The locality is characterised by a low-density rural landscape, with few dwellings and many active wineries and farming operations. 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
Name
Belhus is named after the Belhus Estate that formerly existed on the land. The name was given in 1897 by George Hardey Barrett-Lennard - the grandson of pioneer settler Edward Pomeroy Barrett-Lennard, whose family also owned other Swan River land holdings in the area.
The estate in turn was named after Belhus Mansion in the English town of Aveley, Essex. The mansion was the ancestral estate of Barrett-Lennard's family of baronets.[2]
Prehistory
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.[3]
Colonial era
The "Arrowsmith map" of 1839, showing the boundaries of Swan Location 1
In 1801, during the Baudin expedition to Australia, French explorers from the Naturaliste charted a six day expedition up the Swan River on longboats, reaching the Belhus area and documenting its flora, fauna and environment before turning back due to lack of supplies. This was the first time Europeans had discovered and entered the area.[4]
In 1827, as a result of the French reports of Western Australia, British naval officer Captain James Stirling led a party from the HMS Success on a similar expedition up the Swan River, to survey the area for colonisation potential. Like the French, they stopped around the Belhus and Upper Swan area and camped there before turning back.[5]
In 1829, Stirling returned to Australia with a mandate to establish the Swan River Colony. The lands along the Swan River were surveyed and divided up into land grants to be allocated to British pioneer settlers. Modern-day Belhus was contained mostly within Swan Location 1, a 15,000 acre area that was granted to English merchant George Leake. As Leake ended up residing in Fremantle, he hired fellow settler and retired Lieutenant Henry Bull as manager of the Swan grant, to perform the required location duties i.e. farming and working the lands to bring them into a profitable state.[6] The venture was a success; Leake gained the legal title to Swan Location 1 and Bull's farm gained a reputation for high quality produce.
One of Bull's servants, William Cruse, built a horse-powered mill at the Ellen Brook for milling flour, later changing it to water-powered using a mill race and a dam built on the brook stream. Bull also hired bricklayer Richard Edwards to build a homestead nearby, which still exists today.[7] Lime and brick burning operations were carried out on the estate in addition to pastoral agriculture.
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.[8] Their bodies were buried near the Swan River, but Yagan's head was decapitated and ultimately taken to Britain. The murder was widely condemned by settlers in the area.
In 1838, the lands went through a series of transfers and divisions. Leake divided Swan Location 1 into two along a horizontal line, gifting the northern half to Bull in return for his efforts, while keeping the southern half. Leake's half was divided further, when he surrendered the unprofitable western two-thirds (the site of modern-day Ellenbrook) to the Crown, in exchange for credits towards future land purchases.[9] Leake then subsequently purchased the adjoining Brook Mount Estate (Swan Location A) to the south from William Burges and his brothers, who were in the process of moving from the Swan to the Avon Valley.
Leake's final combined ~2,500 acres of holdings at the Ellen Brook are what ultimately became the modern locality of Belhus. By this point, the mill, farm lands, stockyards, barns and resident homesteads had all become known colloquially as Ellen's Brook Farm, or the Ellen's Brook Estate. Ownership of the estate was passed down through subsequent generations of his family, who leased it out to the farmers and servants living there, including William Cruse and his family.
In 1851, 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.[10] The bridges allowed harvests from the east to be easily carted across to the mill house for milling.
In 1871, the passing of the Districts Road Act by the State Government brought the Ellen's Brook Estate under the local governance of the Swan Road District, which ultimately became the City of Swan.[11]
In 1896, the Ellen's Brook Bridge was re-built.
In 1897, the Leake family sold the entire Ellen's Brook Estate to George Hardey Barrett-Lennard, who then renamed it to Belhus Estate. Unlike previous uses of the land, Barrett-Lennard aggressively pursued viticulture on the estate using Cruse's mill for irrigation and employed a staff of 140+ workers.[12] Subsequent generations of the family carried the viticulture business into the 20th century, expanding into wine exports to Europe[13] and contributing to the Swan Valley's growing reputation for wine production.
Modern day
Cruse's mill house - reconstructed in 1988
In 1916, the road from Upper Swan to Perth was re-aligned, from what is now Cruse Road to the present-day alignment of West Swan Road, including a new road bridge across the Ellen Brook. Both the mill house and the Ellen's Brook Bridge fell into disuse as a result.
In approximately 1920, Cruse's mill house was destroyed by a fire. It was left in ruins until 1988 when it was re-constructed.
In 1926, the Upper Swan Bridge collapsed during a flash flood, causing major disruption for all residents and businesses in the area.[14]
In the 1950s, the Upper Swan Bridge was rebuilt with a new design by Main Roads Western Australia.[15] In 1954, the Barrett-Lennard family subdivided the estate into four large lots, reducing the size of their vineyard operations.
In 1972, Belhus was formally gazetted as a postal locality by the Shire of Swan. It mostly followed the established boundaries of the former Swan Location 1 South holding, including the uninhabited Crown lands and part of the Gnangara Pine Plantation to the west.
In the mid-1970s, Boral started a sand quarrying operation in the far west of the suburb.
In 1987, three large lots west of the brook were purchased by John Roberts,[16] who renamed the combined holdings to Egerton Estate in honour of his wife's family. Roberts, at his own cost, pursued restoration and repairs of Bull's homestead, re-built the Ellen Brook Bridge for the second time and built a replication of Cruse's mill house and wheel, using authentic remains of the originals that had been successfully excavated at the site.[17] Roberts also founded Egerton Stud on the estate for thoroughbred horse breeding.
The remaining Belhus area was subdivided again into rural acreages by the Barrett-Lennards, in a joint venture with Metro Industries. 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. This also enabled development of The Vines golf course and estate to the north of Belhus at around the same time in 1988.[18]
In 1992, following the establishment of the Ellenbrook development project in the area, all lands west of the Ellen Brook were excised from Belhus and transferred to the newly gazetted Ellenbrook locality.[20] This drastically reduced the size of Belhus's locality boundaries to what they are today, more closely corresponding to those of the original Belhus Estate. Egerton Estate was subsequently transferred a second time in 2006, to its own dedicated suburb named Aveley.
In 2010, Yagan Memorial Park was built and gazetted in the east of Belhus, along the north bank of the Swan River, which is where Yagan's body was believed to have been buried after his murder 177 years prior. The exhumed head of Yagan, having been re-patriated from Britain, was re-buried there during a traditional ceremony held in the park and attended by State and indigenous dignitaries.[21] The river bank in the park boundary is now considered sacred and public access to it is forbidden. The close-by Upper Swan Bridge on Great Northern Highway was also renamed to Yagan Bridge at the same time.
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
Belhus has many historic buildings and constructions still extant today, in various conditions:
Ellen's Brook Estate, consisting of:
Henry Bull's cottage - restored
Grape picker huts
Cruse's millhouse - reconstructed replication of the original
Ellen Brook Bridge
This is closed to the public and currently in a ruined state
Yagan Bridge
Formerly known as the Upper Swan Bridge. The bridge forms part of Belhus's boundary with Upper Swan
Yagan Memorial Park
The old Ellen's Brook Estate buildings are on private property with no public access. However, the reconstructed millhouse can be viewed up close from a public footpath leading from from Corona Way.
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
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.
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.
Demographics
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.[23]
Facilities
There are no public facilities in Belhus and no public transport options. However, 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.[24]
