Historic Brooklands homestead at Balingup to be protected

30/3/97

The State Government has moved to protect the historic turn-of-the-century Brooklands homestead at Balingup.

Heritage Minister Graham Kierath said the 1904 farmhouse would be listed on the Heritage Council of Western Australia's interim Register of Heritage Places.

"The homestead is significant for its links to agriculture in the South-West and with a number of pioneers, explorers and politicians of the area," he said.

"Brooklands was also valued by the religious community, which set up a commune on the property."

Mr Kierath said Brooklands was built for Charles Samuel Brockman on a property established many years earlier.

Earlier owners of the property included wealthy merchant and pastoralist Walter Padbury and William Spencer, a contractor and storekeeper who later became Mayor of Bunbury and MLC for the South-West.

Brockman, a semi-retired North-West pastoralist, bought the 30,000 acre property in 1886 and began a series of improvements.

In 1904 he paid a builder 800 pounds to build Brooklands with a 100 pound bonus if it was completed before Christmas -- which it was.

Made from bricks baked on the property, it was built in Victorian Regency style and included five bedrooms, a lounge, dining room and a surrounding verandah.

Over subsequent years, Brockman reduced his holding to about 3000 acres around the homestead.

After World War I, the State Government bought the property and subdivided it for soldier settlement with a number of dairy farmers settling on the estate.

Brooklands was bought in 1930 by Charles Baxter and farmed by his sons.

"One of the sons, Norman, farmed the property until 1945 when he left to enter Parliament, where for a time he was Health Minister in the first Charles Court Government," Mr Kierath said.

"In 1973 Brooklands was bought by the Universal Brotherhood Inc., a religious organisation founded by Fred and Mary Robinson.

"The Brotherhood aimed to live simply, organically and self-sufficiently and developed the property into a type of commune settlement."

Two additional dams were built, an apiary and vineyard established and commune members, initially housed in caravans, tents and old railway carriages, built their own cottages.

Brooklands itself was used as an administration block with one of the rooms set aside as a sanctuary and another as a community dining room.

Brooklands is now a private residence.

Media contact: Mark Thompson 322 2311