Catholic Agricultural College, Bindoon

Statement of Significance

The place is significant for its role in the history of child migration in Western Australia, for its buildings and their materials and method of construction, for its social significance to the community and for its association with the controversial figure of Brother Francis Paul Keaney.

AESTHETIC VALUE: The precinct comprises an attractive, aesthetically appealing and impressive group of buildings in part Spanish Mission and part Italianate styles, all in very good original condition. Collectively the buildings constitute a grand architectural accomplishment using local materials and built by a few Christian brothers and numbers of very young boys. The complex forms a significant landmark, beautifully sited, in a eucalypt forested valley. The buildings have an unusual and unique mixture of classicism and romanticism, strongly influenced by the classical architecture illustrated in the New Norcia library collection, as well as by the Franciscan missions of California admired by Monsigneur John Hawes. Beaux Arts classical details also resulted from the involvement of the Italian master craftsmen who carried out the construction with the labour of the boys. (Criterion 1.1 and 1.2) The extensive complex has an unusually high degree of stylistic unity and cohesiveness as a result of being purpose designed and planned by its priest-architects. The group of buildings is similar in style found in the Town of New Norcia but are rare and unique to the Bindoon area. They have been progressively erected in the same style and materials since 1941, with the exception of a modern building on the south eastern side and an addition to the rear of the main building. Both of these do not detract from the high degree of unity of setting. (Criterion 1.3 and 1.4)
HISTORIC VALUE: Historically the college has played a part in the Catholic education of orphans and migrant boys brought to Western Australia from 1947 to 1966 as part of a policy of increasing population by immigration. It continues as a residential and co-educational agricultural college to educate future WA farmers.
SCIENTIFIC OR EDUCATIONAL VALUE: As well as having potential to contribute to the understanding of an aspect of the development of the State (Criterion 3.1), the buildings have significance in demonstrating the effective use of local materials (Criterion 3.3).
SOCIAL VALUE: The college is significant socially, educationally and spiritually as a Christian Brothers institution, well known to many in Western Australia who have contributed to its history since inception as a farm property which was initially donated to the brothers by Mrs. Catherine Musk. (Criterion 4.1)
RARITY: THE college buildings are quite unique in design and demonstrate the unusual translation of the European classical Tradition in a naively sincere manner, using craftsman skills that "were elsewhere falling into disuse" and "quite removed from the sophisticated eclecticism of the contemporary professional architects of Perth". (Ian Molyneux - Looking Around Perth: a guide to the architecture of Perth and surrounding towns. (Criterion 5.2) REPRESENTATIVENESS: The main buildings demonstrate the characteristics of a religious community as well as being representative of the combined work of the architect-priests Dom Urbino and Monsigneur John Hawes.

History

Assessment 1998
Construction: 1941 onwards
Architect/Designer: Dom Urbino of New Norcia, Mons. John Hawes and others
Builders: various, including the orphans of Boys Town.


The Main Building: of two storeys, now used as dormitories for Brothers and pupils, was designed by Dom Urbano of New Norcia, a Benedictine Monk with Italian qualifications as an Architect and Town Planner. The building is approached by a wide flight of 20 steps flanked by four pillars holding white Art Deco era lights leading up to a symmetrical facade with a massive pillared central section surmounted by a tiled four-sided domical vault. This has arched windows in each side and on top is a cupola with a cross. The building has brick foundations, a red tiled roof with a balustrade, rustic walls made of rough chunks of local stone set in cement contrasting with cement pilasters, moulded cement balustrades on the upper verandahs, colonnades beneath. Most windows and doors are of plain glass leadlight in an Art Deco design. Through the arched portico is the foyer which has terrazzo flooring and marbling of green, cream and red on the pillars and walls. At the far end of the foyer there are two wings of a grand curved staircase with marbling on the steps and balustrades. All the marbling and terrazzo work was done by two Italian stonemasons, Pio Sinicco and Vittorio Muchino who came here at the outbreak of the second World War. They show particularly fine artistry in the Boys' Town crest and other symbols worked into the floor in the doorways and at the foot of the staircase. On the walls following the curves of the staircase there are oblong windows with a leadlight design of a cross and above each of these is a recessed round window with yellow and blue stylised floral leadlight design. Glass in the doors at the foot of the staircase repeat these themes and lead to an open balcony. Hanging in the foyer is a modern icon of Edmund Rice, the Christian Brothers founder, a picture of the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a portrait of Brother Keaney and photos of Catherine and John Musk. Off the foyer is a small Chapel where there is a wooden carving of the Sacrificial Lamb of God which dates back to the alter used in the original 1936 farmhouse, also a hand painted copy of the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. This building look 12 years to complete and was opened in 1953.

Administration and Kitchen/Dining Blocks. In the early 1940's Monsignor Hawes, a priest of the Geraldton Diocese who built the Cathedral and other buildings in Geraldton and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Mullewa, designed these two buildings. The Brothers and boys were helped in the work by Joe Pascoli, a stonemason and general builder. The Administration Block was begun in 1941 with a foundation stone laid by Mrs. Catherine Musk and opened in 1942 by the Hon. J.J. Kenneally, Chairman of the Lotteries Commission. After Brother Keaney had finished the foundations the boys were supervised by Mr. O'Reilly, an experienced builder who had been Clerk of Works during construction of St. Mary's Cathedral in Perth. The Kitchen/Dining block was begun in 1942. Both blocks have rustic local stone in cement walls, brick arches and balustrading forming verandahs along the front and side and a rectangular tower above the main entrance with windows and classical balustraded parapet. The buildings are supported by foundations of local stone piers connected by arches. In the 1960's the Kitchen/Dining block was completely remodelled inside to provide a new kitchen to cope with 200 pupils, the matron's quarters, dining room and toilet facilities for the staff. Dom Urbano also designed the Manual Arts Building and the Nuns' Convent & Laundry both featuring walls of local stone set in cement and cement pilasters. There is a quarry near the olive grove on the property. The Manual Arts building was opened in 1953 by Mr. A.R.G. Hawke, Premier of Western Australia, and houses the woodwork and metalwork classrooms on the ground floor and the science rooms above. The flooring and staircase are terrazzo and the decorative ceilings are supported by painted round cement pillars. The Convent, set among the trees some way from the main complex, is a single storeyed building with a square tower and arched entrance. It was occupied by the Sisters in 1948. The New Library and Schoolroom Block was opened in 1954. This is a more modem style of building of two storeys made of rendered white painted brick with central red tiled hip roof and a flat roof either end. It has pillars between extensive window areas. Fr. Eugene Perez designed the statue of Christ the King standing on the hill overlooking the complex and in 1950 completed the art work on the Stations of the Cross placed along the main drive into the College. To the rear of the main building work had begun on a Cathedral type Chapel and went as far as the foundations before being abandoned after the deaths of Brother Keaney and Dom Urbano. The space was used instead to build the Br. Charles Dawe Memorial Swimming Pool.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW - according to the Christian Brothers.
The Christian Brothers Congregation was founded in 1802 in Ireland by a wealthy businessman, Edmund Rice. His wife had died after only four years of marriage leaving a handicapped child and it was this that prompted Edmund Rice to focus on helping handicapped and underprivileged children through the Christian Brothers. It took twenty years for the Brothers to be recognised by Rome as a Papal Congregation. Edmund Rice lived long enough to farewell the first Christian Brothers to leave for Australia in 1843 where they began in Sydney. They first came to the West in 1894 to St. Georges Terrace, Perth. Clontarf Orphanage was the second foundation in 1901. (This was eventually taken over by the Air Force in 1942 and has now become the Clontarf Aboriginal College.) There were also establishments at Tardun and Castledare.
On 11th August 1936 a property called Mt. Pleasant Farm at Bindoon was donated free of debt for an orphanage for boys and a place for child migrants by Mrs. Catherine Musk and was called St. Joseph's Farm and Trade School. In the beginning from 1939 to 1941 there were only three Brothers and seven boys in this community living in the old farmhouse. They planted fruit trees and crops, grazed sheep, made pig and poultry runs and tended grape vines. Much of this early work was destroyed by plagues of rabbits. In 1941 they began building at Bindoon. Brother Conlon and Brother Keaney came from Clontarf and pegged out the foundations for an Office Block in ground as hard as bricks. They cut rather than dug these foundations. The work went ahead quickly and what is now a wing of the Administration Block was completed in one year, being officially opened on 21®' September 1941. The completion of this building to provide essential facilities had become imperative by the decision of the State Government to subsidise the upkeep of Catholic boys at Bindoon.

Brother Patrick Aloysius Conlon had been sent to Western Australia to help save the Farm Schools which were not financially viable. He and Br. Keaney between them talked to Government Ministers and other influential people and in 1937 obtained an exemption from rates in perpetuity for Tardun, Bindoon, Castledare and Aquinas College. Further diplomacy resulted in a Bill handing the fee simple of the Tardun and Bindoon properties to the Brothers, thus securing their future ownership. In 1938 Br. Conlon organised the migration of British boys to Australia and again 1947 saw him accompanying more boys who went to Tardun and Bindoon. In 1950 thirteen boys from Malta came to Bindoon and in 1953 a further group of seven.
In 1942 Br. Paul Keaney was appointed Superior - Principal at Bindoon and construction of all buildings proceeded with the help of 33 boys who had been evacuated from Clontarf when it was taken over by the Air Force. They camped in tents supplied by the Army and Br. Keaney immediately began construction of a large dormitory which is now part of the ground floor of the school block. The evacuation also gave the impetus needed to complete the front portion of the Office Block and to begin construction of the Kitchen/Dining Block. In the early 1940's every Friday there was a trip to Perth in the Bindoon truck run on its gas producer. Leaving at 7 a.m. two boys accompanied it as far as the Swan Cement Works where they stayed to bag the loose cement. The driver proceeded to the city to unload and sell firewood at $3.50 per ton. Then to Fremantle to get potatoes from the Potato Board, to Mills & Ware to collect three tea chests full of broken biscuits, then to collect two lea chests of Weeties at a North Fremantle Factory, back to Perth to collect hardware from Harris, Scarfe & Sandovers or McLeans, and groceries from Sara & Cook and to collect washing from the laundry of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. Bread was then picked up from Noonan's Bakery in Victoria Park (later from Tip Top Bakery in Subiaco); and finally a call back to the cement works to pick up the boys and the bags of cement (paid for with butter from the Bindoon diary). At the end of a very dusty day and laden with so many goods they finished their Friday run back at Bindoon at about 9 or 10 p.m.

During the second world war U.S.A.F. personnel stationed near Bindoon contributed financially and physically to helping Bindoon, and the finances of Tardun and Bindoon were also greatly helped by the high prices of wool and wheat.
A typical day's activity during 1943-44: the boys were up at 6.30 a.m. and after breakfast some rounded up the cows for feeding and milking and separating the cream for butter, feeding calves and a daily cleaning of the dairy area; other boys caught a horse and harnessed the spring cart and went to an area where ringbarked trees were cut down, two boys to each crosscut saw, and each trunk cut into ten foot lengths for charcoal making. Clean charcoal was used to fuel trucks and buildings as they all ran on producer gas, and also bagged for sale. Another constant job was carting of clean sand from a pit 20km east along the Toodyay Road.

This extract from a Christian Brother's version of a typical day does not take into account the major part of the work done by the boys which was to erect the buildings at Bindoon, working out in all weathers, cold rain and hot sun, climbing about on very flimsy scaffolding. No mention is made of schooling and there would seem to have been little time for it.

Early in 1944 it was decided to launch an appeal to further the work at Bindoon and plans were made for 500 migrant boys, over a period of ten years, to be brought to Bindoon. With this in view they needed more land and the appeal for donations was started. At this time Br. Keaney was replaced by Br.Doyle who decided not to go ahead with the expansion as he wished to slow down the pace of development and install a more regular school curriculum.
In 1947 the Main Building designed by Dom Urbano was completed and opened in 1953. The Technical Block was also finished in this period. In 1948 Dom Urbano designed a convent to be added to the Laundry Block to accommodate eight Benedictine Sisters. This became a turning point in child care at Bindoon because of the Sisters' economy, efficiency, devotedness and motherly solicitude. They supervised domestic arrangements and so freed the Brothers for school and outside duties.

This rosy picture of the nuns expressed by a Christian Brother does not extend to all institutions run by them. There are records of extreme cruelty by nuns who had no vocation for looking after children. From 1966 to 1968 was a transition period between completion of the migration scheme and working out a specific future for Boys' Town. On V January 1968 Keaney College was registered with the Education Department as a Junior High Agricultural School. The College continued in the following years to go from strength to strength, acquiring and clearing more land, purchasing agricultural machinery, improving and adding to the buildings, creating a science wing in the upper floor of the Technical Block where carpentry and metalwork are taught on the lower floor, a library, new Year 10 cubicles and bathroom, holiday accommodation built near the mouth of the Moore River called Tuppin House. The students are well catered for with sports facilities: The Brother Charles Dawe Memorial swimming pool, two tennis courts, cricket pitches, a football oval, a Pony Club, tuition in fencing and archery. There is also a stamp collectors club.

The students study for some days of each week in the classrooms and receive practical lessons in agriculture for the rest of the week. The farm has a ram paddock, cattle section (the College is now registered as a Stud Farm), bee hives, fields for planting and cropping of wheat, hay, barley, clover and oats. There are also orchards and a vineyard, a piggery, a poultry run and horses, all on 3000 hectares. Financial returns from the farm become more promising every year.
In 1995 the name of Keaney Agricultural College was changed to the Catholic Agricultural College, a co-educational residential college for years 8 to 10. These privileged pupils should take note of the commemorative plaque in recognition of the work done by the Brothers and boys who built Bindoon. The young orphans who were made to work so hard should be specially remembered for their astonishing achievements.

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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.