When I was a little girl, I lived at Glen Iris. To my childish eyes, earth held nothing finer than our old farm home. Our neighbours were our friends and in this happy state of affairs I grew up.

Glen Iris is now a suburb of Bunbury, but once it was a farm of several thousand acres, its exact acreage I’ve never been able to find out. The first owners were a family named Jeffery. They came from Glen Iris in Victoria and in remembrance of this called their WA property Glen Iris. The property extended from the Preston River in the west to Waterloo in the east. Its northern boundary were the owners of Leschenault, who I have been told, at that time were the Cliftons and further to the east, the Houghs on the Collie River. Their neighbours on the south side, to Picton Road were the Forrests of Picton.

In 1897, the Jeffrey brothers dissolved their partnership. James kept the Waterloo portion of the estate and Thomas subdivided his portion on the river flats into small holdings. He also built a new Picton Inn opposite the Railway Station and obtained a licence in 1900. Later he perished in the Northwest and after his death the Inn was purchased by William Wimbridge.

Miss Jeffrey was one of the early teachers at Picton School. The school then was on William Forrests land near the river. This site proved to be unsuitable, so William provided two acres of land at the corner of Vittoria Road and Picton Road and the first section of the present school was built there. Later additions were added.

The subdivision took place in 1897, and Jubilee Road was named to commemorate the occasion of Queen Victorias 1897 Jubilee. Newton Road was named after Newton Moore who surveyed the estate. Jeffrey Road was named after the former owners and it connected the two farms, but this road was still mostly a track. Moorland Avenue skirted the river and led to the Moorland Homestead. This avenue was planted with silver wattles from cuttings the Jeffreys brought from Victoria. As well, the drive into Moorland was also planted with these trees. Alas, these lovely trees have all died out as none were ever replaced.

Moonlight Avenue wound around a swamp and led to Moonlight Bridge, a hand bridge that connected Glen Iris to South Bunbury. This bridge was destroyed in a flood and never replaced.

By mutual consent, the Roses and the Hamiltons closed a portion of the Avenue where it joined Jeffrey Road and erected a gate. No one objected and the gate swung there until quite recently.

The land on the Preston River flats was very fertile and small farmers were able to earn a living from small acreages. Poultry farmers and market gardeners only needed twenty acres for their activities. The larger farms were very mixed, dairying being the chief industry. Crops of hay and potatoes were grown and nearly every holding had fruit trees and grapes. There was quite a demand for chaff as horses were the main means of transport and many town dwellers kept a cow for their own use. A travelling chaff cutter arrived each summer and cut the hay crops. 

The water of the Preston River was greatly appreciated and there were several nice spots suitable for swimming, and in season, there were plenty of fish in the river. Nearly everyone owned a boat and thought nothing of rowing to the Estuary, especially if there were rumours of good catches of whiting and the nicer types of fish. Snags were a great nuisance, and every now and then, another one would show up and a boat would get stuck but because they were mostly flat bottomed, somehow they slid over them.

There were many complaints about flooding, and meetings were called and the government decided to snag the river. This was a bad move, as the explosives used to blast the trees and logs out of the riverbed disturbed the flows of the river and silt filled the deeper pools, making the river very shallow. Later floods did more damage to the banks and the lovely little river filled in. The banks once lovely with trees, shrubs, ferns and reeds, eventually collapsed and grew wider apart, the water fell to a very low level and today there are no boats and nor fish in this part of the river.

Glen Iris was subdivided at the time of the gold rush. People from all over the world came to the West seeking fortunes. Many were disappointed with their gold mining efforts and turned their energies elsewhere. It was a strange assortment of mankind who bought the Glen Iris blocks. There were three Malays, one Phillipino, two Swedes, one Norwegian, English people, people from NSW and Victoria and local sandgroupers, and last but not least, the son of a convict. Everyone settled in very well, there was too much work to be done before any money could be earned from their newly acquired land, so there were few disputes among the newcomers.

In 1898, my grandmother Julia Hamilton on the advice of her cousin Robert Rose bought the house and farm at Glen Iris. She was the widow of a British Officer and the daughter of an English squire so she was not very well suited to small farming. The venture was not at all successful but it was a happy home and it drew some nice company.

Fred Hamilton was her son and he was a good citizen and greatly interested himself in the affairs of the town and district. He convened the first meeting for the erection of the Butter Factory, worked both as a member and chairman of the Bunbury Road Board, and was a member of the Wellington Agricultural Society which oversaw the establishment of show buildings at the Hands Memorial Oval.

The block opposite the Hamiltons front gate in Moorland Avenue was bought by the Sutherland family. They were English people. Mrs Sutherland was a Salvation Army officer and came firstly to South Australia with General Bramwell Brooks blessing to found the Salvation Army in Australia. She was always very proud of a bible General Booth had given her when she left England to begin such huge task. A large family forced her to relinquish this position, and they came west to begin a return trip back to England but they got no further. Mr Sutherland conducted a produce store in Bunbury and thinking that a large farm would be better for his boys, sold his Glen Iris farm to the Nixes of Boyup Brook and his store to Mr Fabicus. After Mr Fabicus’s early death, the produce business was sold to Wight and Emmett. The Sutherlands first went to Denmark and then to Yelbeni, where Mr Sutherland died. After his death, Mrs Sutherland continued her work for the Salvation Army here in WA.

The next block was bought by Alfred Temple who at that time owned Bunburys best bakery. He planted an orchard and his father-in-law Mr Properjohn and his son Norman looked after the property. Norman was lame and had a withered arm but I never knew anyone who could walk faster. There were no pensions then, and with one arm, he cut all the wood for the bakehouse. He was a very happy fellow and whistled wherever he went, mostly the old ballads and Moody and Sankey hymns. He was a very nice fellow and everyone had a kind word for Norman. 

Richard Kirtons block was next to the Temples. He had a river frontage and his property adjoined Moorland on his back boundary. He and his wife were Londoners. Mrs Girtons brother was Sir Gervaise Mann and one of Londons Lord Mayors. Mr Girton was a very clever and unusual man. He owned one of Bunburys earliest Chemist shops and when he left Bunbury, sold the business to WL Thomas. Mr Kirton was also a photographer and many of our earliest photos were taken by him. 

The frontage of the Kirton land was on Moorland Avenue, really this frontage was the banks of a swamp. The Roadboard of the time had no money to build anything like private bridges, so the Kirton boys felled river trees, cut them into lengths and placed them across the swamp. Earth was then carted to cover the logs and when finished, they called it a ‘pontoon’ and it is still there to this day.

Mr Kirton was a man of many unusual ideas. One of his earliest schemes was to start what he called a ‘duckery.’ His idea was that because the swamp was full of frogs, frogs laid hundreds of eggs and the eggs turned into tadpoles and as ducks ate reeds and tadpoles, that he should breed ducks. He made an incubator and hatched hundreds of ducks to live on the swamp and everything was going well until the swamp dried out and the venture failed. Another scheme was to extract oil from lavender bushes and citronella trees. He planted large plots of these and while waiting for their maturity, began making pottery from the clay on his property. He built a kiln and made very good flower pots and drain tiles, and I still own two of his flower pots. He bought a potter named Mr Courtney out from England to Glen Iris and seeing more possibilities for pottery in Perth, sold everything here and left for Perth.  He also opened a Chemist shop in High Street, Fremantle which prospered.

The first block on Jeffrey Road not owned by the Hamiltons, was owned by a Malay man named Delgado. One corner of his block crossed a swamp and this was of no use to him so he asked the Hamiltons to exchange a corner of their land for this land. Fences were erected and the Delgado block became the shape of a boot which can still be seen on maps today. Mr Delgado married a Miss Maguire and worked for Mr Wass at Mill Point. He had an accident there and was scalded to death and left a widow and four children. The Woods family then bought the Delgado place and with Mrs Woods we had one of the kindest neighbours we ever had. She was the daughter of Mr Bantling of Bunbury who was one of Bunburys old builders and built the first part of the Bunbury Hospital.

The next block belonged to Mr Evangelista. He came from one of the Phillipine Islands and was a very intelligent fellow. He called in one day to say ‘goodbye’ as one of his brothers had just been elected to Parliament. Later this brother became president of their island. Well with such distinction in the family we could not expect him to go on living in Jeffrey Road.

Jack Brown brought him out. There were no stock markets as there are today, and he was a stock dealer and also conducted a piggery. Pigs, he had of every kind. Little baby pigs, pigs to take home and fatten, pigs fat enough to kill, and if you wanted, you could buy a mother and father pig. Jack Brown would start you off. He was a very honest man, carried all his money around in a wash leather bag, paid cash for everything, but if you were hard up, he would give you terms but stood for no hanky-panky.

The next block belonged to Mr and Mrs Elton. Mr Elton was English and a trained pork butcher. No one in the settlement could fatten and dress a pig as well as he could. When he killed, he made bacon, hams and sausages from the meat. They always had a lovely garden and Mrs Elton grew a lot of pot plants, some in very unusual pots, any kitchen utensil with a hole in it became a flower pot.

On the other side of the road was the Duffields home. The Duffields came from Victoria and their son William was an apiarist. He moved his bees from place to place to find good nectar for them. Later after his parents died, he sold his land to Peter Martin and went to live in North Boyanup.

Adjoining the Duffields, was the biggest character in the place: Karl Andersen. He was born somewhere on the Gulf of Finland and when he was a boy his father sent him off to sea with a Finnish Sea Captain. He told my uncle of his experiences and they were hard. Little pay and hard work on the ship, and in the ports loading and unloading cargo. He sailed all over the world in the old Finns brig, and when he arrived in Geraldton for a load of sandalwood, he decided to run away. He had a little money and a pet monkey which he loved. Her name was Jenny and she had the greatest collection of fleas that had ever entered the country but she travelled everywhere with him. After the Brig left Geraldton without him, he went to Dongara where a farmer gave him a job digging drains. He was a small man but a good worker, having learned from the Finn that if he was not smart enough he’d get a cuff, so he learned to work well. He stayed at Dongara and married the farmers daughter but this was not without some trouble. He had learned his English aboard a sailing ship and swear words made up every other word he spoke. Taking his hat off, you could expect to be greeted with ‘... good morning Missus’ and ‘… nice … day today,’ His mother-in-law could not stand him. So one day, he left with his wife and child and got a free passage to Bunbury on a boat bringing in a load of guano from the islands beyond Geraldton.

He bought the cheapest block on the estate, built a house out of salvage and worked on the jetty. One day he caught his hand in a chain saw and all his fingers were cut off. They treated him very well he said, and paid him for the 2 ½ hours he hadn’t worked. With this money, he paid the doctor and the hospital and everyone joined in to help him out. His wife went out washing, his son-in-law bought a broken-down racehorse called Pluto for 3 pounds, someone collected a cart and harness from somewhere, and for the rest of his life, he cut and delivered fire wood for 9 shillings a load.

His son-in-law owned the next place, he was a Malay man named Belvocoat. It was a poor sandy block and they eventually sold up and moved to Perth.

The Vittoria Road was cut into larger blocks and three of the Fowler family lived there. Old Mr Fowler who retired from the Preston Produce and one of his sons was a carpenter and the other a butcher. There were two other homes in Vittoria Road but I can’t recall much about the people who lived there.

Jubilee Road only had three houses at first. The Frewin family who came from the eastern states. Mr Frewin was engaged in the timber industry. Next to them was Charlie Houses block. Charlie House was also engaged in timber, and some times he took his family with him and lived away in the bush for long periods of time.

The next house belonged to old Bill Mansell. He was another character. He was born at Windsor where his father worked as a gardener at Windsor Castle. He was the eldest of a large family and decided to seek his fortune by going to California in the gold rush days. All he got was fever and he nearly died and worked his way to New York where he became gardener for a millionaire named Todd. Hearing of gold in WA, he worked his passage somehow and arrived in the goldfields and again, found nothing. He came to Perth and got a job building the South West Railway with Mr Hedges. His job came to an end at Waroona and he worked for Mr Fouracre, and while there won some money on a Tatts ticket and bought the house at Glen Iris and rarely worked ever again. He came to see us to get my mothers newspapers, as he liked to know what was going on in the world. He never married and he lived to an old age. Jubilee Road was always known to us as Old Bills Lane.

Newton Road was on good fertile land and on this road we had two very good poultry farms. Henry Earl came from NSW and I believe he had a couple of thousand birds, grew all his own lucerne, as well as a lot of vegetables.

Gustave Gunerissen also had a very good poultry farm on this road. He was a Swede, a good worker and made many tools and implements to help him in his work. He too had a market garden.

The Meade family on Newton Road also had a fertile farm block. Mrs Meade was a nurse and a good friend to anyone in trouble. The old people left to live in in Perth but a son George Meade carried on with the place and I think there are still some Meades living there.

On the other side of these farms, the land turned to clay, and on this, Jack Buswell conducted a brick yard. Many of Bunburys homes are built with Jack Buswells bricks. He gave employment to quite a few people as he needed wood to fire the kilns, brick makers and teamsters to cart the bricks. The State Brickworks forced him out of business, and as well, the supply of clay was starting to run out.

The Oldham family were another old family. They lived near the brickyard at one time.

Today the whole settlement has changed. Small farms required a lot of hard work and the later generation with more education look for better jobs. Costs of production take up much of the profit, and today as an outer suburb of Bunbury, I can’t see much farming going on at Glen Iris, and the whole place has a very run-down appearance. I don’t know what its future will be. The flooding of the Preston River spoils the land for home sites, and for as long as records have been kept, floods occur here every time the rain falls heavily in the hills and the sea has high tides.

Many thanks to Theodora’s granddaughter Margaret Sanders for permission to reproduce this article and for the family’s photographs.