Albany Pilot Station (fmr)

Statement of Significance

Albany Pilot Station, comprising Pilot Crew Quarters, a stone, timber and iron duplex building (1902) and Coxswain's Quarter's, a timber and iron cottage (1884, 1889 & 1902) constructed to provide accommodation for the officers guiding vessels in and out of Princess Royal Harbour in the 19th and early 20th centuries has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
The place is rare for its demonstration of the location and living conditions of one of the earliest pilot stations in Western Australia, with a sequence of buildings on the site having been used as pilots’ quarters from 1853 to 1936.
The place has landmark value as a group of simple yet functional structures located on a prominent point in the naturally scenic environment of King George Sound, and contributes to a precinct of significant harbour related activities associated with communication and defence, which include the gun emplacements and Point King Lighthouse Ruin.
The place is valued by the local community for its association with the early port functions at Albany, having occupied the site since 1854 when the first accommodation was provided for the Pilot and boat crew of the Albany port, then Western Australia's major port, to enable their function of guiding vessels in and out of Princess Royal Harbour in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The place represents the level of early accommodation provided for port officials at Albany, and is indicative of the State Government's lack of support for Albany as the major port of the State during the 19th century.
The place is closely associated with the function of Harbour Master and Pilot at Albany in the mid 19th century, in particular with Captain William Pretious (1853-1868), who fulfilled most of the official duties required at the port at that time.

The grain cleaning industrial facilities (c.1995), located at the west of the site and the garage and carport standing close but apart from the east elevation of the Pilot Crew Quarters are of low significance. The industrial equipment scattered across the site to the north of the cottages is intrusive.

Physical Description

Some of the notable features of this place include:
Coxswain’s Quarters
• Weatherboard clad with fibre cement and metal decked walls and a metal deck roof
• The earliest remaining fabric is the two room rectangular portion along the south elevation (1889).
• Prominent masonry chimney rises through the ridge
• Addition to the north (1902), has a separate and higher hipped roof
• North and south elevations have concrete paved verandahs with square timber posts supporting the roof over
• The south verandah features a corrugated fibre cement balustrade
• A separate corrugated metal decked WC structure with pitched gable roof and wide overhanging eaves
• Internal finishes include timber floor, weatherboard walls, and timber boarded ceilings, back-to-back brick fireplaces with timber mantelpieces

Pilot Crew Quarters
• U-shaped building with a hipped corrugated iron roof
• Two face brick chimneys
• Random rubble stone walls and weatherboard infill
• Brick quoining at the building corners and around window and door openings
• Verandah the width of the building on the south elevation with the roof supported by square timber posts
• Symmetrical design with the central north-south division creating two identical living units
• Freestanding washhouse, garage and carport
• A wide central passage divides the four living and sleeping spaces and leads to the front verandah
• Walls have been rendered and painted and the four panelled doors feature moulded architraves

Some obvious modifications include:
• New roofs of both Coxswain’s Quarters and Pilot Crew Quarters.

History

While visiting Albany in January 1850, the Governor, Captain Charles Fitzgerald, directed that a pilot house be built to house the Pilot and boat crew. The Government Resident, Henry Camfield and Lieutenant Peter Belches, Harbour Master and Pilot, marked out a site for a Pilot's House on the north shore of Princess Royal Harbour, near the entrance, but construction did not commence immediately due to a lack of available labour and materials. With the promise of the mail ships coming to the harbour, a Pilot's House was completed in 1853, designed by the Office of Works. In c1869, a new stone house is reported to have been constructed for Captain Butcher, Harbour Master.

Pilots were basically required to sail out to meet incoming ships and bring the ships into the harbour. It was noted in 1854 that the pilot boat was manned by ‘picked’ convicts but in 1857 some of the crew was Aboriginal men.

In 1884, a Coxwain’s Quarters was built by contractors Locke and Harrison. In 1889, additions were made to the quarters comprising two rooms in weatherboard and iron on the east side. The plan for this work was signed by George Temple Poole, Superintendent of Public Works, and the building contract awarded to H. J. Cutting.

Albany's port was at its busiest in the 1880s and 1890s. In 1887, a new mail contract was signed with both P&O and the Orient Line for a service between Britain and Australia, with Albany as one of the places of call. That year, Millar Brothers also commenced exporting timber through the port. By 1898, passenger numbers through the port averaged 500 a week. In 1900, Fremantle became the State's mail port but Albany continued to operate as a significant coaling and watering port.

In 1902, substantial additions were made to Albany Pilot Station with the construction of the new Pilot Crew Quarters, a stone duplex building which was located between the first Pilot's House and the 1889 Coxswain's Quarters.

A former resident of Albany recorded in 1927 that ‘the station held the pilot’s quarters, a house for his assistant, prisoner’s quarters, carpenter and sail shed, two or three outbuildings, a large brick oven, a boat shed, and a flag staff with a yard-arm and semaphore’

In the mid-1990s, the site of Albany Pilot Station was leased to Seed and Grain Technology. The stone Pilot's House was demolished and its site was occupied by the company's grain silos. In the early 2000s, the Pilot Crew Quarters were occupied as residence and offices by employees of the company, and the Coxswain's Quarters are used largely as holiday accommodation.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: High/Moderate
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.