Edward Brockman, the son of Perth’s first mayor, was the first settler to the district in the early 1850s.  He was attracted to the red loam soils and ample rainfall.

Brockman chose to breed horses and many of these were exported to India (500 were sent in his first contract).  At the time, a newspaper advertisement referred to Brockman’s stud sire, Sir Hercules.

The job of clearing land, raising horses, growing maize and wheat, catching game and marron, and building an isolated home was difficult.  His wife, Capel Bussell, had the equally demanding job of raising nine children at Warren House.

An 1880s visitor described the home as ‘a rambling, untidy house with farm buildings, nothing ever seemed to be repaired there’. The house was made of burnt mud bricks, pit sawn timber and split jarrah shingles for the roof.  Convict labour helped with the bricks and timber.

Where did Pemberton’s name originate?

The settlement’s name came from Pemberton Walcott, a pioneer at ‘One-Mile’ in 1862.  He was forced to leave two years later.  His cattle died from a mineral deficiency in the pasture.  Fodder and wheat crops also suffered from the lack of soil phosphates.

In 1867, Decourcey Lefroy also left the district after his crops failed.  His dream was of karri forests transformed to golden wheatfields.  The site of his attempt well over a century ago can be viewed at Founder’s Forest.  There is no wheat now, only a thick stand of karri regrowth.

Wheatfield Walk (400m, easy) starts from the picnic area at Founder’s Forest.  It is l3km east of Pemberton, down Vasse Hwy.

After Lefroy left, bushfire in 1875 germinated fallen karri seeds.  A forest regenerated on his cleared land.  Lefroy had built a house and a small flour mill powered by a water wheel, by Lefroy Brook.  Only scattered, sun-bleached rubble remains.

The settlement’s earliest name was Big Brook.  Then it was just scattered farm buildings.  An official request asked for the village to be named Walcott.  The Postmaster-General refused, hoping to avoid confusion with Port Walcott.  He simply made a substitution by using the pioneer’s first name.

Walcott Street also carries the name of the pioneer who ended his days at Roebuck Bay.  Some say Pemberton Walcott died at sea, others that he was speared.  His 1889 headstone overlooks Roebuck Bay, Broome.

Opening up the Pemberton area?

By 1866, Pemberton was linked to the rest of the world.  Convicts completed the road between it and Vasse (Busselton).  Seven strong bridges ensured the road could be still be used after winter rains fed the many streams.  Many decades later the Pemberton’s main street was sealed.

The forests gradually opened up to farming.  The Premier, James ‘Moocow’ Mitchell, declared that if the district grew tall trees it must grow good cows.  Land was advertised as free.  By 1921, group settlement for British migrants had inexperienced farmers settle places like Pemberton.  Most found it too tough.  The new settlers had often never held an axe or shovel, or been close to farm animals.  Fewer than ten families remaining in the Pemberton district are descendants from the scheme.

 Jarrah furniture originates from this unique, premium quality Australian hardwood.  Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) reaches 40 metres and is known colloquially as ‘Australian Mahogany’; the colonial name was ‘Swan River Mahogany’. 

The rich colour of the jarrah furniture ranges from a soft salmon pink, a rich reddish brown, to dark brown.  Its variable grain often has natural features: curl or birds’ eye providing a beautiful pattena.  For many, many decades, jarrah furniture has been highly prized throughout Australia and the world.  Understandably, the timber is particularly sought in the craftsmanship of high quality and fine jarrah furniture, as well as rustic jarrah furniture that is natural edged.

The dense grained hardwood provides great strength, durability and great resistance to fire and water.  Consequently we delight in constructing jarrah furniture using timber salvaged from bridges, jetty pylons, road blocks, railway sleepers, tunnel uprights, wool stores and other demolished buildings; even many hundreds of fence posts and pickets.  Interestingly, the timber used in jarrah furniture contains natural properties of high resistance to weather, rot, termites and marine borers.

“Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy.” (Ps 96:12b NCV)

Most lovingly-crafted pieces of our jarrah furniture are rescued in some way.  Fallen trees, rescued from the forest floor, storm damaged trees on farms, trees knocked down for clearing purposes – are all transformed into artisan built jarrah furniture.  What may appear as a damaged, scarred and worthless log or piece of wood, is renewed.  Cleaned up and finished, we expose the amazing colours and grain formation.  A ‘lump’ of wood exposed to the elements for hundreds of years now yields beautifully crafted jarrah furniture.  Now, the piece is an eye-catching blanket box, tall boy, bed or rocking chair.  Fine Woodcraft Gallery can do this – we make wonderful jarrah furniture.

Maintained for many years by Nyungar custodianship, and over 200 years of European colonisation, old growth and negligibly disturbed forests remain habitats for rare and endangered species.  We want to conserve this environment.  And isn’t it amazing that our beautiful jarrah furniture comes from trees growing in this region on infertile, often salt-laden soils, adapting to annual drought, and coping with occasional wildfire.

While the jarrah stands have thrived in adversity, including inappropriate clearing, our excellent jarrah furniture is derived from carefully chosen sources. 

A major consideration is that our jarrah furniture is sourced from salvaged, fallen, forest floor logs.  This means minimum disruption to the area’s significant wilderness values.  We strive to retain the wonderful scenic splendour of the forest, along with its scientific, biological and cultural values. 

Therefore, and most importantly, our jarrah furniture retains it’s forest link. We keep the ethical connection.  Our jarrah furniture is not from recent felling, nor is it a factory product.  Our jarrah furniture is properly constructed in a time-honoured way.  Our jarrah furniture is sourced from timber that is not harvested like a crop, and not production line based.  Our jarrah furniture is artisan created and artisan constructed.  This Gallery’s jarrah furniture is so, so superior – in ethics and in the craftsmanship.  Our jarrah furniture is the best of fine woodcraft.

Demand for the Fine Woodcraft Gallery’s stunning jarrah furniture has remained steady for its thirty plus years of operation.  This Gallery and its crafting of fine furniture is world-acclaimed. 

Fine Woodcraft Gallery takes extreme pride in producing jarrah furniture expertly designed, wonderfully created and utilising the rare, natural beauty of jarrah to producing exquisite, solid hardwood, and functional pieces, to suit the lifestyles of the discerning.

Cherish your jarrah furniture, proudly speak of its recycled origin, enjoy the collectable value of this Gallery’s jarrah furniture, and the item’s heritage as part of your family for generations. 

Jarrah furniture is a natural choice.  You know where we are here at Fine Woodcraft Gallery.

Each element of the craftsmanship is done to exact specifications, often using traditional tools. The jarrah furniture is lovingly hand-finished, polished and carefully assembled. The Gallery prefers traditional joinery for its jarrah furniture, included hand-crafted dovetails. No machine will ever replace the skill of the traditional craftsman.

Elegant fine furniture designs expressed in only the very finest materials and covered with rich upholstery, and occasionally presented with a blend of glass, metal and personalised marquetry. Inlay work is only limited by the imagination, using shell, glass and assorted timbers. The aesthetic nature of the various mediums enables beautiful unique pieces for delightful display. Veneers may also be considered, to produce amazing effects and sophistication, using burl, or birds’ eye, curl or heartwood, backed only on quality marine ply, for the very best stability.

We are committed to quality hand crafted furniture that celebrates the natural beauty of timber whilst keeping our designs simple, elegant, unadorned, timeless with graceful lines. Our jarrah furniture pieces have stylish graceful lines and are crafted for a long and functional life; they embody our love of the art of woodworking. We are the very best of fine furniture, whether jarrah furniture or another excellent hardwood.

We are proud and honoured to be creating contemporary furniture that embodies the craftsmanship and dedication to quality that was renowned in woodworkers of the last century when furniture was made to last for generations. As such, we focus our attentions on one piece at a time.

Clients owning one of our pieces of jarrah furniture have a collectable for which they can be proud. It means quality, timelessness, environmental friendliness and having a unique sculptural piece of jarrah furniture in a home or office. Those who invest in our fine furniture and jarrah furniture are buying a lifestyle.

Fine Woodcraft Gallery is also dedicated to producing items relevant to the Arts & Crafts movement that emerged in England during the late 19th Century, which completely redefined the decorative arts. The movement was inspired by John Ruskin and William Morris, British artists and social reformers.

These Arts & Crafts leaders lamented the diminished role of the artist-craftsman and the increasing dependence on machines to meet the demands of a burgeoning middle class. Morris condemned mass production and blamed it for a decline in values that he felt had been brought about by the proliferation of inferior-quality decorative household wares.

Similarly, today, the same argument can be made of cheap imported goods sourced from forests where environmental degradation is of little consideration, and where payments to foreign workers are levied at sweatshop remuneration scales, or lower.

The Arts & Crafts movement aimed to strengthen the balance between art and craftsmanship. Morris believed in the importance of the individual craftsman and in a vision of beauty and harmony that looked back to the medieval guild system for inspiration. The movement sought to revive traditional craft techniques and restore the dignity and prestige of the artisan, which had been sacrificed in the name of Victorian progress and industrialisation.

It was not just a style but a way of living founded upon Utopian ideals. Morris and his followers were convinced that bringing artistic integrity to everyday household objects played a vital role in improving the quality of life. To this end, the movement emphasised humble, local materials, with an eye to function to achieve a harmonising and unified interior. This we achieve in traditional designed jarrah furniture.

Our furniture has clear, simple lines and the inherent beauty of the wood gives veneration to the hand-craftmanship. Makers look to nature for inspiration, from the inherent beauty of wood in the construction of a piece of furniture, to the shape of a silver candlestick based on the trunk of a tree, to the sumptuous colours and decorative motifs based on birds, flowers, and foliage that embellish a glass lampshade, a brooch, or a textile wall hanging.

How could one really live a worthy life, Morris and Ruskin reasoned, surrounded by short-lived, shabby (or imported, mass produced) furniture, cheap glass, and shoddy metalware? Gone was the gloominess brought about by Victorian clutter – the oppressive accumulation of furniture and bric-a-brac was replaced by a lighter, cheerful, and more reasoned programme that rethought the use of space.

Arts & Crafts remains a philosophy, style, and lifestyle for those who appreciate simplicity, quality materials, and locally produced hand-craftmanship: solid, honest, and above all, functionality, combined with the longevity of workmanship that provides heirloom pieces to be passed on by the family through the generations. We integrate various of these ideals into our jarrah furniture. This is why this business represents Australia’s Premier Wood & Glass Gallery.

These door harps are fantastic – soothing and welcoming. Every home should have a door harp. Each is wonderfully made from select local hardwoods.

Traditional door harps originated in Scandinavia over 300 years ago. Born out of an encounter with the Chinese, they can occasionally be seen as heirlooms.

Swedish offered door harps as wedding gifts of special significance. The delicate singing of the chimes would remind them of prosperity and happiness in the household of the newlyweds as well as love’s promise and their wedding day. Today a door harp makes a wonderful gift for all seasons and occasions.

Tradition has evolved for door harps to represent welcome, happiness, good health and prosperity for all that pass through your door. Welcoming chimes will fill your home with delightful dew drops of sound. Gentle music from the door harp is the welcoming sound of ‘our home’. The harp is known as an instrument of angels, gods, and humankind. From Apollo’s lyre to a shepherd named David, stories are told of the harp’s power to soothe and heal. Harp therapy is the focus of a growing interest in the power of music to promote healing, harmony, and well-being.

The door harp consists of a hollow, wooden sound box, strung with metal strings, which are tuned to a chord. The harp is mounted on a swinging door. The door harp includes a centrally disposed opening and a plurality of musical strings stretched over the opening. A plurality of mallets is provided for striking the strings when the door undergoes swinging motion, thereby emitting musical tones.

A door harp is attached to the inside of the front door, and when the door is opened or closed, the wooden mallets bounce on the strings, creating a gentle, harmonious sound. Guests will be greeted with a welcoming musical chord each time the door opens and closes. Our woodworkers skillfully create each hollow-bodied harp with tunable wire-strings and wooden striker-balls for good resonance and a pleasant musical sound.

Every home should display a door harp, for the beauty of life and families that share it.

Instructions, wood information and history accompany each door harp.

Our billiard and pool cues use timber from beautifully grained Australian (Eucalypt) hardwoods. Each cue is handmade involving lathe work and wood sculpturing. We take the required time to make each properly, and with the right care, this billiard and pool cue will last a lifetime.

Each billiard and pool cue is professionally-finished, for professionally-minded users. Any billiard & pool cue lover, wood lover or art lover, whether straight-up professional, entertainment room or garage billiards and pool fan, we have a cue to suit your needs.

Unique

Each billiard and pool cue is made with a twist, an ergonomic, spiralled handle. These are hand-moulded, so the grip is unique. In the same way a corkscrew is spiralled, yet straight, the handles of our billiard and pool cues never vary off centre. The hand-moulds allow the handle to fit comfortably into the grooves of the fingers.

The wood is kiln-dried ensuring no cracking or bending over time. Each cue is sealed with a maintenance free oil finish that locks the original oil coat, protecting and enhancing the wood grain.

Personalised

All billiard & pool cues come with an Aussie-style bag.
All billiard & pool cues ‘break-down’ in half to fit, and travel.
Specific cue weights may be ordered.
Billiard and pool cues may be personalised; a name or other text engraved onto the handle.

Specifications

Our billiard & pool cues play solid (have no vibration in use) and also feature a variety of uniquely designed cue handles.

Our billiard & pool cues use only quality Australian hardwoods.
Each billiard & pool cue has a weighted base built into a hole in the cue, glued, and sealed off with a wood plug. The professional tip has a solid shaft feel. Shots have no vibration/jarring.
The billiard & pool cue has kiln dried wood with 10-12% moisture content. At this moisture point, the wood does not release or take in any moisture.
Our billiard & pool cues require no maintenance.
Each billiard & pool cue has a coat of Tung Oil, sealed with Scandinavian Oil and is then buffed.
Snake cues have paint work with a triple coat protection.
Our billiard & pool cues’ fitted brass parts have a high tech expanding glue of German-origin. Loctite engineering glue, designed for high impact, is used on each cue tip.
Each billiard & pool cue shaft is very solid. Weights range between 21-23 ounces.
The balance is 47 cm from the base of the 145 cm cue, ⅓ along the shaft.
Billiard & pool cues’ tips are standard 9mm Diamond or 10mm Elkmaster, available from billiard shops.
Inferior quality cues may be purchased more cheaply. One gets what one pays for.
Our billiard & pool cues are made with graphite of a light wood spliced into a hardwood handle for weight. Inferior cues will vibrate because of shaft weakness, and sound tinny.
As our billiard & pool cues are 100% sealed there are no issues with Customs.
Good quality lasts a lifetime, and more. Our billiard & pool cues are seriously good quality.

Eucalypt Range billiard and pool cues all come with hand-moulded handles etched with:

‘Stringybark’ OR
‘Rosewood’ OR
‘Bluegum’ OR
‘Blackbutt’ OR
‘Jarrah’. (Not hand-moulded. Lower price.)

Snake Range (Air brushed design on Eucalypt. All with hand-moulded handles.):

The word ‘Taipan’ is painted on the handle, with the snake design artwork.
This billiard & pool cue is painted with rich caramel scales with a pale underbelly.
The word ‘Dugite’ is painted on the handle, with the snake design artwork.
This billiard & pool cue is painted with silvery brown scales with black flecks.
The word ‘Red-Bellied Black Snake’ is painted on the handle, with the snake design artwork.
This billiard & pool cue is painted with glossy black scales and a vibrant red underbelly.
The word ‘Tiger Snake’ is painted on the handle, with the snake design artwork.
This billiard & pool cue is painted with a distinctive striped pattern: black, yellow and grey hints.
The word ‘Green Tree Python’ is painted on the handle, with the snake design artwork.
This billiard & pool cue is painted with emerald green scales and a lighter green underbelly.

The Indigenous Range (Air brushed design on Eucalypt. All with hand-moulded handles.):

These billiard and pool cues have indigenous air brushed artwork designs.
Each cue is individually beautiful. Ask us for more details.

Australia’s Nyungar people were the traditional custodians of the South-west. Wardandi territory included land northeast to modern Capel, south to modern Augusta, and included modern Busselton, Yallingup and Margaret River.

The Wardandi always maintained a strong connection to the sea, and as custodians of the many caves in the area which provided portals to the Dreaming, physical passages to sea forefathers.

Meekadarbee Cave is one such Dreaming site, the rest place of Mitann & Nobel, who fell in love, breaking kinship laws. Mittan also broke the law in looking at the moon spirit’s (Mikas’) reflection in the still waters of the cave. The young lovers may be heard laughing, their voices echoing in the waterfall called the ‘bathing place of the Moon’. Wardandi called the area Mokidup, a summer camping area for the Nyungar over thousands of years.

Margaret River was situated at the southernmost limits of Koombarnup territory, indigenous settlers of the Bunbury area. The Koombarnup made regular forays to Margaret River for hunting, building new ‘mias’ (huts) to replace constructions built in past seasons.

Where were the earliest Margaret River settlers from?

By 1830, a year after the establishment of the Swan River Colony (1829), new arrivals found to their dismay that much of the best land near the Swan River Colony was already purchased. John, Charles, Vernon & Alfred Bussell, along with Captain John Molloy and his wife Georgiana arrived in Fremantle on the ‘Warrior’ on 12 March, 1830. The Bussell family had to seek land away from the congested Swan River floodplain. Why?

Lieutenant-Governor James Stirling persuaded settlers to take up potential good farmland away from the Swan. The best land had been taken; much by Stirling’s closest associates. Governor Stirling encouraged the ‘Warrior’ settlers to move south, to an area near Cape Leeuwin. Molloy, accompanied by a few soldiers and thirty settlers traversed south to the Blackwood River area.

Who explored the Margaret River area?

The Bussells ventured further south and settled at Augusta, but found the coastal terrain difficult to farm. John Bussell made the trek overland to the Vasse River in 1831, noting several streams, stating of a watercourse: ‘one very large and in it a basin into which rapids fell about 15 yards across – very deep. We forded it at the rapids but not dry footed; this stream which rolls along much more water than the Vasse (River), can never fail.’ John Bussell had sighted the Margaret River.

In 1855, a few Augusta families gave up that locality and relocated to more fertile land 45kms further north, at future Margaret River. The earliest settlers were the Higgins and the Bussell families. Higgins initially established stables for the passing coach horses wending along the Busselton to Karridale track. Others farming settlers included the Robert Lockhart, Stewart Keenan, James Forrest and Nathaniel Abbey.

What was the early history of the Bussells?

Alfred Bussell (1816-1882), a key settler to Margaret River, was born at Portsea, Hampshire in England. The Reverend William Bussell had six sons: John, William, Lennox, Charles, Vernon and Alfred. Their father passed away in 1820, leaving their mother Frances to raise nine children.

The eldest son was keen to enter the Church but his mother and Charles persuaded John to emigrate to the fledgling Swan River Colony. She recognised the importance for her sons to obtain their own land, and Charles was particularly interested in acquiring a homestead in preference to a professional career.

John (27), Charles (19), Vernon (16) and Alfred (14) sailed aboard the ‘Warrior’ to new lives. On landing at Fremantle on the 12 March, 1830, the brothers like many new arrivals, were informed that the best land along the Swan River had already been allocated. James Stirling persuaded some of the potential settlers, including the Bussells and James Turner, to settle 320kms to south near Cape Leeuwin. Captain Molloy, who had also been on the ship, led a party of settlers and soldiers near the Blackwood River at Augusta.

Why did settlers move to Margaret River?

The Bussells toiled long hours over four years clearing property for farmland, initially at Augusta. Apart from poor coastal soils, the main difficulty came in their attempts to fell and clear hardwoods, jarrah or karri. The removal of a single tree could take the brothers up to a week, including taking out the huge stumps.

The Bussells constructed a stone and mortar house they called Datchet. It had a thatched roof covering, woven and filled using strong rushes from the river banks. John Bussell, in particular, was frustrated by land clearance issues, which only revealed less than fertile soils. So, he took to exploring the Vasse region further, in search of more suitable farm land. In spite of the hardships on the land, the Bussells built a new homestead then just north along the Blackwood River near Alexandra Bridge, calling it Adelphi, meaning the brothers.

More members of the Bussell family came to the district in 1833, with the arrival of Lennox and two sisters, Frances and Elizabeth. Unfortunately and coincidentally, on Guy Fawkes Day, the 5 November 1833, their homestead Adelphi was destroyed by a fire. It had spread from the wooden chimney and devastated their lives. The disaster was the final disappointment John was willing to endure in the locality.

Soon after, the Bussells welcomed their mother and their sister Mary late in 1834. In the meantime, the family made do with poor lodgings after the loss of the homestead. With their meagre possessions burned and no reason to rebuild in a location that lacked obvious farming potential, John pushed for the family to re-establish to the north, sometime in the Vasse region. Charles Bussell continued to live at Augusta.

Who built Margaret River’s Ellensbrook homestead?

Alfred Bussell (youngest brother of John) built Margaret River’s first homestead, Ellensbrook. During 1850, Alfred married sixteen year old, Ellen Heppingstone. Initially, the couple made their home at Broadwater (Vasse).

In 1857, Alfred and Ellen Bussell established their beef and dairy farm. Alfred named the family homestead after his wife, Ellen. He built with considerable assistance from local Nyungar labour. In his work so close to the Nyungar, Alfred became fluent with the Wardandi dialect. Alfred was interested enough, and accepted enough by indigenous people, to become well-versed on local bush medicine centred on the area’s botany.

Ellensbrook was constructed using crushed shells cemented among limestone blocks. The builders employed a boat mast as a ridge beam and used rough bush poles and paperbark to fabricate a framework for the homestead. Ellensbrook was sealed with a handmade treatment of plaster, made from burning limestone retrieved from nearby dunes and mixed with additives.

Ellen established the property’s dairy, while Alfred commenced a cattle and timber business. Timber cutting occurred in Margaret River in the late 1860’s. Ellensbrook’s waterwheel, constructed from tuart and jarrah, and with steel tyres, operated into the 1950’s. Salt laden winds eventually corroded much of the structure, requiring the waterwheel’s restoration.

Meekadarbee Cave was easy walking distance from the homestead. Tall peppermint trees arched over the cave behind with its shower of cascading falls. Ellen Bussell stored and preserved churned butter in the cave, as the dark interior maintained a consistently low temperature.

Why was Wallcliffe House built?

Grieving the sad loss of their three infant sons, Alfred and Ellen departed Ellensbrook in 1865. The Bussells established Wallcliffe House near the mouth of Margaret River. Alfred had worked hard and intelligently and was now prosperous. In addition to his Ellensbrook and Wallcliffe holdings, he purchased Burnside, Fairy Ring and Woodyche, as well as acquiring properties between Cowaramup and the Donnelly River.

Alfred also found time to sit on the Western Australian Legislative Council for several years. In 1877, aged 43, Ellen passed away, and was followed soon after by Alfred, in 1882. Alfred and Ellen were survived by six sons and eight daughters.

Ellensbrook at Margaret River was then acquired Bussell’s sisters Fanny (Frances) and Edith (Elizabeth). Between 1899-1917, Edith established Ellensbrook Farm Home for Aboriginal Children, running an Aboriginal mission on the property. This enabled local Nyungars, the Wardandi, to work on the property in return for food and shelter. In 1979 Ellensbrook was donated to the National Trust.

Was the wreck of the ‘Georgette’ near Margaret River?

In 1876, the local freighter ‘Georgette’ founded off Calgarup Bay near Redgate, 14kms from Margaret River township. Alfred and Ellen Bussell’s sixteen year old daughter, Grace, with a young Nyungar stockman Sam Isaacs, rescued fifty passengers from the stricken vessel. Shipwreck survivors were later taken to Wallcliffe House, to be comforted, fed and sheltered by the Bussells.

What is the background of the Margaret River bridge?

Initially, settlers were forced to cross Margaret River using a sandbar or fording in shallows. The old Burnside Bridge was first constructed in 1878, and made access to and from the settlement more achievable.

Maurice Davies, a timber merchant, obtained a concession licence in 1878 to cut karri from Coodardup (Kudardup), near Augusta. He built a new bridge, just south of the modern Margaret River Bridge, in 1894. It was required for access to the Karridale milling settlement. Davies also brought a steam engine to Karridale in 1890, which he named Kate, after his daughter.

At the time, Margaret River served as a wayfarer’s stopover and a depot for traffic passing between Busselton and Augusta. Tom Higgins constructed the first home at Margaret River proper, and opened his business, a staging post for horses. The Higgins house also operated as the local post office in the outpost.

When was Margaret River township named?

Margaret River was surveyed in 1912 and gazetted in the following year, and was earmarked to play a part in Western Australia’s future Group Settlement Scheme. The townsite was intended for the north side of Margaret River, yet the housing developed on its southern (higher) banks. At the time when the settlement officially became Margaret River, only three houses existed.

Bussell recorded an Aboriginal name for Margaret River, which the Wardandi knew as Wooditchup. The name is reputed to have come from Wooditch, an elder and medicine man.

Why was Margaret River chosen for the settlement?

The pioneering Bussell family’s John chose the name (Margaret River) in honour of Margaret Wyche, a cousin in England. Witchcliffe, which went through a few spelling alterations, is 8kms down the Bussell Hwy, south of Margaret River, and is similarly connected to Bussell’s cousin.

What was the Group Settlement Scheme?

After WW2, the State Government was keen to attract migrants into the country areas. The Group Settlement Scheme commenced in 1921. Its aim was to encourage British and European immigrants to settle and farm sparsely populated, uncleared land in the South-west. The concept required settlers to work co-operatively. As groups, in small settlements, the families cleared blocks for farms. In return, each family would receive its own farming block. Although the Scheme failed, it did assist in opening up agricultural land in the South-west, and certainly contributed to populating the Margaret River area. Rosa Brook is one of many Margaret River ‘groupy’ sites.

Margaret River had what other early development?

Margaret River’s first store began operating in 1923 from Carter’s Road, just off Karridale (Caves) Road. The Western Australian Government extended its railway service of the South-west from the early 1920s. The Busselton-Margaret River Railway opened in 1924, and within a year the Flinders Bay Railway Line linking Margaret River with Augusta. The line reached Witchcliffe on 20 October 1924, and Augusta by 1926.

Timber was moved on wooden rails from Maurice Davies’ mill at Kudardup (near Augusta) to the winter port of Flinders Bay, or shifted in season from the summer port of Hamelin Bay. Numerous ships were sunk while attempting to load timber.

The railway extension beyond Busselton prompted further development associated with immigration policies that were related to the Group Settlement Scheme. Freight of agricultural produce and timber products was made considerably easier using rolling stock. The South-west dairy industry also expanded at this time.

Margaret River township continued its development on the southern side of the river, and a hall opened for community events and socialising, and hotel for business and socializing, in 1936.

The Busselton-Augusta railway closed in 1957 due to less profitable economies. Officials representing WA Government Railways claimed the need to reduce and terminate unprofitable rail services, in spite of appeals from the Margaret River community.

Several of the old Margaret River railway lines have become part of the Rails to Trail project, for enthusiastic walkers and lovers of nature and heritage.

How is Rotary Park important to Margaret River?

Three walking trails lead out from Rotary Park, immediately north of the Margaret River bridge. The River Walk is a 2km circuit following the river along the southern bank and loops back along the old railway on the northern bank. The 1.5km Karri Walk is on the western side of Bussell Highway, the trek taking walkers through natural bush along the river bank. The 3km Bridge Walk guides walkers along a section of old Carter’s Road, and passes the old railway bridge and a single huge karri.

Among recreation facilities at Rotary Park, there is a section devoted to heritage displays representing the Group Settlement Scheme. There is an original home, blacksmiths, sawmill, stable, machinery and associated artifacts. The park, now a Margaret River attraction, dates back to 1922, when the grounds were enjoyed by gatherings of Group Settler children, where the community also used a small hall.

How did Margaret River vineyards develop?

Settlers to Margaret River planted grape vines from the area’s earliest settlement. Other than hardwood timber, well into the 1970s Margaret River was known primarily for its agriculture: beef, dairy and sheep farming.

During the mid-60s, the Swan Valley wine growing area was in a (temporary) time of decline, environmental difficulties due to nematodes (eelworms) attaching to vine roots, and virus diseases such as yellow mosaic, as well as waterlogged soils.

Yet, Charles Court, Minister for Industry Development, was interested in a decentralised grape industry away from the Swan, innuendo being that Crawford Nalder, Minister for Agriculture, was a teetoller, and was loathe to expand winemaking. By 1964, demand for table wines, as distinct from fortified wines that had mostly come out of the Swan Valley, was steadily growing.

Country from Kendenup to Manjimup was surveyed, and Albany was considered but not recommended, while positive assessments were achieved in Mt Barker and Rocky Gully.

The cooler climate of the WA’s South-west was considered, as authored in 1965 by Dr John Gladstone. He suggested that Margaret River should be considered as a premier wine region. During 1967, Dr Tom Cullity put in rows of trial vines on a family farm at Burekup, north of Bunbury.

However, Cullity was confident the Margaret River area was the ideal location for grape vines and subsequently spent a year looking for land. He eventually chose 1.3 hectares on Harman’s Road South, near Caves Road, paying $600 for the land.

The vintner’s planters augered 30cms deep holes in the rich Margaret River earth. Cuttings were inserted with one bud at ground level and another above it. The remainder of the stem was underground; there were no roots. The vine cuttings were rhine riesling, cabernet sauvignon and shiraz from Houghtons’ Swan Valley vineyard. Cullity name his vineyard Vasse Felix; the name Vasse was long connected to the area after Thomas Timothée Vasse, a sailor on the French ship Naturaliste, who was lost in the surf at Geographe Bay, on June 8, 1801.

The 1971 early vintage grape bunches mostly rotted, with much of the remainder damaged by the beaks of silvereyes. A year later Vasse Felix won the riesling wine a gold medal in a class for small vineyards at the Perth Royal Show. The following year released its first commercial wine. This marked the beginning of the phenomenally successful Margaret River wine industry.

Margaret River now has a large variety of grapes: Rhine Riesling, Semillion, Chardonnay, Verdelho, Traminer, Sauvigon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Over 700 hectacres of vines are planted with approximately 30 producing wineries.