Glencoe P.O. Site

Statement of Significance

The site is significant due to its association with postal deliveries and with pioneering families

Physical Description

Remnants marking the site include an ancient Mulberry tree and large pepper tree. The structure became unstable and unsafe in the early 1980's and was demolished by the current owner. The well which supplied the house was just to the east. This had a large (6m square) opening and was lined with sheoak (4" diameter). Over the years it had gradually caved in and a dam was constructed on the site (also incorporates part of the house site Further east is chimney remnants of an old cottage. The homestead had a thatched straw roof with sheoak and pug walls.

History

The Glencoe property pioneered by Michael Cronin in 1874 was an outpost of European settlement for many years. The isolation broken only by the passing of the occasional sandalwood cutter or carter. In time several families ventured into the area and the opening of the Great Southern Railway in 1889 brought a new impetus for settlement. The Cronins participated actively in the affairs of the new town of Katanning in preference to the closer, but smaller Round Pool settlement. Michael Cronin was a vounding member of the Katanning Road Board and was later to strongly oppose the excision of part of that territory to form the Woodanilling Road Board. Perhaps Cronin's loyalties lay with the Katanning Board, as he was a prime mover in the creation of this Board in 1892, as in May 1891 he was appointed by a public meeting to organise signatures for a petition to the Government. When Surveyor Oxley marked the Dumbleyung- Katanning Road in 1891 he noted that the road was called 'Cronin's Road' even near Moojeping. The early resident's connection with the outside world was through the weekly mail service from Katanning. The service commenced in January 1892 with WR Harvey conveying the mail from Katanning PO to Michael Cronin's and vice versa, calling in at the homesteads enroute on horse back. At the Glencoe end, Michael Cronin's home continued to be used for many years as an unofficial post office, with settlers not serviced by mail delivery, both receiving and leaving mail at 'Glencoe'. The district took the name "Glencoe" with the school, oval and rifle range all bearing this name. Michael Cronin's third daughter added to the significance of the family establishment. Mary, equally at home at her father's, side, accompanying him on sandalwood expeditions and became an expert on native flora which she would press and sent to botanists in the Eastern colonies. Three shrubs are thought to have been named in her honour - Consperum, Croninae, Daviesia Croniniana and Traehymene Croniniana. The death of Michael Cronin at 'Glencoe' in 1931 came as a sad loss to the district. His presence had been a bridge between the old pioneering days of the Colony and the new century. As a Justice of the Peace he had sat on the bench at the Katanning Court on many occasions. His son, Frank, lived in the old cottage at Glencoe, which served as a school in the old days for the Cronin children, which had been built at the same time as the main 'Glencoe'. The property passed to Lindsay Cronin after the death of his bachelor uncles, Don and Frank. Lindsay's father, Eddy farmed at 'Paringa' which was a few miles to the south west, opposite Bill Cronin's 'Yelyelling' form.

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