| Western Australian Company |
Edward Wakefield motivated the London-based Western Australian Company to embark on a farm settlement scheme at Australind in 1841. Wakefield's ideal was to establish, through a programme of immigration, a self-supporting community based around intensive agriculture. The immigration scheme would be funded through the process of land sales. The Company purchased the 103,000 acres of Location 1, together with approximately 63,000 acres of Stirling's grant north of the Collie River. As a first stage in the scheme, 50,000 acres were divided into five hundred blocks each of 100 acres, selling at one pound per acre. The Company expected to settle 5,000 English migrants on the land by 1845. Around March 1841, the first shipload of immigrants arrived at Port Leschenault in the "Parkfield". Over the period, which spanned to 16th April, at least 263 immigrants are estimated to have landed at Australind in the ships "Parkfield", "Island Queen", "Diadem" and "Trusty". However, through a certain amount of Company indecision, the first 150 blocks were not allocated until July 1842. A larger number of these blocks were owned by persons who had still not arrived, and as a result, those who had remained at the settlement tended to cluster around the Australind townsite. A large number of them were sustained through being directly employed by the Company. Others carried on farming at a subsistence level. Capital investment continued to by-pass the Australind settlement, owing to the English depression of the 40's, and the fact that the little available monies were channeled into a growing wood industry in the Avon District. 
By June 1843, only four of the 100 acre blocks were occupied and with the Company progressing towards winding up its operation, Mr. M.W. Clifton's position as Chief Commissioner of the settlement was abolished. The W.A. Company had sent 476 persons to Australind, but in May 1844, only 148 remained. In a thesis on the "Historical Development of the Harvey District", A.C. Staples comments (1948:110) - "of those who left the settlement, some had enough to buy Crown land at one pound per acre, others either squatted on alienated land, or became labourers until they had enough money to buy land. Many were attracted to Bunbury, others went further afield to Nannup and the Blackwood District". The eastward and northward move of Australind settlers around 1844 initiated the era of pastoral development in the Harvey District. Landholdings along the Collie and Brunswick Rivers were soon taken up by names such as Clifton (Snr), Hough, Hurst, Allnutt (Snr), Marriott, Eedle, Crampton, Gardiner, Perren and McAndrew. Of the settlers who moved north a short time later, Robert Clifton, Rose, Piggott and Crampton acquired small parcels of land in the area between the head of the Leschenault Inlet and the northern end of the Myalup Swamp. Along the shore of the Inlet, Rodgers, Milligan, Brown, Dunne, Travers, Kiernan, Ferris and Reading all selected property. 
In 1852, it appears that the W.A. Company, who in 1840 had purchased the whole of Stirling's "Korijekup" selection, transferred back 12,800 acres to Stirling. This was designated Location 50A. During the 40's wheat was the main crop under cultivation for reasons of self-sufficiency. Staples makes the comment that (1948:126) "The early settlers seemed to have made a determined attempt to become sheep growers, but the conditions of the late 40's were too unfavourable for that industry, so they fell back on dairying". In 1851, new land regulations were introduced which provided for tillage leases as distinct from pastoral leases on which no cultivation was allowed. Pastoralists were permitted to purchase a minimum of 10 acres of tillage lease at one pound per acre. This rapidly led to the advent of the "10 acre settlers" who typically owned 10 acres on which their homestead and gardens were established while they leased the surrounding land for the grazing of stock. On Location 1, the ready availability of Company land encouraged the Brunswick River farmers to buy and develop land north and south of that River, while simultaneously settlers along the coast began acquiring land further east on the Wellesley River Flats and along the foothills of the Darling Scarp. The trend for the coastal pastoralists to occupy foothills land is illustrated in the thesis by A.C. Staples (1948: 138) thus highlighting the distinct pattern of land acquisition that emerged during the 50's. | Owner | Coastal Land | Foothill Land | | | Clarke | 10 acres "Hampden" | 20 acres "Jardup" | | | Smith | 160 acres "Giginup" | 20 acres "Uduc" | | | Crampton | "Myalup" blocks | 30 acres "Rose Flat" | | | Logue | Runs leased | 40 acres north Harvey | | | Piggott | 640 acres "Spring Hill" | Wellesley Block | | | Rose | 824 acres "Parkfield" | "Wedderburn or Camping land" | | Haywood | "Parkfield" | "Wedderburn" ("Bindidup" 1861) | | Clifton | "Rosamel" or coast blocks | | |
The Harvey District settlers of the 40's and 50's became very much established during the 60's. Nearly all acquired additional freehold purchases and between 1861-1870 the area leased grew from about 27,000 acres to 83,700 acres. By 1880, the bulk of the Western Australian Company land, i.e. the remaining 70,000 acres of Lot 1, about 12,000 acres of Location 50 and approximately 7,000 acres of Location 48 along the Coast Road had been purchased at the very low rate of 2s per acre.
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