 1845: simple, competent records of the development of this small, isolated and struggling place. His views include Augusta; Hardy’s Inlet; First Settlement May 1830 (Art Gallery of Western Australia [AGWA]) and several views looking across Seine Bay to the homes of the early settlers, including the Turners’ Albion House (1836, c. 1837, 1838, 1840s, AGWA) and the homes of the Bussell and Molloy families (1833, p.c. England). He also drew landscapes in the district, e.g. Limestone Cliff, Turnerian Stream, Sussex, West Australia, 1835 (AGWA). Well able to convey the mood of a place, his Augusta drawings are most evocative of its isolation and poverty. Other sketches were the product of expeditions into the countryside, either on surveys or for his own enjoyment. Turner’s Vasse sketches include views of the major home in the district, the Bussells’ ‘Cattle Chosen’ (1835, 1836, AGWA).The site of Turner brothers’ cottage has now been marked and briefly interpreted for the benefit of tourists visiting Augusta and Cape Leeuwin.

Integrity/Authenticity

Low: The use has been altered and the original use cannot be readily discerned. Low: The place has been considerably altered, with the loss of significant fabric. The original intent/character is no longer clearly evident.

Condition

Historic site only

Uses

Creation Date

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