Derby Police Station

Condition

Still in use as a Police Station (March 2010) though the cells were demolished in 2009.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Derby Roman Catholic Church

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

Significant to the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Derby. Social signficance.

Physical Description

The xisting Roman Catholic Church in Derby was built in circa 1960's by Frank rodrigues. It is of frame construction with fibro (asbestos0 wall linings. It is attractively proportioned and detailed. There is a memorial stone located in front of the church dedicated to the memory of Palatine Father Alphonse Bleuschwitz, missionary pioneer 1947-1993; First missionary Father Duncan McNab 1-4-1884 and Clare Lucy bowler, lay missionary of the Parish of Derby.

Condition

Good

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Derby Stone Quarry

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

The quarry site is of historical significance to the history of the development of Derby as the stone was used to construct the causeway to the jetty. it is significant as part of the history of the Derby jetty tramway.

History

The Derby Quarry was probably first excavated in 1892 for the purpose of constructing the causeway across the mud flats from the town to the jetty for the construction of the Tramline. Circa 1900 the tramway of known to have extended through the town to the quarry for the purpose of carrying stone for the construction of the causeway. the quarry is believed to have been excavated by hand using Aboriginal labour.

Condition

Site Only

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Derby Tramway Woolshed

Condition

Good.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

Consider the tramway as an integral part of the port system in terms of future development for interpretive or tourism purposes. It should be considered in association with proposals for the causeway, the wharf, the cattle race, and the stock route to Myall's Bore.

Physical Description

The Derby Tramway was constructed in 1885/6 across the causeway from the town to the existing jetty. The jetty and tramway were upgraded in 1893. In the 1890s the tramway was extended up Loch and Delawarr Streets to the quarry, probably for the purpose of transporting fill for the upgrading of the causeway. Documents indicate various changes in the extent of the tramway over the period of its history but it is likely that for the major part of the twentieth century only the section between the Johnston and Loch Streets intersection and the jetty remained in use. In the 1950s some of the remaining track was removed, leaving only the portion required for shunting purposes extending up Loch Street. In 1963 a new jetty incorporating tramway facilities was constructed. This tramway terminated at a new goods yard located adjacent to the jetty and the line across the causeway was no longer used. Various buildings related to the tramway have been constructed throughout the period of its history. The main town depot associated with the tramway is located at the intersection of Loch and Elder Streets and from here the tramway extended across the causeway. Various buildings have been constructed in the town depot of which two remain. The existing woolshed was originally constructed in 1900 and underwent significant alterations in 1957. The existing goods shed was constructed in 1957 as an extension to an earlier goods shed dating from circa 1890s which no longer exists. The goods shed in the goods yard adjacent to the jetty was relocated from Wyndham in 1962. Early trams were horse drawn and Clydesdale horses came to be associated with the tramway. In 1938 the first diesel engine is believed to have been used in Derby. No records have been found to indicate the use of steam engines.

Integrity/Authenticity

Intactness of fabric: Fair, some fabric remaining from 1900, has lost timber platform. Alterations: Rebuilt with alterations 1957

Condition

Fair - Requires conservation

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Derby War Memorial in Shire Office & Library Pk

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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House

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

Social and aesthetic significance as an example of an early Derby home. Significant for associations with the Derby Road Board.

Physical Description

House that used to be associated with the Derby Road Board. Timber frame, weatherboard wall linings and corrugated iron roof.

Integrity/Authenticity

Intactness of fabric: Not Known Alterations: Not Known

Condition

Not Known

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Le Lievre's Store

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

Significant to the history of the development of Derby.

History

The existing store is constructed in front of a much older building which is believed to have been Jimmy Ah Chee's Garage in the 1930s.

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Old Cordial Factory

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

Significant to the history of the development of Derby.

Physical Description

Corrugated iron shed believed to have been used as a cordial factory.

Condition

Fair

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Wharfingers House, Derby

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

The Wharfinger's House is significant to the social and historic development of Derby and to the history of the jetty area.

Physical Description

The building is rectangular in plan with a hipped roof and verandahs on all sides. The main house consists of three rooms opening onto the verandah through pairs of French doors. The building is timber frame on concrete stumps with vertical tongued and grooved wall lining internally and externally. The original building had a ventilated roof space with fly wire between the walls and ceilings. One end of the verandah has been enclosed and there is a fly wire enclosed kitchen on the other end of the verandah.

History

In 1920 a request was made for a house for the wharfinger responsible for overseeing the Derby wharf area. The house was not however completed until 1928. The house was occupied by a continuous sequence of wharfingers from 1928 to 1962, when a new house was constructed on Lot 502 Loch St. The original Wharfingers House was occupied until 1976 by various tenants. The building was restored in 1988 as a bi-centennial project and has been used as a museum since 1990.

Integrity/Authenticity

Intactness of Fabric: very Good Alterations: Enclosure of Verandah.

Condition

Very Good

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Tom Street Mission House

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

The Tom Street Mission House is significant to the development of Derby. It is also a significant part of the history of the church and the UAM in particular in the north of Western Australia.

Physical Description

The house was built of materials available locally. The house frame and stumps are of Cyprus pine and the external walls and roof are corrugated iron. The timber floorboards are believed to have come from ship wrecks off the coast. Roof battens are mangrove jacks. The original section of the house remains intact with original Malthoid (bituminous paper) internal lining. The house has been extended and a verandah was added in the 1980s. The site also contains a corrugated iron Aboriginal Welfare department hut which was used by the mission women as a work room. There is also a larger outbuilding constructed of similar materials to the house. The old UAM hostel that existed adjacent to the house has been demolished and replaced by a church. The Derby mission is related to the mission at Mount Barnett Station.

History

The Tom Street Mission House was built circa 1932/33 by church missionaries of the United Aborigines Mission and named after the first UAM missionary in the area. The house has been used continuously from the 1930s to the present for housing church missionaries and pastors.

Integrity/Authenticity

Intactness of fabric: Good Alterations: Verandah

Condition

Good

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House

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

Significant to the history and development of Derby.

Physical Description

Timber framed building with fibro and louvres to verandah. Concrete stumps and corrugated iron roof.

History

House believed to have been relocated from Broome in the 1930s.

Integrity/Authenticity

Intactness of fabric: Not known Alterations: Not known

Condition

Fair

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Kimberley School of the Air, Derby District High School

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

The Kimberley School of the Air is of social and scientific significance to the Kimberley community. The buildings that house the service are not significant, however the location of the school on the Derby High School site is significant as is the original site of the school at the old Derby airport.

Physical Description

The school is located in demountable buildings which contain two broadcasting rooms, general work areas and office. An additional building was added in 1987 containing teachers work areas and a store room. There is direct communication between the students and the teachers via two-way radio which has a split frequency so that the students can hear each other.

History

The Kimberley School of the Air was established in 1960 at the old Derby airport (near the Royal Hying Doctor base). It was transferred to Kimberley High School and officially opened in 1982.

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Derby CWA Hall

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

The CWA Hall represents the role of the CWA in the lives of women in rural areas of Australia. In Derby the CWA has played a significant social and support role in the lives of women in the Kimberley community since the 1950s.

Physical Description

It is a timber framed building with asbestos sheet wall linings and a corrugated iron roof.

History

Derby has two branches of the CWA. The town branch founded in 1954 and the air branch. The CWA Hall was built by the Town Branch circa the 1960s when membership numbers exceeded forty women. The CWA assisted women in the community to cope with the isolation from family and friends at a time when few government support agencies were available. The hall is an expression of this role.

Integrity/Authenticity

Intactness of fabric: Not known Alterations: Not Known

Condition

Good

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Old Mowanjum Mission - site

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

The site of the old Mowanjun Mission is of significnace to the history of the development of Derby and to tthe history of the Aboriginal people in the area.

History

Mowanjun Mission was established on what had been a 125,000 acre cattle station on the outskirts of Derby in 1956. The people who settled there were from the Ngarinyin, Wunambul and Worora peoples, relocated from the previous mission at Wotjulum near Cockatoo Island. A church was constructed in 1959 at Mowanjun by volunteers from Geraldton. men who played a significant role in the establishment of the community and intergration with Derby townspeople were Albert Barunga, David Moaljarlai, Alan Mungulu and Watty Ngerdu.

Condition

Site Only

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Mrs Wells House

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

Significant to the history of the development of Derby. Example of building in remote area during World War II.

Physical Description

No. 2 Neville St was constructed in 1945 by Hugh Watt from recycled materials due to shortages caused by the war. The house is constructed on a concrete slab floor with corrugated iron external wall linings and fibro (asbestos) internal linings. The roof is steeply pitched with corrugated iron cladding. The building was used for a period as the office of the Department of Agriculture. In 1964 the building became the home of Mr and Mrs Wells who added a recycled WAPET hut as a spare room in 1966, constructed a carport circa 1970 and constructed a back verandah in 1987.

Integrity/Authenticity

Intactness of fabric: Good Alterations: Addition of WAPET hut

Condition

Good

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House

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

Social and aesthetic significance as an example of an early Derby home.

Physical Description

Fibro and iron house. Good example of early home in Derby.

Integrity/Authenticity

Intactness of fabric: Not known Alterations: Not known

Condition

Good

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Numbala Nunga, Derby

Statement of Significance

The place has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons: the place represents over 120 years of the measures undertaken by the Western Australian government to provide health care to the Aboriginal population of the State’s North West; the place is rare as the site of a Lock Hospital and is representative of the Government policy from the late 1900s of the relocation, isolation and treatment of Aboriginal people suffering from venereal diseases; the place is rare as the site of a Leprosy hospital in the 1920s and the 1930s and is representative of the Government policy of the relocation, detention, isolation and treatment of leprosy patients; the place was the first and only Nursing Home in the Kimberley Region from 1968 until the late 1980s, serving residents that were predominantly of Aboriginal descent and as such the facility worked to retain Aboriginal cultural links where possible; as the site of the Government Residency (1884), the place is representative of the settlement of the Kimberley by colonists from the mid-1880s, and the important first step in establishing a government in the region; as the site of a Native Hospital from 1925 until 1966, the place is representative of the then official government policy of treating Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal patients in separate medical facilities; as a Nursing Home, the place was established with funding from the Commonwealth’s Aboriginal Advancement Trust Account, which aimed to help improve Aboriginal health services across Australia following the 1967 referendum when the Commonwealth first became directly engaged in Aboriginal affairs.

Physical Description

Numbala Nunga, Derby, is a complex of shallow pitched fibre cement clad residential and medical buildings that operated as a nursing home from 1968 to 2008, situated on the site formerly occupied by Derby’s Government Residency (1884), Derby Hospital (including Leprosy and Lock Hospital facilities) (1890s-1925), and Derby Native Hospital (1925-1968) and currently occupied by the former Numbala Nunga Nursing Home (1968-2008).

History

Structures previously located at the site include: the Government Residency (1884), Derby Hospital (including Leprosy and Lock Hospital facilities) (1890s-), and Derby Native Hospital (1925). No elements of these places remain extant in 2016. Numbala Nunga Nursing Home is constructed on the site of the original Government Residency in Derby. Initially, the Government Resident and his clerk lived in two humble temporary corrugated iron houses on the Government Reserve, and the police officials resided in timber thatched shelters. By October 1884, a more permanent Government Residency had been constructed. A police station and quarters (possibly one building) and stables were constructed in 1884 and 1885. It is thought that these structures occupied the south west portion of the Government Reserve. In the late 1890s, after police services had been relocated to the town centre, a hospital started operating from the Residency Reserve. By this time, the Government Resident was also a medical practitioner and could attend to the patients on site, a trend that continued almost continuously from 1885 until 1915. . The Government Resident continued to live at the Residency until a new Residency was constructed elsewhere in Derby in 1917. By the late 1890s, a hospital was operating from the Residency Reserve known as ‘Derby Hospital’. It is possible that by this time the hospital was occupying the recently vacated police building/s. It is known that Derby Hospital treated both white and Aboriginal patients. By 1909, the Government Resident continued to provide medical care and had set up a dispensary in the Residency. By that time, the wider hospital site included a ‘shed’ that was in use as a lazaret (quarantine station for contagious diseases, particularly leprosy). In 1925, after Derby’s leper population had been relocated to Cossack, the former Government Residency building was destroyed by fire. During the entire period when the former Residency was being utilised as a Lock Hospital and Lazaret, Derby Hospital also continued to function from the site. In 1925, the Department of Native Affairs took over control of the site and the existing hospital became officially an Aboriginal-only native hospital. This facility was proposed to serve the whole of the Kimberley. The native hospital closed in 1965 and replaced by Numbala Nunga. The buildings on site date from 1968.

Archaeology

The potential for archaeology associated with the Government Residency phase, including the use of the building as a lazaret to be present is Low. There is little potential for intact artefacts or building remains associated with the operation of the Derby Native Hospital to be present. Although there is Moderate to Low potential for archaeology associated with the operation of Numbala Nunga Nursing Home to be present, it is unlikely to be of high significance.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

The site is of great significance to the history of the development of Derby as the site of the government Residency, police facilities, first hospital and Aboriginal hospital over the period of the town's history.

Physical Description

The Residency grounds appear to have housed the town's first hospital and this group of buildings became the Aboriginal hospital in 1924. In 1925 the former Residency building was burnt as a disease control measure when the leprosy patients were relocated to Cossack. The Native Hospital was closed in 1965 and replaced by Numbala Nunga Nursing Home.

History

Numbala Nunga Nursing Home is constructed on the site of the original Government Residency in Derby. The first Government Resident in Derby in 1883 was Robert Fairbairn. Until the early 1900s police buildings including the towns first lockup were located in this vicinity. The Government residency was a substantial timber and iron structure with shutters, however the police facilities were little more than corrugated iron huts.

Condition

Site Only

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House

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

Social and aesthetic significance as an example of a Derby home dating from the 1940s.

Physical Description

House constructed of fibro (asbestos) walls and roof on a concrete slab. Simple floor plan with one main room and bedroom, plus sleepouts with high ceilings.

History

House built by Mr and Mrs Hugh Watt circa 1944/5 after the death of their only child in 1944. After Mr Watt died in 1958 Mrs Watt took in a boarder Dennis Jaques, to whom she left the house on her death in 1976.

Integrity/Authenticity

Intactness of fabric: Not known Alterations: Not known

Condition

Fair

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Derby Hostel

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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Statement of Significance

Significant to the history of the development of Derby. Significant to the history of aviation in WA.

Physical Description

The existing hostel comprises two residential blocks constructed of fibro (asbestos) walls and corrugated iron roofs, on concrete stumps. They were probably constructed in the 1950s.

History

The Derby Hostel was constructed to provide accommodation for staff of the former MacRobertson Miller Airline Company. The hostel was located behind the original airlines office which has subsequently been demolished. The first air service in Western Australia was established between Derby and Geraldton in 1921 by war veteran Norman Brearley's Western Australian Airways (commonly called 'Airways'). This service was extended to Perth in 1923. In 1934 fresh tenders were called for the service which was to incorporate a link with a proposed airmail service to the UK. The MacRobertson Miller Aviation Company (MMA) took control of the service at that time.

Integrity/Authenticity

Intactness of fabric: Good Alterations: Not known

Condition

Good

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Boab Tree

Uses

Creation Date

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