Start at the Leschenault Peninsula and then wind your way back to Australind on the Leschenault Heritage Trail to uncover stories of legendary Irish escapees, Indian Water Buffalo, the cooking family, and infamous hippy camps.
The Leschenault Estuary and surrounding rivers have been home to the Elaap clan group of the Noongar Wardandi tribe or Yoongan Jarli Elaap (People of Elaap) and the Cultaa Yoongan Jarli (Mullet people) for more than 45,000 years.
Established in the 1840s, Leschenault, along with its neighbour Australind, is also one of the State’s first settled rural communities.
Please note that some buildings and properties are privately owned and are not open to the public.
1. Belvidere Farm & Homestead 1838
In 1838, Thomas Little purchased the Leschenault Peninsula on behalf of Charles Prinsep, and named the homestead Belvidere in honour of the Prinsep mansion in Calcutta, India. Little managed the property to raise horses and cattle for the Indian Army, and hosted fabulous parties and horse racing events. In later years, the location became a hippy village.
2. John Boyle O’Reilly Interpretive Walk & Monument
Discover how the Irish Republican convict John Boyle O’Reilly made his daring escape aboard an American Whaler, the Gazelle, which was anchored nearby in 1869. O’Reilly became a well-known humanitarian, poet, writer and orator.
3. Buffalo Hut at Bengal Station Historic Site
Buffalo Hut at Bengal Station owes its name to its British- Indian heritage and the famous Princep family of India. Thomas Little, who resided further south at Belvidere Homestead, established two cattle herds, one of which was Bengali cattle or water buffalo used for ploughing.
4. Parkfield Farm & School 1830s
Still in operation, Parkfield Farm & Homestead was named for the ship of the same name which arrived in Western Australia in 1841 with the first group of European settlers. William Hudson took the original Parkfield grant of 2560 acres at the head of the Leschenault Estuary.
5. Rosamel Farm 1840s
Rosamel, regarded as one of the leading farms in the district, was first owned by Captain John Septimus Roe before it was purchased by Australind’s first Chief Commissioner, Marshall Waller Clifton.
6. Cook’s Park Farm & The Rodgers Family 1862
Built in the 1860s by the Rodger’s family, Cook’s Park Homestead is one of the oldest remaining farm homesteads in Leschenault. James Rodgers, a convict after receiving seven years’ transportation for stealing cows, became one of the most successful farmers in the district.
7. Knapp’s Channel
This Leschenault Estuary channel is named after the Knapp family, who, along with the Dawe family, fished the waters of the Leschenault Estuary for many years from the 1950s.
8. Karragarup Nature Reserve & Cook’s Point
Karrargup, translated as Place of Crabs by the Wardandi people, is a small peninsula nature reserve overlooking the Leschenault Estuary. The very tip of Karragarup is named Cook’s Point after the pioneering Rodgers family of nearby Cook’s Park Farm.
9. Cowarup Hill Farm & the Milligan Family
James and Elizabeth Milligan built Milligan Homestead in 1870. The house sat backing up to a dune, looking toward the Estuary on the family property known as Cowarup Hill Farm.
10. Paperbarks at Cathedral Avenue
Cathedral Avenue forms part of the original Old Coast Road coach route from Mandurah to Bunbury used by Colonial settler, Thomas Peel of Mandurah, and Australind’s Chief Commissioner Marshall Waller Clifton, in the early to mid-1800s. The old paperbarks, which are natural to the area, arch over the old road like the roof of a cathedral.
11. St John Vianney Catholic Church & School Historic Site 1870
For nearly 100 years, a small wooden structure along Cathedral Avenue in Leschenault served as a school and Mass centre for generations of local Catholics.
12. Australind State School Plaque Historic Site
The Australind State School was built along Cathedral Avenue by residents George and Joseph Rodgers, and George Pearce. It was operational from 1905 to 1948. In 1992, former students erected a plaque to commemorate the site.
13. Elinor Bell Clifton
Elinor Bell, the wife of Australind’s Chief Commissioner Marshall Waller Clifton, was the first Quaker to settle in Western Australia.
14. Dawe’s Channel
Dawe’s Channel was named after the Dawe Family, who dug the channel in the early 1960s by a grader to retrieve the tunnel boat out as the water was too shallow.