If you have information and photographs of other homesteads or houses of interest in Burekup, built up until 1950, please let us know by using the Contact Us page.
Ventonia
Thomas Leopold Rose was the son of Robert Henry Rose, who came to Western Australia on the Merope in 1850, and Elizabeth Teede. Tom and his brother Robert Henry III (Harry) started farming land alongside the Collie River in Burekup in 1907. Tom called his farm Ventonia. Tom was killed aged 44 in December 1927 in his car at the Burekup railway crossing. At the time, the Ventonia Homestead was only partially built. His wife Dorothy carried on the farm through the Depression and World War II to keep Ventonia intact for her family.
Highland Valley
William Noah Hedges arrived by ship from England in 1878. A qualified engineer, he settled in Western Australia in 1893. He married Elizabeth Paterson in 1884. Hedges owned considerable tracts of land throughout WA managing them from Perth. Highland Valley was purchased in 1914 and the homestead built on the Collie River Road in 1923. Hedges’ son William, his wife Mary and their daughter Barbara moved in and the property was transferred into William’s name in 1924. They developed the gardens at the property. A tennis court was built and a long curving driveway led to the house. Tennis parties and hunts were a feature of the Highland Valley social scene.
The Hedges family sold Highland Valley in 1937.
Henty Farm
Mr G C Money came from a Lincolnshire (England) farming family. He arrived in Bunbury prior to World War I and became a partner in the legal firm, Stanley, Money and Walker. He bought Henty Farm in about 1911 on Lennard Road, east of Burekup. The farm consisted of 2,011 acres and was managed by Mr Arthur Warburton.
G C Money lived with his wife and daughter in a two-storey house in Money St, Bunbury until the death of his daughter Gladys in 1927. The house in Bunbury was then dismantled and transported to Burekup where it was rebuilt.
After Mr Money’s death, his grandsons sold the farm in the late 1950s.
Grassvale
Grassvale was built by Robert Henry III (Harry) Rose. Grassvale was a prosperous farm, winning the prestigious Governor’s Cup four times at the Perth Royal show and tied another year with its champion livestock of pigs, cattle and sheep. Harry’s son Forrest took over Grassvale after returning from World War II service and when his father retired.
Forrest Rose sold the farm in the 1960s to Vivian Bevan of Brunswick.
Cockenzie
Frederick Hutchinson married Anne Lucretia Prince in NSW in 1886. They came to Western Australia, at first living at Mornington Mills, then moving to Burekup in 1908. Cockenzie Farm, Wellington Locations 16, 17 and 18 (formerly Leschenault Location 9, the Henty Estate) was purchased from The Westralian Timber Company Ltd of Perth. Frederick immediately commenced clearing for a stone fruit orchard.
Frederick was paymaster at Harvey’s Mornington Mills and stayed on there until Bunbury builders Banting and Fowler completed his house in 1913.
Bob, the youngest son, took over Cockenzie and Married Isabel Whitham in 1924. When the orchard started losing money, Bob and Bella took on dairy farming full-time, hand milking in a dirt-floored dairy.
When Bob and Bella retired from the farm, their eldest son John took over Cockenzie. raising their family of four children at the property.
References and Images:
- Burekup on the Henty (2000), by The People
Newspaper:
- Fatality in the South West, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 – 1954), Saturday 31 December 1927, page 46 (death of Thomas Leopold Rose)
Dardanup Heritage Collective 