Doungup

Statement of Significance

Doungup has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons: • The place is a representative example of a Georgian symmetrical farmhouse. Included on the site is a rare honeypot shaped well. • The site was taken up by one of the first three settlers in the Capel region, the Rose family. • The site has produced two Railway Stakes winners in horseracing. • The place has strong associations with the local Sterling community and in particular the Child family of Minninup as well as associations by marriage to the Roberts, Forrest and Scott families. • The place is significant due to the participation of the Doungup Park property, along with the Minninup property in providing mounts for the East India Trading Company by endeavouring to back-load the empty vessels after they had landed convicts onto the property's beachfront. • The place has retained significant reminders of its history with POW home detention workers by retaining the additions to the farmhouse that were built by them at the end of WWII. • The place has social significance as a post WWII simple beachside holiday camp site. AESTHETIC VALUE The place is valued for its cl 844 farmhouse built in the symmetrical Georgian style and an enormous Moreton Bay fig tree which stands alone in a sparsely planted environment. Historic Value Doungup, in conjunction with other local properties provides an historic overview of the architecture and culture of early non-indigenous settlement in Capel. The property provided mounts for the East India Trading Company and shipped them from the beach at Doungup Park. Much of the original fabric of the building is intact with the footprint of the farmhouse still evident. Additions made by the POW workers physically re-enforce the strong historical elements of the house. SCIENTIFIC VALUE: The honeypot well situated on the site is a rare example of vernacular engineering. The large Boxthorn tree, which is situated 100 metres north of the house, may cover the graves of a woman and her child who died in childbirth. Confirmation may be obtained in the future with scientific testing being used to yield evidence to confirm the allegation. SOCIAL VALUE: The local community holds the place is high esteem as a remnant of mid nineteenth century settlement. The place is significant in its associations with many prominent families in the area. The post WWII holiday camp remains as one of the few examples of basic holiday places for family beachside holidays of simple pleasures and expectations in an era of postwar recovery and shortage of building materials and skilled labourers in rural areas. RARITY: Doungup Park farmhouse would be considered to be exceptionally rare due to the limited number of surviving buildings in the area dated cl 844 that remain reasonably intact. REPRESENTATIVE: Doungup Park farmhouse is a representative example of early settlement in the Sterling area. INTEGRITY: The equine tradition of Doungup continues to this day. Ross and Tammy Price have trained two winning Railway Stakes horses on this property, 'Medicine Kid' in 1984 and 'Welcome Knight' in 1986.

Physical Description

The place known as Doungup was previously named Doungup Park. The change of name resulted from the registered name Doungup Park being removed from the property by the Rose family, prior to the ownership changeover to Ross Price in 1980. The farm building is sited at the foot of the primary dune of the Quindalup Dune System. An old Moreton Bay Fig tree grows near the dry stone honeypot shaped well at the northern end of the farmhouse. In this setting the house faces east across the flats and is sheltered from the strong prevailing winds. A large Boxthorn tree situated 100 metres along the track to the north of the house, is alleged to cover the graves of several people. The farmhouse is Georgian symmetrical style with six original rooms and colonial verandah at the front. A hip roof of corrugated iron covers the three main rooms and originally a lean-to roof covered the rear three-service rooms. Sarking boards are still visible under the verandah roof, evidence of a previous shingled roof. The front verandah has a simple lean-to roof over a narrow width of deteriorating grano flooring. The building is constructed of predominantly 15" thick random rubble limestone rendered (much later) and painted. Window and frames are original pegged timber. Aluminium sashes have been fitted into these original frames. Internal board and ledge doors are barely 6' high with the exception of the main entry door (dating from the 1920s) and one living room panelled door (original). Ceilings are lathe and plaster and the modest extent of joinery appears original. The floorboards are 8" full length Jarrah set on bearers side by side and laid on stone foundations. The first additions/alterations (unknown date) were to lift the rear lean-to roof to increase headroom at the gutter line. Evidence of the original angle of the roof can be seen at the top of the middle rear room walls. The middle rear room was given a new high hip roof to match the ceiling level of the main front rooms. Between the new roof levels, highlight windows were installed in an effort to provide light and ventilation for the room. The rear lean-to verandah and timber framed laundry and toilet may have been added at this time. Later additions were built of similar stone construction to the original and were connected to the walls at the southern end of the house. The two additional rooms consisted of a bathroom and a bedroom. The flat pitch lean-to roof was extended to cover these rooms. Recent additions consist of a store set apart from the house to create a breezeway that runs into a carport at the front. The low roof pitch was extended further to include these additions. To the north west of the farmhouse is a 1950s beachside holiday camp located in a swale between the high ridge and the secondary ridge of the dune system. The camp consists of half a dozen small one to two room fibro shacks in a crescent formation with a brick ablution block and areas where caravans and tents could be pitched. Along the Geographe Bay coastline there were many similar modest holiday campsites most of which have now been redeveloped or demolished. This complex is run down and in need of substantial repair and maintenance. The honeypot well (construction date unknown) appears to be approximately 10 feet deep and 2 feet across at the neck. It is constructed of limestone layered in dry-stone walling and without render.

History

Assessment: 2003 Construction: c 1844 Architect/builder: unknown Alterations/additions: date unknown; 1944;1981 Samuel Clifton Rose observed James Child as he established nearby Minninup, before he decided on the site of Doungup Park two miles to the south of the Child's property. Rose built his house of flagstone in the lee of a large sand dune, and added land to his property as it became available. The house originally consisted of six rooms with a shingle roof and was built in the symmetrical Georgian style with a narrow Colonial verandah at the front of the building. Early additions increased the headroom at the rear of the house allowing the addition of a laundry and toilet. The second additions took place at the end of WWII when resident Italian POWs added a stone construction consisting of a bathroom and extra bedroom. The third additions in 1981 consisted of a store set apart from the house to create a breezeway that combines with a carport at the front. Doungup Park stayed in the hands of members of the Rose family until 27 February 1980 when it was sold to Ross Price. The Price family live in the homestead and run a business from the property. In 1840, the Westralian Land Company was formed with the plan to settle in the Leschenault area and develop a city. In December 1840, a survey party set out from the confluence of the Brunswick and Collie Rivers. After watching James Child establish Minninup, Samuel Clifton Rose with his wife Mary and two children decided on land two miles from the Child's property where in cl844 they proceeded to build their house and farm the property Doungup Park. In 1850, Mary Rose died during the birth of their daughter Mary. Five years later Samuel Clifton Rose married a widow, Mrs Emma Delaporte. Emma and her late husband John had arrived in 1854, with the Westralian Land Company, but after John Delaporte's untimely death, Emma kept her young family by operating a wayside inn. Samuel Clifton Rose and Emma Delaporte each had five children from their previous marriages and from their union, another child was bom at Doungup Park. During the 1850s Samuel Clifton Rose bred remount horses for the Indian Army, and in 1859 Samuel junior married Mary Forrest. By the early 1860s, the Rose family had convict servants and tutors in their employ. The convicts added a labor force to the area and many local farmers applied to employ Ticket of Leave men to work their properties. Samuel Clifton and Emma began building the Rose Hotel on the comer of Wellington and Victoria Streets, Bunbury in the early 1860s, with the hotel being licensed in 1865. Samuel Clifton had little time to enjoy his retirement and new business as he died in 1867 at the age of 56. Emma stayed on at the Rose Hotel while Samuel Clifton Rose's son, William and his wife and step-sister, Alice (nee Delaporte) managed the Doungup Park property. The newly developed cut which was located immediately south of Doungup Park and the new course of the Capel River greatly concerned the Rose family. Their worry appeared to be that at high tide salt seeped back from the ocean and salted the soil close to the cuts. However overall, the concept appeared to be a successful one for the locals because the water was drained away from the long strip of flood plain and swamps and created land to grow potatoes, oats and hay. In November 1872 the introduction of the telegraph to Busselton improved written communications greatly. Correspondence that had previously taken weeks to deliver was now almost instantaneous. In the following year Samuel Rose's tender to build a telegraph office was accepted. By 1874 residents were complaining of the neglect of district roads. Little seems to have occurred to road development since the convict parties no longer existed. However, during this period, improvements in the collection and delivery of overseas mail occurred with the advent of the coastal steamer, with the landing and shipment of mail being performed by the local water police. William Rose died at the age of 32 and his wife Alice remained on the property to raise their five children. Help was on hand from her brother, John Delaporte and his wife Annie (nee House). However, by the turn of the century Alice had left Doungup Park to her son Samuel Clifton and his wife Susannah's stewardship, and moved to a small plot in Stratham on the Boyanup Road. Samuel Clifton and Susannah's son, Will Rose was killed as part of the advance force based on the island of Lemnos during the early part of the war. Other locals, Clarence Hutton and Billy Gibbons gave their lives during the landing at Gallipoli. By mid 1943 the Government had decided to allow Italian POWs to work in the coast districts to help boost production. Most Italians had been captured at El Alamein during the North African Campaign and were interned in camps at Northam and Harvey. The POWs at Doungup Park were responsible for additions to the house in the form of two extra rooms and these rooms still remain intact. Lavinia (the great-grand daughter of Samuel Clifton and Mary Rose) and her husband James Owen Roberts, ran Doungup Park for many years. Roberts died of snakebite in 1953 and was succeeded on the property by his son. Bob and wife, Joyce who continued on at Doungup Park raising a family of seven daughters and two sons. It was at this time that a holiday camp was developed at Doungup Park, north of the house and close to the beach. The business continued to run for several years. The property was eventually sold to a horse trainer named Ross Price, who closed the camp and used the available accommodation to house stable hands and horse trainers. The property name of Doungup Park was no longer available to the Price family, who now refer to the place as Doungup. Ross and his wife. Tammy were successful in two Railway Stakes races with 'Medicine Kid' in 1984 and 'Welcome Knight' in 1986, both horses being from the Doungup stable. By the 1990s there would be no Roses by name, left in the Capel Shire, however their descendants were legion; a large number of Scott's, Forrest's and Roberts can name Samuel and Mary Rose as their ancestors.

Uses

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update