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Belhus, Western Australia

Coordinates: 31°46′52″S 116°00′36″E / 31.781°S 116.010°E / -31.781; 116.010
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Belhus
Perth, Western Australia
Henry Bull's homestead in Belhus
Map
Coordinates31°46′52″S 116°00′36″E / 31.781°S 116.010°E / -31.781; 116.010
Population264 (SAL 2021)[1]
Postcode(s)6069
Area4 km2 (1.5 sq mi)
LGA(s)City of Swan
State electorate(s)West Swan
Federal division(s)Hasluck
Suburbs around Belhus:
The Vines The Vines Upper Swan
Aveley Belhus Upper Swan
Henley Brook Henley Brook Baskerville

Belhus is a rural north-eastern suburb of Perth, Western Australia within the City of Swan. It is located in the north of the Swan Valley region, at the confluence of the Swan River and the Ellen Brook.

The locality is characterised by a low-density rural-residential landscape of hobby farms, viticulture and horticulture operations.[2] It also contains several preserved historic sites from the early Swan River Colony era of Western Australia, including the original homestead of pioneer settler Henry Bull and the final resting place of Noongar warrior Yagan.

History

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Name

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Belhus is named after the Belhus Estate that formerly existed in the area, which in turn, was named after Belhus Mansion in England. The mansion was the ancestral seat of the Barrett-Lennard family, who came to own the Belhus Estate in the 1900s.[3]

Prehistory

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The waterways of the Swan River and the Ellen Brook were important thoroughfares and food sources for the Whadjuk Noongar people. Early European explorers observed that the Belhus area i.e. the confluence of the brook and the river was pitted with yams.[4] Several registered aboriginal heritage sites exist in the east of the locality, including Site ID 4079, an extensive artefact scatter dating to the Holocene period.[5][6]

Colonial era

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The "Arrowsmith map" of 1839, showing the boundaries of Swan Location 1

As a result of the French reports of Western Australia, British naval officer Captain James Stirling led a party from the HMS Success on an expedition up the Swan River, to survey the area for colonisation potential.[7] They stopped around the Belhus area at the Ellen Brook confluence, camping there before turning back.[8]

Stirling returned to Australia in 1829, with a mandate to establish the Swan River Colony. Belhus was contained mostly within Swan Location 1, a 15,000 acre area that was granted to English merchant George Leake. Leake hired Henry Bull to establish pastoral agriculture and work the lands into a profitable state.[9] Their venture was a success; Leake gained the legal title to Swan Location 1 and Bull's farm gained a reputation for high quality produce.[10] One of Bull's servants, William Cruse, built a flour mill, race and dam on the property. Bull also hired bricklayer Richard Edwards to build a homestead for him.[11]

In 1833, outlawed Noongar warriors Yagan and Heegan took overnight refuge at Bull's homestead in Swan Location 1, but were shot and killed the next morning by two cattle herders during an altercation.[12] Their bodies were buried on the north shore of the Swan River nearby.

The lands went through a series of transfers and divisions after 1838. Leake gifted the northern half of Swan Location 1 to Bull for his efforts,[9] then surrendered the unprofitable western two-thirds (the site of modern-day Ellenbrook) back to the Crown. Finally, Leake subsequently purchased the adjoining Brook Mount Estate (Swan Location A) to the south from William Burges.[10] Leake's final combined holdings, with its mill, farm lands, stockyards, barns and resident homesteads, became known colloquially as the Ellen's Brook Estate.

Indentured labour consisting of Aboriginal prisoners and British convicts were brought in by the colonial administration to build two public bridges, the Upper Swan Bridge and the Ellen's Brook Bridge, across the waterways in the area.[13] The bridges at their completion in 1851 allowed harvests from the eastern districts to be easily carted across to Cruse's mill house.

The newly-established Swan Road District assumed local governance of the estate in 1871.[14]

The Ellen's Brook Estate was sold to George Hardey Barrett-Lennard in 1897, who renamed it to Belhus Estate. Unlike past colonial land uses, Barrett-Lennard aggressively pursued viticulture and winemaking across the estate, employing a staff of 140+ seasonal workers.[15] Subsequent generations of the family carried the Belhus viticulture business into the 20th century, expanding into wine exports to Europe[16] and contributing to the Swan Valley's growing reputation for wine production.

Modern day

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Cruse's mill house - reconstructed in 1988

The main road from Upper Swan to Perth was re-aligned in 1916, from what is now Cruse Road to the present-day alignment of West Swan Road, including a new road bridge across the Ellen Brook.[17]

In 1972, Belhus was established as a postal locality by the Shire of Swan, originally covering a large area westwards.

Subdivision of the Belhus Estate occurred in the late 1980s. John Roberts purchased three large lots west of the brook in 1987,[18] & renamed the combined holdings to Egerton estate. At his own cost, Roberts restored and repaired Bull's homestead and also built a replication of Cruse's mill house and wheel, using authentic remains of the originals that had been successfully excavated at the site.[19] The remaining Belhus area was subdivided into 36 lots by the Barrett-Lennards the following year.[17] A new access road, Millhouse Road and its accompanying bridge across the Ellen Brook was built by the venture to accommodate the new properties, along with sewerage and electrical infrastructure.

Following the establishment of the Ellenbrook joint venture in 1992, most of the lands west of the Ellen Brook were excised from Belhus and transferred to the new Ellenbrook locality.[20] Egerton estate was subsequently transferred a second time in 2006, to its own dedicated suburb named Aveley.

Yagan Memorial Park was built in 2010 in the east of Belhus, near where Yagan's body was believed to have been buried after his murder. The exhumed head of Yagan, having been re-patriated from Britain, was re-buried in the park during a traditional ceremony that was attended by State and indigenous dignitaries.[21]

In 2014, a wetland management system was constructed near the millhouse by the State Government's Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, to manage nutrient levels within the Ellen Brook catchment.[22]

Heritage

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Belhus has many historic buildings and constructions still extant today, in various conditions:

  • Ellen's Brook Estate, consisting of:
    • Henry Bull's cottage
    • Cruse's millhouse
    • Grape picker huts
  • Ellen Brook Bridge
  • Yagan Bridge
  • Yagan Memorial Park

Almost all road names in the locality reference the local history of Belhus:

  • Millhouse Road: Refers to Cruse's mill
  • Cruse Road: Refers to William Cruse
  • Leake Place: Refers to George Leake
  • Burgess Crescent: Refers to the Burges brothers
  • Aveley Road: Refers to the English town and Barrett-Lennard seat
  • Anglesea Crescent: Refers to the Marquis of Anglesea settler ship
  • Corona Way: Refers to the Corona convict ship

Geography

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Millhouse Road in Belhus

Belhus is bounded by Upper Swan to the south and east, Aveley to the west and The Vines to the north. The Swan River and the Ellen Brook both form large swathes of the suburb's boundary lines, as does the Yagan Bridge in the east.[23]

The Belhus locality was formerly much larger, encompassing all of Aveley and the southern half of Ellenbrook up until 1992.

Like the rest of the Swan Valley region to the south, Belhus is characterised by rolling hills, vineyards and agricultural land uses on large acreages. The abundant waterways throughout the locality contribute to its highly fertile alluvial soils.

There are only two main roads that traverse the locality and link to other areas - West Swan Road in the south-east and Millhouse Road in the north-west. Both are classified as District Distributor roads in the Main Roads Western Australia road hierarchy.[24]

Demographics

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At the 2021 Australian census, Belhus had a low and sparse population of 265, in line with its rural zoning and land uses. 48.3% of Belhus residents were male and 51.7% were female. Belhus's median age was 54, much higher than the state and national average of 38. The most common ancestries in Belhus as of 2021 were English (44.3%), Australian (38.3%), Irish (7.6%), Italian (7.6%) and Scottish (7.2%), with 2.3% of residents identifying as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. 68.6% of residents were born in Australia.[25]

Facilities and services

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There are no public facilities in Belhus and no public transport options. The locality is situated a short distance away from the urban centres of Ellenbrook and Aveley, as well as the larger commercial and tourism region of the Swan Valley. Police, fire and ambulance services are all provided from stations in Ellenbrook.

A telephone exchange exists in the north of the suburb, near the boundary with The Vines.[26]

Electricity supply is split, with the eastern half of the suburb supplied from the Muchea substation, and the western half supplied from Henley Brook.[27]

References

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  1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Belhus (suburb and locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022. Edit this at Wikidata
  2. ^ "Twelfth Report of the Standing Committee on Constitutional Affairs and Statutes Revision in Relation to a Petition Regarding the Swan Valley and Whiteman Park" (PDF). Parliament of Western Australia. 12 June 1996. p. 6. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  3. ^ "History of metropolitan suburb names – B". Western Australian Land Information Authority. Archived from the original on 16 March 2022. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
  4. ^ "Indigenous history of the Swan and Canning Rivers" (PDF). Debra Hughes-Hallett. 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  5. ^ "Main Roads Western Australia - Environmental Impact Assessment - Great Northern Highway: Section 1: 6.45SLK to 12.56SLK" (PDF). ATA Environmental. April 2004. p. 107. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  6. ^ "ACHIS - Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Inquiry System". Government of Western Australia - Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  7. ^ "Register of Heritage Places - Assessment Documentation - Boundary Tree, Swan Locations 4 and 5, Baskerville". Heritage Council of Western Australia. 22 April 2016. p. 3. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  8. ^ "History - Anglican Parish of Swan". Anglican Diocese of Perth. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  9. ^ a b "Register of Heritage Places - Assessment Documentation - Henry Bull's Cottage". Heritage Council of Western Australia. 6 February 1998. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  10. ^ a b Bourke, Michael J. On the Swan: A History of the Swan District, Western Australia. University of Western Australia Press. ISBN 9780855642587.
  11. ^ "Lt Henry Bull". Freotopia. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  12. ^ "Yagan, "Wallace" of the Aborigines". The Daily News. 23 September 1933. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  13. ^ "Cradle of the Colony: A Story of Guildford and the Swan Valley" (PDF). City of Swan. p. 7. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  14. ^ "Swan Road District - Progress During 63 Years". The West Australian. 22 September 1934. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  15. ^ George Hardey Barrett-Lennard - Obituaries Australia
  16. ^ "Belhus Vineyard - 175 Acres of Vines - A Monster Trellis". The Western Mail. 28 February 1919. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  17. ^ a b "Swan Shire Bridges Project - Synopsis of Interview with John Barrett-Lennard" (PDF). J.S. Battye Library of West Australian History: Oral History Collection. 19 March 1993. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  18. ^ "The Best of Belhus - Frank Alban MLA". Swan Magazine. February 2014. p. 10. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  19. ^ "Newsletter - Autumn 1988" (PDF). The Australian Society for Historical Archaeology. March 1988. p. 32. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  20. ^ "Western Australian Government Gazette - No.113" (PDF). Government of Western Australia. 7 August 1992. p. 3877. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  21. ^ "Aboriginal warrior buried after 170 years". ABC News. 10 July 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  22. ^ "Ellen Brook Catchment - Local Water Quality Improvement Plan - June 2018" (PDF). Government of Western Australia - Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. June 2018. p. 10. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  23. ^ "Google Maps". Google. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  24. ^ "Open Data, Maps & Apps - Road Hierarchy". Main Roads WA. 19 October 2016. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  25. ^ "Belhus - 2021 Census - All persons QuickStats". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 10 August 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  26. ^ "Australian Exchange Guide - WA Listing". Whirlpool. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  27. ^ "Energy Infrastructure Map". Government of Western Australia - Department of Treasury. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
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