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PALLINUP SHEARING SHED

History:

Pallinup Estate was owned James Munroe and then David Stewart. In 1919 the property, along with Martinup Estate was sold to the government for soldier settlement. After WW1 the property was carved up into blocks of 650 acres and some twenty settlers were granted these blocks. Situated near the upper reaches of the Pallinup River”.
The first settlers were as follows: Wilkinson, Gillespie, Simpson, Baxter, Wright, Hornsey and Davis, Chambers, Barnard, Rhodda, Freegard, and Norris, Parnell, Wyatt, Flanagan, Merits (Mouritz), Denny, Thorpe, Watterson, White, Hams, Taylor, and Lloyd-Woods.

A great deal of community help went on, one helping the other. The married men were as popular as the single men and they all appreciated a meal prepared by a woman.
One settler named Thorpe was a carpenter, so he built a lot of the first houses. All these houses had four rooms of 12 feet by 12 feet with a verandha on the front and a lean-to at the back – this had no floor.

DAVID STEWART              #1
 

       MAP OF PALLINUP ESTATE      #2

The Homestead:
The original homestead had about eight large rooms with a passage down the middle and verandha's on three sides. The kitchen contained a huge stove with double doors and there was also an outside bakehouse and laundry.
The main shed was very large with enough hand sawn mangers for about 20 horses. These were in the centre with gates either end. On the western side of these were the grain and chaff sheds and on the eastern side, a blacksmiths shop, workshop and harness room. A few yards from the stable section a brick enclosure was erected to store the horses manure.
The stables were cleaned out daily and the concrete washed down.
On a slope on the east side of the house was an orchard and vegetable garden and about ten acres of vineyards. This was watered from the dam from which the soil was taken to make the bricks. There must have been a spring in this dam as there was no catchment area being bush all around it, however it deteriorated and ceased altogether.
There were waterholes and soakes (sic) all over the homestead property, but in the last 20 years they have all turned salt or stopped flowing. There are three underground tanks around the homestead, they were built from concrete with tin roofs.

 

   THE ORIGINAL PALLINUP HOMESTEAD          #3

The Shearing Shed:
The shearing shed was left by the government for the use of all the farmers.  Each settler had an equal share in the shearing shed, sheep yards and dip. The Pallinup Settlers Association was formed to organise the use of these facilities. The shearing shed was made of salmon gum wood. All of these were hand sawn in a pit beside the shed. When machine shearing came in an eight stand "Moffat Virtue" plant was installed. This plant was driven by a steam engine and functioned for many years before a petrol engine was used. The house, the main shed (stables) and a two-roomed cottage were constructed of bricks made of red sandstone soil obtained from a dam being built near the shearing shed. These bricks were either cut or baked and were about a foot long and nine inches high and about the same width. The internal walls were plastered. All the sheep were shorn there by local shearers and shed hands for many years.
As sheep numbers increased in the district, and the 1939 to 45 War caused a scarcity of shearers it became necessary to employ contract teams from the pastoral area runs.

Later, as the sheep numbers increased, they were shorn by a contractor, usually a team that had been working up north. These teams were run by men such as Frank Marks and John Locking. Quite a few of the State’s top shearers worked there. With 8 stands they would shear up to 1,000 to 1100 sheep a day and most sheep came from quite a distance as the job was done quickly. Most of the Pallinup flocks were small, about 500 to 700 probably two of those would be shorn in a day. Later a lot of the farmers started to have their sheep shorn on their properties as they had suitable sheds and plant and so the contractor did not have enough numbers to warrant bringing a team down and then they employed local men. The Williams men, an Aboriginal team of shearers, worked the shed for many years.

The last outsider to use the shed was Russ Baxter and then he decided to do his own. The most sheep shorn during the time of contractors was about 25,000.

 

      DRIVING SHEEP TO THE SHEARING SHED       #4
 

     RENEWED SHEARING SHED        #5

     RENEWED SHEARING SHED         #6

The Stables:
The stables burnt down on February 15 in 1926 or 27. It was a scorching hot day with a northerly wind and the owner of Woodyarrup did some burning off and it got away. We had a stubble paddock on the northern side and the fire came through that and into our paddocks. Fire fighters stopped it close to one of our sheds, but it sneaked around and got into the haystack close to the main shed and that was the end. There was no fire fighting equipment except boughs and bags in those days. A lot of helpers managed to remove most of the produce out of the shed but the remainder burnt. A creek on the eastern side stopped the fire spreading further. So, although the house was saved, it was then bulldozed by Naroo Pastoral Co. when they purchased the property in 1974.

Every endeavour has been made to accurately record the details however if you would like to provide additional images and/or newer information we are pleased to update the details on this site. Please use CONTACT at the top of this page to email us. We appreciate your involvement in recording the history of our area.

 

References:                 Article:      

                                  Image:     1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

 


Copyright : Gordon Freegard 2024