contact us

Use the form on the right to contact us.

You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.

21 Yokanup Road
Albany 6330
Australia

08 98449417

Albany is a stunning place and a photographers dream. Stretching from West Cape Howe National Park in the West through the City of Albany and beyond to the East the Albany Region is a wonderful place to explore and photograph. We will claim Denmark through to Bremer Bay as in our region.

 

albany sunset.jpg

News

Please feel free to write for us on this blog..we would love to hear your stories and see your photos of your experience in Albany.  Email to [email protected]

Thank you Ria Grobler VD Walt for this stunning photo of the the windmill farm

 

Filtering by Category: Dedicated Discoverer

Alison Hartman Gardens

Maggie van Santen

Alison Hartman Garden, often referred to as Mokare Park, is a park on York Street in Albany in the Great Southern region of Western Australia.

Alison Hartman Gardens - Mokare

The park, located near the centre of Albany, contains numerous sculptures including the statue of Mokare. (The Statue of Mokare, at the front of the gardens, is dedicated to the aboriginal man who helped early settlers maintain a peaceful coexistence with the local Noongar people. This was erected in 1997 as part of a reconciliation project by the Albany community. Mokare (c. 1800 – 26 June 1831) was a Noongar man, an Aboriginal man from the south-west corner of Australia who was pivotal in aiding European exploration of the area. Mokare had two known brothers: Mollian (d. 1829), who may have been known as Yallapoli, and Nakina, who with Mokare, was a frequent visitor to the Albany settlement, staying with the government resident, Dr Alexander Collie. He also was recorded as having a married sister.)

The area is situated adjacent to the Albany Public Library and the Albany Town Square. It often hosts local markets. The area was once the vegetable gardens behind the old state school, which is now the Albany District Education Centre. The gardens are named after a long-serving teacher at Albany State School, Alison Edith Hartman (1906-1978).She was the daughter of John Hartman, who built Albany War Memorial, and she was the Principal of Albany Primary School from 1935 to 1967.

The gardens contain two large Norfolk Island Pine trees and a Quereus Robur tree that date back to the 1890s along the southern edge. The pines are decorated every Christmas season. The statue of Mokare was erected in 1977 as a memorial to the Noongar man who helped he early settlers maintain a peaceful coexistence with the traditional owners. A series of community sculptures were set around a granite outcrop in the gardens in 1989. These include large, century-old timbers are from the original own Jetty that symbolise Jetty, ships loading cranes and other agricultural machinery to acknowledge the importance of shipping and agriculture in the early development of the town. An old tractor seat and other pieces of old agricultural machinery symbolise the agricultural history of our region. The sculptural installation is not meant to be decorative. It is meant to say something about our history, about the way we feel about our history. It is a “sensory ” piece. People are asked to feel it, walk around it and look at it, listen to it. Above all, to think about the years that have gone into making this area what it is now .

A Peace Pole at the rear of the gardens was erected in 2011 as part of the Harmony Day celebrations. It features the message “May Peace prevail on Earth” in six languages.

Old Farm, Strawberry Hill

Maggie van Santen

The Old Farm is located on Strawberry Hill in the suburb of Mira Mar in Albany, Western Australia. It is known as being the first farm in Western Australia.

Old Farm - Strawberry Hill
By HughesdarrenOwn work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

The hill on which the property is situated rises to a height of 237 feet (72 m) and is a spur of Mount Clarence. The soil is a mixture of clay and gravel with rich black loam on the lower side.

The farm was initially established in 1827 as a government farm when the first Europeans settled at King George Sound Edmund LockyerAlexander Collie and John Lawrence Morley selected the site as a government farm. Originally it occupied an area of 1,536 acres (622 ha) but only 6 acres (2 ha) remain today. The next three commandants of the settlement, Captain Wakefield, Lieutenant Sleeman and Captain Collet Barker, followed Lockyer’s plan of continuing to develop the farm.

Alexander Collie was appointed Government Resident of Albany in 1831 and moved into a wattle and daub cottage situated on the farm. He named the property Strawberry Hill after the small plot of strawberries he was cultivating. Collie retired in 1832 and his successor was D. H. Macleod but it was the farm superintendent John Lawrence Morley who handed the property onto Richard Spencer.

Spencer was appointed as Government Resident in 1833; he acquired the farm and resided there with his wife, Ann, and his ten children.  Spencer arranged for the erection of a granite two-storey building at the rear end of the original wattle and daub structure at a cost of £100. The garden was now well established and producing blood orangesraspberriesgrapesasparagusfigs and almonds. The first visitors to stay in the new building included Charles Darwin and Captain Robert FitzRoy, of HMS Beagle

The old thatched roof wattle and daub part of the main residence burned down in 1870. A second cottage was built by Charles Miner in the same year.

Francis Bird, the Chief Architect of Western Australia, acquired the property in 1889 and changed the name from Strawberry Hill to the Old Farm. His family retained ownership of the farm until the 1930s.

The site lay derelict for many years until purchased by the Federal Government in 1956 and it was then vested in the National Trust of Australia in 1964. Conservation work commenced shortly afterwards and it was later opened to the public. 

 

Source: Free Wikipedia

Patrick Taylor Cottage

Maggie van Santen

Patrick Taylor Cottage, also referred to as Patrick Taylor Cottage Museum, is a museum in Albany in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. It the oldest surviving dwelling in Western Australia.  The cottage is the pride and joy of the Albany Historical Society and a must-see attraction.

Located below road level on Duke Street overlooking Princess Royal Harbour, the cottage is on the second oldest title in the area. The title dates back to when the town was a military outpost. The wattle and daub construction is representative of the traditional building methods used by the early settlers

The cottage is a single storey residence with walls variously constructed of wattle and daub, ( a mixture of woven sticks, mud and Cow dung) mud-brick, wood-fired brick and framed weatherboard. It has a corrugated iron roof,replacing the original shingled roof. The cottage consists of eleven rooms: an entry, dining room, bedroom, nursery, family room, sewing room, kitchen, laundry, box room, parlour and side verandah. Much of the verandah has been walled in using weatherboard on studs and sun-baked bricks. It is surrounded by an English cottage garden.The entire site is found at the base of a gently sloping hill and has several mature tress and shrubs growing around the building.

 

The building was constructed by the Morley brothers in 1832. John Lawrence Morley was a former sailor with the East India Company and one of the first settlers in the area. He also leased the Old Farm at Strawberry Hill, and was the builder of Wollaston House. The cottage was originally set on a 240-acre (97 ha) block.

When Richard Spencer arrived in Albany in 1833 to take up the position of magistrate the cottage was one of “three miserable houses” mentioned in his records.

The building was sold to Patrick Taylor in 1835 by the Morleys for £400 on a much smaller block size. Taylor had arrived in Western Australia from Scotland in 1834. During the voyage he met Mary Yates Bussell; the two later married, with Patrick dying in 1877 and Mary living in the building until her death in 1887. Taylor’s son inherited the property and it was still owned by the Taylor family in the 1950s.

The building was condemned as unfit for habitation in the 1960s, and the Albany Historical Society began campaigning to preserve it. In 1964 the cottage was opened as Albany’s first museum..It is currently owned by the Albany Historical Society who use it as a museum. It contains 2,000 historical items including clocks, silverware, costumes and kitchenware.

The cottage was moved permanently onto the State Register of Heritage Places in 2009.

Albany Region is a compelling choice for a relaxing discovery break

Maggie van Santen

Why the Albany Region is a compelling choice for a relaxing discovery break.

Dedicated Discoverer – Want to escape the daily grind? Looking for an authentic experience? Looking for adventure?

Aspirational Achievers – do you view travel and holidays as a reward for your hard work and success in life? Are you looking for a wine, food and activity based holiday?

Experience Seekers (International) – Do you want to challenge yourself? Visit authentic destinations off the tourist route?  Exposure to unique and compelling experiences? Grow as an individual and stay healthy?

Discover the Albany Region and enjoy a memorable experience in a nature based environment. 

“Make the change from Visiting to Discovering and Experiencing.”

Albany and our surrounding region offer tourists an experience like no other.
National and local attractions, beautiful natural surrounds and wildlife, farmers markets, events and festivals,  restaurants, bars and shops — Albany has it all.

Add to this the surrounding offerings all within an easy drive—  pristine beaches, national parks and a wonderful selection of regional wineries — Albany Region is a tourism destination which truly has something for everyone.

What kind of traveller are you?

Maggie van Santen

Australian Tourism has identified three types of Tourists: 
• Dedicated Discoverers (Australians travelling primarily for learning and new experiences)
• Aspirational Achievers (Australians travelling primarily for relaxation and indulgence)
• Experience Seekers (International visitors that prefer to travel to new and different places) 

Travel is about experiencing something new, something wonderful. It’s about breaking out of our comfort zone and discovering a culture, landscape or people different to what we know.

Albany is every traveller’s dream paradise. Whether you like adventure sport or are looking for a secluded space or beach, want to experience food and wine or discover history.  

Through a series of blogs we will discover the many things travellers can see, do or experience.  

Thank you SKYPRINTS