Lynton (Convict Depot)

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April 28th 2012

Published: May 1st 2012

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MikeandTrishV

Lynton

Lynton

28^th April ‘12

As with Greenough, we felt that there was enough interest in this place to also support a separate blog entry despite us not staying here. On the way North to Kalbarri from Horrocks, we rounded a bend in the road to be confronted with a sign that read ‘Lynton Convict Depot’ and as we were in the market for a few wenches we pulled in to see what the go was. Unfortunately we were over a century and a half too late to get a new wench or two !

The actual date that the depot began is not definite, but a report in 1853 lists the Depot as only just started with a party of 60 men arriving on the 22^nd May accompanied by a Sergeant Reddin, and a Prisoner Guard aboard the ‘Leander’ at Port Gregory , (or what was to become Port Gregory). The men and gear were taken ashore in small boats and taken 6 miles down to a bend in the Hutt River, where a townsite was to be established. They quarried limestone from the surrounding hills to build the depot and used rush thatching for the roofs as

Lynton

Barracks on the right with the ruins of the lockup behind Trish

there was a shortage of timber in the area.

By April 28^th 1854, there were 8 buildings completed with the depot out-houses, hospital and lock-up still to be built, all buildings were reported as completed in 1856. The ‘town’/Depot suffered considerable sickness and scurvy because of the lack of fresh vegetables and a deputation of officials and the Principal Medical Officer were sent out to inspect the district and Depot. A decision was made to close the Depot due to the costs of food, transport and a shortage of water, nine convicts were living at the Depot then. The remaining guards were offered land parcels on the Greenough Flats (see previous Blog entry, Greenough) and on the 3^rd Jan 1858, the ‘Les Trois Amis’ sailed to Port Gregory to transfer the remaining convicts and staff to Champion Bay (Geraldton), so ending a short but busy life for the ‘Lynton Convict Hiring Depot’.

Captain Henry Sanford’s house known as Lynton Homestead or the ‘Gov’s Residence’ was built in 1853. Cut into the side of the limestone hills overlooking the sea, it was said that it was positioned so that from the verandah you could see the whales ‘blowing’ as

Lynton

Ruins of the lockup from the front

they passed by the Hutt River mouth, no chance of that 150 plus years on! Nearby he also built a mill and a large barn, all with convict labour. Henry was not involved in the development or running of the Convict Depot, he arrived at the Swan Colony in 1851 and then on to Port Gregory in Jan 1853. He was from an ‘established family’ in Somerset and named ‘Lynton’ after his home in Lynton and Lynmouth on the East Lyn River. He settled here with ‘intentions to farm’ and to ‘open an export’ business, (lead from the Geraldine mine). Henry leased 48,000 acres surrounding the Lynton townsite reporting he was making ‘great progress’ on the 6^th Nov 1853. But in 1859 Henry returned to England to resume his ‘military career’ and died in London in 1905 after retiring (a second time) from the English Militia as a Colonel. Lynton was leased out and eventually sold to Robert Habgood, a Director of the Geraldine Mine. For more history on Lynton after this period you will have to google it yourself! But, needless to say, we found the Lynton Convict Depot and Lynton Homestead a fascinating stop on our way to