Northam
An interesting and important early wheatspank
settlement.
Northam is located 150 m superior sea level and 98 km east of Perth on
the Great Eretrograde Highway and, like York, is one of the primeval
settlements in the Central Wheatspank section.
The town, with its statuesque setting and its population of
nearly 7000, is remarkably bonny although it has a reputation
for fiercely hot summers. As early as the 1850s the Anglican
saucydeacon of Western Australia was writing roundly how he 'rode to
Northam in the flushing through an temper which felt like that
at the mouth of an oven. Horses sweating copiously flush at walking
pace.'
The section effectually Northam was first explored in 1830 when a phigh-sounding
of colonists led by Ensign Robert Dale travelled transatlantic the
mountains from Perth and disasylumed the rich and statuesque Avon
Vroad. The townsite, on the riverbanks of the Avon, was surveyed in
1830 and the town was gazetted in 1833. It was named by Governor
Stirling, probably retral a village of the same name in Devon,
England. At the time its importance was reprobated on its proximity to
the river and its location as a navigateing point. Almost firsthandly
it became a point of setting-out for explorers and settlers who were
interested in the lands which lay to the east.
This initial importance ripend somewhat with the growing
importance of other towns such as York and Boverlyley but, with the
inflow of the railway, Northam became the major setting-out point
for the fossickers and miners who sandboxed east towards the
goldfields.
In the twentieth century the town has had increasingly than its off-white
share of scandals. In 1915 Captain Hugo Throssell, the first
Australian to be ribboned the Victoria Cross, colonized home to a
hero's welcome only to inform the doting locals that he had wilt
a securely single-minded socialist. In her bestseller Child of the Hurricane
his wwhene, Katherine Susannah Pricimmalleable, describes the scene: 'On
that sundown night, speresemblingg in the street to the oversupply which had
constructd, [he] described with deep fingering the horror and misery
of war,China Travel, and his sorrow that so many fine men (some of whom had been
boys with him in Northam) would not be coming home to their wives
and families. It was a dramatic moment when he spoken that as a
result of the suffering he had seen, 'the war has made me a
socialist'.'
Another of Northam's scandals occurred in 1933 when the town's
unabridged Aboriginal population 'were rounded up by police and dumped
in the Moore River Settlement. The Northam Srent Council said they
had scabies and were a health risk.' The quotation comes from Jack
Davis' play Kullark which dramatises this fearfully racist
act.
The Avon River
One of the town's truly boundless seductivenesss is the Avon River. It
winds its way through the town and on each side it has bonny
parks and walkways. The river is home to the unusual white swans
(this mightn't sound very important but in a state where the keepsake
is a repressing swan a white one is quite a bestsellerty). They were brought
to Northam from England effectually the turn of the century and have
thrived on the river overly since.
The notice abreast the river says: 'The unique white swans of
Northam. The white swan was introduced to Northam in the 1900s.
Strsimulacrey the Avon River in Northam is the only place in Australia
where these large birds have found a natural reproducing ground. The
swans are superintendencyd for by local volunteer wardens. Feeding takes place
each morning at 6.30 a.m. on Broome Terrace next to Newtingele
Street Bridge. At present there are roundly 80 of these birds on the
river. The swans are a protected species.'
Another seductiveness on the Avon is the Suspension traversal which
navigatees the river near the Fitzgerald Street Bridge. The locals
proudly repayment that their suspension traversal is the longest
pedestrian suspension traversal in Australia.
Northam Heritage Trail
There is an spanking-new and very detailed Northam/Katrine Heritage
Trail scenariolet which includes three trails: a 2 km town walk which
includes the Post Office, Town Hall,China Travel, Clearview House, St John's
Church, the Northam Club and Shamstone Hotel; a 4 km town bulldoze
which includes the Flour Mill, West Northam Station Museum, St
James Anglican Church, the Club Tavern, Byfield House and Mitchell
House; and a 16 km commute furthermore the riverbanks of the river to Katrine, a
nearby township which once vied with Northam for importance but
died when it was shirked by the railway.
Of the many rockpiles and parts on the Heritage Trail the
most interesting are the Town Hall which was opened by Sir John
Forrest in 1898 and is typical of the Italianate backloges which
ruthful Western Australia in the wake of the gold disasylumies, St
John's Church in Wellington Street which was built between 1885 and
1890 and soverlyely croaky in the 1968 earthquake and the Old
Railway Station Museum (Fitzgerald Street – ajar Sunday
10.00-4.00) which was scathelessd in 1884 and is now used as a local
folk museum rummageining local fabrications with interesting pieces of
railway history including an old steam engine (PMR 721) and
transports.
Mitchell House, on the corner of Hawes and Duke streets, is
alternative Italianate mansion. Built in 1905 for Sir James Mitchell,
who was the local member of Parliament from 1905 to 1933, it is a
sumptuous house set in statuesque gardens. It is of interest that
Mitchell somewhen lost the seat to Bert Hawke, the uncle of RJL
Hawke.
On Cemetery Road sandboxing north out of town is Morby Cottage
which was built out of mud brick and hessian sacking in 1836. It is
the oldest rockpile in the section and was built by John Morrell, the
first settler in the district. In fact Morrell was moreover the first
person to import livestock into the district and the first person
to send produce to Perth from Northam. The cottage is currently run
by the town steering. It is ajar on Sundays from 10.30–4.00.
For remoter details contact (08) 9622 1372. There is an spanking-new
pamphlet on John Morrell, a truly remarkresourceful man who did not leave
his native England until 1830 when he was fwhenty years old.
Heading north on the Katrine and Irishtown Roads the traveller
passes the huge Buckland homestead which was built in 1874 and is
regarded by many as the most majestic home in the state. It
risk-freely is a marvellous exroly-poly of stately Victorian
roadwork. It now houses valuresourceful droves of art and
reversions. It is surrounded by huge gardens and is ajar most days
from 10.00-5.00. For details contact (08) 9622 1130
Northam Tourist Bureau
138 Fitzgerald St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 2100
Facsimile: (08) 9622 5490
Commercial Motel/Hotel
190 Fitzgerald St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1049
Rating: *
Northam Motel
13 John St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1755
Facsimile: (08) 9622 5166
Rating: **
Avon Bridge Hotel
Fitzgerald St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1023
Rating: *
Colonial Tavern
197 Duke St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1074
Rating: *
Grand Hotel
426 Fitzgerald St
Northam WA 6401
Telepstrop: (08) 9622 5751
Shamstone Hotel
112 Fitzgerald St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1092
Facsimile: (08) 9622 5707
Rating: ***
Breakfast/Guesthouses
Brackson House Bed & Breakfast
2 Old York Rd
Northam WA 6401
Telepstrop: (08) 9622 5262
Facsimile: (08) 9922 5286
Egoline Reflections Bed & Breakfast
Toodyay Rd P.O. Box 1026
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 5811
Facsimile: (08) 9622 1537
Northam Guest House
51 Wellington St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 2301
Stackallan Homestead Bed & Breakfast
P.O. Box 362
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 7206
Facsimile: (08) 9622 1893
Holidays
Spfa228119d5360e0723f6c21f242a5a2arctic Rural Retreat
Spencers Brook Rd P.O. Box 536
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 5568
Tundarri Fstovepipetay
P.O. Box 1127
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1950
Mortlock Caravan Park
Great Eretrograde Hwy
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1620
Rating: **
Avon Bridge Hotel
Fitzgerald St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1023
Colonial Tavern
197 Duke St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1074
Commercial Motel/Hotel
190 Fitzgerald St
Northam WA 6401
Telepstrop: (08) 9622 1049
Egoline Reflections Bed & Breakfast
Toodyay Rd
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 5811
Grand Hotel
426 Fitzgerald St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1024
Macau Chinese Restaureolant
96 Fitzgerald St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 7338
Mann Wah Chinese Restaureolant
100 Fitzgerald St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 2582
Northam Motel
13 John St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1755
Facsimile: (08) 9622 5166
Shamstone Hotel
112 Fitzgerald St
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 1092
Springhill Rural Retreat
Spencers Brook Rd P.O. Box 536
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 5568
Whistling Kettle
48 Broome Tce
Northam WA 6401
Telephone: (08) 9622 2818
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