Arthur & Bridget Shivers

by Jenny Golding
Updated: 31 January 2026

A WATTLE AND DAUB THATCHED HOME IN WATERLOO

It was in 1886 that Irish-born Arthur and Bridget Shivers and their family bought property in Waterloo, quickly building a house of materials obtained on their land, a home of wattle-bough walls plastered with mud, the roof of thatch.

Arthur and his wife and two-year-old daughter had arrived in the Swan River Colony in 1860, and the parents had been employed at Australind and Dardanup before leasing land in Paradise, near Dardanup.

The family multiplied with the birth of Sarah, Michael, Henry, Bridget, Arthur and Jane and the arrival of daughter Mary, who had been left with grandparents and her brother when her parents emigrated. Their home consisted of four rooms: one for boys, one for girls, a kitchen and a long room.

Grown sons and parents wanted land in Waterloo and, at first, leased land along a track, later named Martin Road, but it proved too swampy.

They purchased land across from where the school was eventually established in 1896 and the family farmed, established a blacksmith forge and began an ‘open bag’ postal service, a forerunner to the Post Office the women ran in Waterloo.

In 1898, prior to his marriage to Fanny Agnes Larkins, their son Michael built another home, close to the original Shivers family home, this time of timber slabs and with an iron roof. The veranda gave added protection and shade.

*Both of the Shivers’ homes can be seen here.* *Michael Shivers home at Waterloo* was built of timber slabs and iron in 1898, *prior to his marriage to Fanny Agnes Larkins*. A wall, window and thatched roof, part of the original home built in 1886 by his parents, Arthur and Bridget Shivers, can be seen at the right of the photo.

References:

The Shivers homes: Information and photograph provided by Jenny Golding