Albany pioneer cottage highlights State's heritage

Heritage Minister John Castrilli today announced that one of Western Australia's oldest residences would be placed permanently on the State Register of Heritage Places.

The 177-year-old Patrick Taylor Cottage was one of the first homes built for settlers in Albany.

"Patrick Taylor Cottage is an important link to our pioneering past and provides an insight into how European settlers lived in the earliest days of the Swan River Colony," Mr Castrilli said.

It is the earliest-known surviving cottage made from wattle and mud, or daub, in WA.

"The ingenuity of our early settlers is still evident in the saw marks and handmade nails in the floorboards," the Minister said.

"Extensive alterations and additions have taken place during the many years, but the original two-roomed wattle and daub cottage walls and the original shingle roof remain."

The cottage was built for John Morley about 1832-33 before being sold to Patrick Taylor about 1834.  It remained in his family for the next 120 years.

"The cottage survived thanks to the efforts of the Albany Historical Society which, in the early 1960s, began agitating for its preservation after the cottage was condemned as unfit for habitation," Mr Castrilli said.

In 1964, Patrick Taylor Cottage opened as Albany's first local museum.

"Local residents, including Patrick Taylor's estate, heeded the society's call to donate household items to be housed in the museum, which is now a very popular Albany tourist attraction," the Minister said.

The cottage is one of a handful of residences built in the 1830s, during the first 10 years of European settlement, which are included on the State Register of Heritage Places.  The State Register is managed by the Heritage Council of WA.