Frogmore Estate 1843

Frogmore stands on rich alluvial flats along the Brunswick River — land selected in the early 1840s.

Among the earliest settlers here was David Eedle, who took up land along the river in the 1840s, which became known as Frogmore. The property remained closely tied to the Eedle family for several generations. In the 1890s, Robert Heppingstone, who married into the Eedle family, replaced the original pioneer dwelling with a more substantial homestead.

For decades, Frogmore was a working orchard and farm of nearly 400 fruit trees, vines and extensive hay paddocks. Its location was strategic — the Brunswick Railway Station stood on the property, and the main Perth–Bunbury road passed through it.

But Frogmore’s history is also marked by fire.

In 1913, three haystacks were deliberately set alight in the middle of the night. The flames rose quickly, visible from both houses on the property. An inquest found the stacks had been set on fire by “persons unknown.” The loss was significant, and suspicion lingered in the district.

Fire struck again in 1932, when bushfires swept across Brunswick, destroying stacks and threatening neighbouring properties. In 1934, the Frogmore homestead itself — long the home of the Heppingstone family — was destroyed by fire while unoccupied. An early landmark of the region was gone.

Yet Frogmore endured.

When the estate was subdivided in 1908 — part of a broader movement to open large holdings to closer settlement — new families were able to build homes and livelihoods on this land.

Though the original homestead was lost, the district continued to grow around it.