Celebrating Victoria Plains' pioneering spirit

A pioneering Victoria Plains pastoral station, that illustrates the rags-to-riches story of one of our early settlers, has been State heritage listed.

  • Glentromie Farm Group listed in State Register of Heritage Places

  • Pioneer station built by ticket-of-leave workmen in the 1860s-1880s

A pioneering Victoria Plains pastoral station, that illustrates the rags-to-riches story of one of our early settlers, has been State heritage listed.

Heritage Minister Albert Jacob said Glentromie Farm Group was built for Donald Macpherson, an indentured labourer who became a man of wealth and prominence.

Mr Jacob said Mr Macpherson and his brother were granted the first pastoral lease in Victoria Plains in 1845. When the partnership dissolved, Mr Macpherson built Glentromie and, by the 1880s, it was acknowledged as one of the finest pastoral properties in the colony.

The Minister said Glentromie was significant because it was rare to find a substantially intact group of farm buildings so expertly crafted by ticket-of-leave workmen.

Most of the buildings, including the homestead, two-storey stable, shearing shed and barn, were built between 1863 and 1878. The handmade bricks were laid in a striking bi-chromatic, chequerboard pattern, illustrating the skill of the ticket-of-leave men who were employed through the Toodyay Convict Depot.

"Mr Macpherson arrived in the colony in 1839 as an indentured labourer and shepherd, and within six years was co-owner of a substantial pastoral lease," Mr Jacob said.

"His story is echoed by many former indentured labourers and servants who prospered in Western Australia due to the desperate labour shortage in the early days of the colony and went on to become landowners - a situation they would never have achieved in Britain.

"Some former indentured labourers, like Mr Macpherson, became wealthier than the gentry classes, which effectively turned the imported rigid British class system on its head in WA."

Glentromie is the third place in the Shire of Victoria Plains to be listed in the State Register of Heritage Places, which is managed by the Heritage Council and State Heritage Office.

Fact File

Minister's office - 6552 5800