Homesteads & Houses – Wellington Mills

by Janice Calcei
Updated: 5 February 2024

If you have information and photographs of other homesteads or houses of interest in Wellington Mills, built up until 1950, please let us know by using the Contact Us page.

Old Mill Manager’s House – built 1898

Below is a slideshow of images from the interior, verandah and exterior of the Old Mill Manager’s House after it was renovated in 2019 by Michael and Margaret Hall.

  • East view of Old Manager’s House
  • East side of former servant’s wing
  • Entry to rear verandah, south side of house.
  • East verandah
  • Kitchen
  • Meals area near kitchen
  • Living Room
  • Grandfather clock
  • Dining Room
  • Hall running from front verandah to rear verandah
  • Main Bedroom
  • Office within former servants’ wing
  • Former servant’s room
  • Historic items on the verandah near the servants’ quarters
  • Courtyard at the rear of the home between the servants’ quarters and the kitchen/bathroom/laundry wing.
  • Looking at the rear of the house, utilities rooms on left and old servants’ quarters on right.
  • There are many historic photographs at the Old Manager’s House
  • Bathroom
  • There are two cellars under the house which are built into bases of the two main fireplace chimneys.
  • Charred timber remains from the 1950 fire when Joe Zagami saved the house from destruction.


Built as the Mill Manager’s residence in 1897, this 11-room timber home consists of one main section and two wings. It has six verandahs. In the main section each room has its own fireplace and at the bottom of the two chimneys below the house are two cellars. At one time two gardeners were employed to care for the grounds surrounding the house.

Built by the Canning Jarrah Timber Company, the house was sold in 1928 by the subsequent owners, Millars Timber and Trading Company, to Mr Joe Zagami who sold it in turn to Tom and Enid Hall in 1959.

The Hall family of five children, Lesley, Jeffery, Michael, Ross and Kim grew up in this house during the 1960’s and 1970’s, attending the school at Wellington.

The home is now the private residence of Michael and Margaret Hall. The house underwent an extensive renovation in 2019 to address structural issues and return the home to its former glory.

Mill Manager’s House at Wellington Mills, c. 1900. The house was built in 1898.
Mill Manager’s House, Wellington Mills, early 1900s. The annex seen behind the house was the servants’ quarters. Another executive home, believed to once be the site of Wellington Mills’ first school, can be seen to the right of the photograph
Mill Manager’s house in Wellington Mills, early 1900s. St Catherine’s Church, shown to the right, was removed to Stratham in 1931
The Old Mill Manager’s House at Wellington Mills was extensively renovated in 2019

Fanny’s Plains – R A Lowrie’s Farm

Robert Anderson Lowrie’s farm was located on what is now the Wellington Mills Road. It was resumed for a pine plantation. Robert Anderson Lowrie was born in Scotland and arrived in Western Australia with his parents in about 1890.  He took up farming in Ferguson, put the farm up for sale in 1926, and passed away on 18 March, 1935 (South Western Times (Bunbury, WA : 1932 – 1954), Saturday 23 March 1935, page 5)

The photograph below appeared in the Western Mail in 1912.

R A Lowrie’s farm, Fanny’s Plains was located on what is now the Wellington Mills Road, and was resumed for a pine plantation.

In this issue we give a photograph of Mr R A Lowrie’s farm about three miles from Wellington Mills and 10 miles from Dardanup. The holding comprises 800 acres, 200 acres of which are cleared. The orchard covers 10 acres, and there are 35 acres under crop. Mr Lowrie bas about 700 sheep, 100 cattle, and 10 horses, and keeps several pigs and fowls. He milks nine cows and finds a market for his butter at Wellington Mills. The timber on the estate consists of jarrah
and red-gum. Mr. Lowrie has been living in the Ferguson district for 16 years.

Western Mail, Friday 27 September 1912, page 7

Weetman/Muir House
The old Weetman house is one of only three original buildings from the early days of Wellington Mills, along with the Mill Manager’s House and the Post Office building. It was built by Robert Muir in 1902 although it is recorded in a notebook that he “Started to look after the farm on 18th day of November 1901”. 

Weetman/Muir Residence at Wellington Mills in its original state. The house was extensively renovated in the 1990s

The house and farm were taken over by Muir’s daughter, Isabella, and her husband, John Weetman. 

Isabella Muir/Weetman attended Wellington Mills school and worked there for the following years:

  • 1909 – 1910 – Junior Monitor
  • 1911 – 1914 – Monitor
  • 1915 – Assistant
  • 1927 – Monitor
  • 1928 -1929 – TM
  • 1943 -1945 – Head Teacher on Supply
  • 1947 – 1953 – Head Teacher on Supply
  • 1954 – 1959 – Headmistress

The house remained in the Weetman family until the early 1990s when their son, Bob Weetman, sold the property. During the 1990s, Lisa and Tony Ferris restored and updated the house and planted a magnificent garden. In their turn, they sold the property in the early 2000s.

The house remains standing.

Brookdale Farm
This farm is situated at the roundabout in Wellington Mills, adjacent to Gnomesville. The original cottage no longer exists and was replaced by a brick home in the 1980s.

The property was first purchased, and the house built, by John Calvert Kerr probably in 1906, while he was serving a stint as Mill Manager at Wellington Mills after Henry Yelverton’s death.

The farm was subsequently sold to the Waddingham family and then to the Chapman family. It was George Chapman who built a new brick house. Both these families grew extensive apple orchards. George Chapmans sold the farm in about 2005.

Brookdale Homestead in about 1906