Cuthbert Post Office and Telephone Exchange

Statement of Significance

The Cuthbert Post Office and Telephone Exchange has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
The place was the first and only purpose-built Post Office and Telephone Exchange for Cuthbert when the exchange was manually operated before the automatic exchange was installed at Cuthbert in 1950.
The place was built by well-known local settler Bob Walker, a local farmer and whose family had strong ties to the area and its development.
The place reflects the resourcefulness and ingenuity of a local community and the builder in using recycled materials.
The place reflects the time when the locality of Cuthbert had become well established as a successful market gardening area.

Physical Description

Some of the notable features of this place include:
• Set above the road level raised on stumps
• Typical design of rural areas at that time, two rooms wide
• Simple style, symmetrical façade
• Corrugated iron walls and gable roof
• Broken backed verandah with timber posts
• Extension to the rear has skillion roof

History

Cuthbert was originally named Eastwood, established as a siding on the Denmark line in the 1890s. The Eastwood-Torbay Progress Association was formed to look after local interests. The first significant move to develop the area was when a model farm known as the “Eastwood Estate” was established by Mr Powell but this was abandoned by the mid-1890s, Powell believing the land to be too swampy and unsuitable for growing. However, local settlers persisted and had success with their ventures. By 1898 there were 16-20 families who had taken up holdings in Eastwood and set up market gardens mainly growing vegetables with some of the original crops being seed potatoes.

The government started planning the subdivision of the land in Eastwood in 1909 and large scale land releases were rolled out from 1910-1912. By now the local residents were agitating for another name for the locality as Eastwood was the name of three other towns already in Australia. The names "Karajinup" and "Atwell" were suggested, but the name "Werillup", an Aboriginal word meaning "place of swamps" was finally selected and gazetted in 1914. However, the Deputy Postmaster-General objected to Werillup, and "Cuthbert" – the name of a local settler of the area - was suggested by the Secretary for Railways. This was gazetted in September 1916. The Cuthbert settlers then formed their own Cuthbert Progress Association.

This cottage was built during the 1920s (c1925) as the Post Office and telephone exchange for Cuthbert. The builder was Bob Walker (senior), a local farmer, who used recycled fabric from two other buildings.

Since the early 1900s, the Walker family were synonymous with Cuthbert. Bob Walker was particularly successful in his farming ventures. In 1952, Walker was in the local paper having grown a successful crop of potatoes on a part of his land thought to be worthless owing to his experiments with manganese, impressing visitors to the WA Potato Growers Association Field Day. Hugh Walker (snr) and his family also lived in the locality and was the local member for the Grassmere ward through the 1940s.

In 1950 a new telephone trunk line was installed between Cuthbert and Albany to ease the congestion on the existing Denmark to Albany line of which all the localities in between were connected. An automatic exchange installed in Cuthbert and Elleker the following year providing 24 hour service (9-5) replacing the former manual exchange. The cottage by now had become a private residence. The Eldridge family had owned it for over 35 years.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: High
Authenticity: High/Moderate

Condition

Fair

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.