Pensioner Guard Cottage

Statement of Significance

From the 1 Surrey Street Conservation Plan, 2007. Surrey Street, Bassendean, comprising a brick rendered and shingle Pensioner Guard Cottage (1856-1857, 1991-1993) and brick rendered and tile residence (c.1893, c.1952), has cultural heritage significance for the
following reasons:
• the Pensioner Guard Cottage is a rare surviving example in metropolitan Perth, and one of the few remaining throughout the state;
• the Pensioner Guard Cottage is arguably the finest extant example of a Pensioner Guard Cottage in Western Australia;
• it has significant associations with the Pensioner Guards who were an identifiable social group within the Western Australian Colonial community, during Colonial times when it was necessary to have forces of law and order visible in society, and the
• Pensioner Guard Cottage informs of the unique way of life for a Pensioner Guard and his family from the 1850s;
• the Pensioner Guard Cottage is significant for the identifiable form, scale and materials that inform of the earliest history of the Bassendean, during the Convict period, and is integral within the it’s townscape and character;
• the Pensioner Guard Cottage evidences the use of local materials with convict labour;
• it demonstrates the evolution of residential development on the site, from a two room cottage in 1856-1857 that housed a family of 10 by 1870, to the construction of the adjacent residence in
c.1893, and the subsequent additions to that residence in c.1952, with the eventual demise as a residential function in the 1980s; and
• it is a focal point for the Bassendean district’s historical sense of place and community pride
associated with the role in the state’s history.

Physical Description

The place comprises Pensioner Guard Cottage (1856-1857, 1991-1993) and residence (c.1893, c.1952) and is situated central between North Road and Calnon Street, in Surrey Street, on the south side of the road. Pensioner Guard Cottage is located on the west side of the site, adjacent to the residence, both facing the road. Pensioner Guard Cottage is a modest vernacular building that responded to the living requirements of the pensioner guards, and the availability of materials. It evidences some influences of the Victorian Georgian style of architecture in the gentleness of scale, simple rectangular form and symmetrical facades, and traditional bearing walls. The two roomed building forms a rectangle. The rooms are connected, with the front and rear doors aligned north-south in the west room of the cottage. French doors, a later intervention, provide access to the rear ( The gable roof is clad with 1991-1993 (Rose Oak from NSW) timber shingles. The gables are detailed with overlapped reverse scalloped barge boards. The eaves are unlined. The timber roof structure on the interior evidences some of the original lime-washed timbers that were in existence in 1991-1993. The single chimney is almost central, and on the ridge line. It is a square face brick chimney that has been rendered and painted. It has a simple corbelled detail. The external walls are rendered. Documentary evidence reveals that the original brick walls are laid in Flemish bond and were mostly still face brick work prior to be rendered in 1991-1993

History

For a full history of the site and the cottage refer to the Conservation Plan prepared in 2007 by Laura Gray and Irene Sauman. The decision to take convicts in the Swan River Colony was in response to a significant number of the influential colonists demanding labour to assist in development of the struggling economy. Convicts arrived in the Swan River colony from 1850 to 1868 accompanying them were the Pensioner Guards, soldiers who had fought in British armies, but were on a pension. They had either served a twenty year term, or they had been made redundant as British armies were reduced in number. The Pensioner Guards were part of the British government's commitment to the West Australian colonists that
free settlers would be sent out to dilute the convict presence. The guards were offered free passage to Western Australia for themselves and their families. They were employed as guards on the convict ships and once in the colony their duties were not particularly onerous. Employment was offered to them in the Convict Establishment as warders, but their main purpose was to act as a disciplined body of men who could be called upon by the civil authorities to quell any disturbance. The first contingent arrived in the second ship, the Hashemy, November 1850. In Western Australia Pensioner Guards were settled on the fringes of towns, especially towns in which there was a convict depot. Their blocks of land varied in size between two and ten acres, and each block had a two roomed cottage (value £15) erected by convicts, or ticket-of-leave labourers. The land and house became the property of the guard and his family provided he stayed and worked the land for seven years.
Successful groupings of small land owners from the military caste were formed at North Fremantle, and at York, Toodyay, Bunbury, Kojonup, Greenough Flats and Albany.
The construction of the four cottages in West Guildford was supervised by Lieutenant Edmund DuCane, Royal Engineer, whose reports of his completed work are thorough. DuCane was responsible for the eastern settlements of Guildford, Toodyay and York. At the time of the construction of the cottages Guildford was a ticket-of-leave depot, rather than the convict outpost it was to later become. Therefore most of the labour used to construct the cottages was ticket-of-leave men, supervised by Sappers. In August 1855, DuCane's half yearly report noted that Guildford had an average of 67 ticket-of-leave men at his disposal and they had been engaged in burning bricks for 12 Pensioner cottages, and sawing timber.
It was originally planned to build 12 Pensioners' cottages at West Guildford, but only four were actually built. The cottages took several years to complete and were not occupied until the 1860s. The four Pensioner Cottages were located on Lots 114 to 117. The first occupants were Pensioner John Law Davis (Lot 114), Pensioner Henry Chartres (Lot 115), James Brown (Lot 116) and Pensioner William Oliver (Lot 117). The three Pensioner Guard occupants acquired title to their lots in 1864 and 1865 after the required seven years occupancy, but James Brown purchased Lot 116 for £7-10-0. On 27 November 1857, Pensioner Guard John Law Davis was appointed caretaker of the four Enrolled
Pensioner Force cottages at Guildford which were unoccupied. Davis, his wife, Amelia Sarah and infant daughter, Amelia Law occupied the cottage on Lot 114. John Law Davis acquired title to Lot 114 in October 1864 at no cost after his seven years of occupancy. On his death in 1870, the cottage transferred to his son William and in 1893 the property was transferred to Edmund Ralph Brockman who it is understood to have built an additional larger cottage on the site for his daughter Frances Brown and her husband Aubrey Brown. The original pensioner guard cottage provided the kitchen and dining room for the new cottage. The couple lived there until the death of Aubrey in 1909 when Frances sold the property.
By the 1930s, there were only two cottages remaining and by 1947, only one. In the 1950s, the property was used as a boarding house and alterations were undertaken to the 1890s cottage and the pensioner guard cottage. During the 1960s and 1970s, the property changed hands and the land was subdivided creating a smaller lot for the two cottages which were acquired by the Town of Bassendean in 1988 with the intention of creating a museum within the 1890s cottage and restoring the Pensioner Guard cottage as a rare example
of its type. Conservation works were undertaken in the 1990s and in 1993; the restored Pensioner Guard cottage was opened by the Mayor of Bassendean, John Cox. Since then the place has been open to the public and further plans to develop the place as a tourist destination have been put forward by the Town of Bassendean Historical Society and interested community groups. In 1994, the Pensioner Guard Cottage was included permanently on the State Register of Heritage Places.

Integrity/Authenticity

Moderate
Moderate

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Last Update

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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.