Stirling Street: Survey Peg Number 1

The first Bunbury Townsite Survey Peg was placed into the middle of Meredith Creek in 1838 by the surveyor Thomas Watson (reference). This survey peg was the first wooden peg placed to survey the town site of Bunbury (reference). Thomas Watson was under a Colonial Government contract to complete the work, which was abandoned (reference; reference). Despite the work not being completed, it was still referred to (reference). For example, the boundaries created by this survey were used in a transferral of land in 1879 for Benjamin Piggot (reference). Thomas Watson’s work was later redone and extended by Assistant Surveyor Henry M Ommanney in 1841 under the instruction of John Septimus Roe (reference).

Ommanney wrote in his journal in regards to Thomas Watson’s work: “Mr Watson’s southern boundary appears to commence at a post situated one chain south from the middle of the creek’s mouth (reference).” Ommanney had Peg Number 1 marked on the ground by a nine-foot pole for visibility (reference).

James Stirling’s Leschenault Location 26, consisting of 3,940 acres, resulted in two survey pegs placed in easily identifiable locations (reference). The first survey peg was placed where Meredith Creek entered the Estuary and the second at the junction of the Preston River and Eedle Creek (reference). 

It is unclear if this survey peg was removed or decomposed. However, in 1988 for Bunbury’s Bicentennial Celebrations, a plaque was placed near the site (reference). According to the State Heritage Office entry the plaque has since been removed from the rock, and its location is unknown (reference).