Sampson Road

Sampson Road was originally a private road on the estate of Dr John Sampson which ran west off Vasse Road (Spencer Street) to sandhills owned by Ephraim Clark, probably including some of what is now Scott Street (reference,reference). The road ran through mixed terrain. The lower eastern end of the road was originally swampland with drainage problems while the higher western end contained

“some of the most beautiful sites in Bunbury.” (reference, reference).

Dr. Sampson applied for the council to take the road over in 1900 but the situation was complicated as the road went through other people’s properties (reference). In 1905, the council again discussed taking over the road as it had been greatly improved and there were a number of new houses being built in the area (reference, reference). From 1906, they were taking responsibility for its maintenance (reference, reference).

Dr John Sampson

John Sampson was working as a doctor in Berkeley, Gloucestershire when he was charged with passing forged bank notes and consequently sentenced to fifteen years transportation. He arrived in Western Australia in 1857 onboard the Clara when he was 39 years old and was sent to the Bunbury Depot. Bunbury had been without a doctor for three years so the local community was relieved and welcoming. Marshall Clifton, in particular, initially took him under his wing and they remained friends until Marshall's death in 1861.

John was one of a few convicts who were given permission to bring out their spouses and by the time his first wife, Marie, was allowed to come to join him in 1859, John was established as the resident doctor of the district. He had also entered into a farming partnership with George Rich.

Both John and Marie were active and well liked in the community. They attended the Congregational church where John, a keen musician, played the harmonium. John was brokenhearted when Marie died suddenly in 1867 at the age of 47 years.

A year after Marie’s death, John married Sophia Wilhelm who had a keen sense of business and together they acquired several parcels of land around the district including the land surrounding, what became known as, Sampson Road.

John was generous to the community. In 1877, he purchased instruments and formed a brass band. He was also the leader of the band when they made their first appearance in March 1878. Not long after this, he also offered to build a hall for the Good Templars in front of his property.

John was 91 years old when he died in 1904 and was honoured for the great professional and personal contribution he had made to the district (reference).

(These details are taken from a much larger and very interesting biography by Irma Walter on the Harvey History Online site at the above reference link and have been used here with Irma’s kind permission.)

Subdivision and the need for Sampson Road

At some point, the parcel of land that John Sampson owned was subdivided in 1889 and he advertised six new cottages for rent in “Sampson’s Town” - a name used later to refer to this locality (reference, reference). John, himself, may have given the subdivision this title or it may have already been in general use. The land bordering Vasse Road (now known as Spencer Street) was leased on a long term basis to Chinese market gardeners (reference ,reference) so Sampson Road would have been constructed as an access to these cottages.

Some years later, in 1905, the council also had a need for Sampson Road. They had leased the sandhills at the western end of the road from Ephraim Clark and it was the only suitable supply of sand in the area for making roads (reference, reference, reference).

Complications

After the council took over Sampson Road, they found it difficult to improve and maintain due to the complicating factors of the swampland, the Chinese market gardens at the eastern end and the extensive use by carters hauling loads of sand for road building from the western sandhills, located at the end of the road.

Swampland

The eastern end of Sampson Road near Vasse Road was swampland and required good drainage which the Chinese gardeners near Vasse Road had installed in 1895 at their own expense (reference). It was also problematic in regards to building roads and footpaths as it required extensive filling in and levelling.

This made the construction and maintenance of Sampson Road very expensive for the council and when Mr Thomas Brown, a resident of Sampson Road, wrote to the South Western Times complaining about the neglected state of the thoroughfare and its footpath, it prompted Cr. Arthur North to reply:

“ Sampson-road has been built over a deep swamp and is a macadamised road. What more do those people want?” (reference)

Problems regarding the swampland began soon after the road was taken over and the council started working on the road. The lower levels of the road along with the original drains were filled in and the level of the road was raised. However, this immediately caused problems of flooding for the lower level as the water that would have normally flowed down to Vasse Road and into the main drains would now flow off the raised road and straight into properties which would be quickly inundated. Foreseeing this, one of the Chinese gardiners, Mow Sung, wrote to the council asking them to put in a roadside drain before winter (reference).

The two local papers wrote lengthy editorials on different aspects of the situation but both were sympathetic to Mow Sung. In response to one of the councillors, Cr Witton, remarking he did not believe that the council had any legal power in the matter, the Southern Times pointed out the council’s obligations and the hardship that would ensue if the council did nothing while the Bunbury Herald reported that rather than do anything about the drain, the council had served Mow Sung with a health violations notice thus increasing his burden (reference).

The problem with drainage arose intermittently over the years. In 1909 when the council laid a footpath in Sampson Road, it inadvertently caused drainage problems to properties in Spencer Street and in 1937, stagnant water had accumulated on the north side of the road (reference; reference).

As late as 1954, the council wanted to resume land for a new drainage system for the area.

The swampland not only created problems with road building, it was also a breeding ground for mosquitoes. In 1921, a mosquito eradication was carried out around Sampson Road using kerosene on their breeding areas (reference).

The Chinese Market Gardens

Although the swampland was problematic and probably deemed unfit for general housing at that time, it must have been fertile as a group of Chinese people had leased it and established market gardens there that supplied Bunbury with

“cheap vegetables which cannot be done without” (reference).

The Chinese operators obviously employed natural means of composting as the gardens attracted numerous complaints regarding smells and appearance (reference, reference). However, the main complication they presented to the construction of Sampson Road was the long term leasing arrangements. The council wanted the owners to fill in the land adjacent to Sampson Road so it could be widened but the owners argued against it fearing the tenants would sue if they complied (reference, reference). This was not a matter of simply waiting until the lease ran out as the leases were drawn up for many years. In 1906, one of the Chinese gardeners, Mow Sung, in the letter to the council about drainage stated he still had 10 more years on his lease (reference).

The problem continued and in 1912 the council finally issued an order to enable it to resume the land and do the necessary filling in of properties required to widen the road which they felt they could accomplish without covering any of the garden beds (reference). The following year, the widening of Sampson Road was included in the estimates but by 1918, it had still not been widened (reference, reference ).

(A more extensive report on the Chinese gardeners is in the biographies section of the website and can be found here.)

Heavy Usage

The sand pits at the western end of Sampson Road that the council used for making roads were probably the reason the road was taken over without meeting the usual requirement of being 1 chain wide and also why it was worked on soon after it was acquired by the council. However, as Mr Browne pointed out in his letter to the paper, it also meant that large teams of either horses or bullocks were regularly pulling heavy loads of sand along the road and quickly destroying any improvements (reference).

Reconstruction

Due to these complications, the state of Sampson Road was so bad that neither the postal service or carriers would use it. This meant that not only the residents of Sampson Road were disadvantaged but also the people living in Picton Hills (now known as Picton Crescent) as it was the main access road to that area (reference, reference).

After a fire in the area, the Fire Warden said the water pressure was very low in Sampson Road and was probably because of silt build up in the pipes (reference).

In 1919, the council did reconstruction work on Sampson Road but Mr Browne threatened that the residents would not pay their rates if the council did not also provide them with a footpath (reference).

They also replaced the water pipes in 1919 as the first pipes installed were too small and some residents were not getting water (reference, reference).

In 1920, a correspondent to the South Western Times, writing on the lack of fire alarms and public telephones in the area, predicted that the area around Sampson Road would no longer be considered on the outskirts but rather be part of the central residential area and it was

“high time those in authority kept an eye to the locality” (reference)