Bindoon, derives from Aboriginal words, likely meaning 'place where the yams grow.' The name Chittering is believed to have come from the Aboriginal word 'Chitta-Chitta' meaning 'the place of the Willy Wagtails.'
The Yued Aboriginal People
The Aboriginal traditional marriage system based on strict kinship and moiety rules designed to prevent intermarriage between close relatives and ensure community survival.
Kinship Rules: Marriage rules were specific, and individuals were forbidden from marrying someone from the same 'class' or kinship group.
Moiety System: The Noongar people, including the Yued, traditionally used a matrilineal system with two main moieties (kin groups): Manitjimat (white cockatoo) and Wardongmat (crow). A person inherited their moiety from their mother, and a Crow man could only marry a Cockatoo woman, and vice versa.
Arrangement and Timing: Marriages were often arranged to form alliances and ensure a wide network of relations. Girls typically married around puberty, while men married later, often in their late twenties or older.
Ceremony and Recognition: There was often no single, formal marriage ceremony. A union was typically recognized by the community when a couple began living together publicly and assuming mutual responsibilities, such as sharing a campfire.
Polygyny and Divorce: Marriages could be polygynous (a husband having multiple wives), while a wife had one husband at a time. Divorce was possible by mutual consent or unilaterally, often signified by the termination of cohabitation.
The Rainbow Serpent or Waugal (also spelled Waakal or Wagyl) is regarded as an ancestral being and central figure in Dreaming stories and is revered as the creator and protector of all freshwater sources.
The Waugal is believed to have carved the rivers, lakes, and waterholes as it moved across the land. To the Yued people, the serpent created the Moore River by moving from one waterhole to another, and its track is a 'dreaming track.'
Chittering-Bindoon Home Guard platoon will assemble at Bushmead rifle range for annual musketry course.
The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954)aturday 8 May 1943
After World War Two, Bindoon became a hub for soldier settlement and military training.
By the 1950s there was little more than a post office, garage and general store.
The townsite was gazetted in 1953.
Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954) Thu 23 Dec 1954
1970s
1980s-90s
Bindoon: Tales of horror from those days... and nights. Read here
A bushfire started by lightning near the town in 2013, burnt over 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres) of farmland and bushland.
Prince Harry visited the Bindoon Bakehaus & Cafe in 2015.
In March 2222, lives and homes in Bindoon were threatened by an out-of-control bushfire,
Most of the training and selection for a special forces regiment of the Australian Army takes place in Bindoon.
Bindoon Heritage Museum Location: Situated at 3 Teatree Rd, Bindoon WA
Attractions & Activities
The Bindoon area is in the traditional lands of the Yued people, a dialectal group of the broader Noongar Aboriginal peoples inhabiting the region north of Perth.
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| Aboriginal with hunting kit, Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 14 January 1940, |
Kinship Rules: Marriage rules were specific, and individuals were forbidden from marrying someone from the same 'class' or kinship group.
Moiety System: The Noongar people, including the Yued, traditionally used a matrilineal system with two main moieties (kin groups): Manitjimat (white cockatoo) and Wardongmat (crow). A person inherited their moiety from their mother, and a Crow man could only marry a Cockatoo woman, and vice versa.
Arrangement and Timing: Marriages were often arranged to form alliances and ensure a wide network of relations. Girls typically married around puberty, while men married later, often in their late twenties or older.
Ceremony and Recognition: There was often no single, formal marriage ceremony. A union was typically recognized by the community when a couple began living together publicly and assuming mutual responsibilities, such as sharing a campfire.
Polygyny and Divorce: Marriages could be polygynous (a husband having multiple wives), while a wife had one husband at a time. Divorce was possible by mutual consent or unilaterally, often signified by the termination of cohabitation.
The Waugal is believed to have carved the rivers, lakes, and waterholes as it moved across the land. To the Yued people, the serpent created the Moore River by moving from one waterhole to another, and its track is a 'dreaming track.'
1830s
By 1836, the Chittering valley had been explored by George Fletcher Moore who returned in 1841, and settled in the area.
1860s
After Purser was killed at the mill in 1866, the widowed Frances Purser married James Atkinson in 1868, and Atkinson continued the mail run.
1870s
In 1875, Atkinson took the second wayside license in the area, and called his wayside inn the 'Shepherd's Home.' The Shepherd's Home ceased to operate in 1879.
On 21 March 1893, the original Gingin Road Board was formed. It incorporated the areas of Chittering, Bindoon and Muchea which are now in the Chittering Shire.
WWI
Catherine Musk, a wealthy Western Australian landowner and widow donated in 1936, a large property near Bindoon to the Catholic Christian Brothers. She stipulated that the land was to be used for
the settlement of orphaned and needy boys on their own farms. This did not happen.
Brother Francis Keaney, who ran Boys Town, told the boys, 'This property was left to you by Mrs Musk and everything you are doing is for your benefit.' Keaney, became known for his cruelty and using child labour, with boys as young as 10, building the large granite buildings on the site. (THE BINDOON FILE: BOYSTOWN, BINDOON, 1947-54.) Lionel P. Welsh
In September 1947, the SS Asturias arrived in Fremantle with 147 boys and girls. Many of the boys were sent to the isolated Bindoon institution, 60 miles north of Perth, run by the Catholic Christian Brothers order.
Children as young as 10 were put to work at the abandoned farm to clear the ground, with shovels and picks and then to construct the dormitories and other essential buildings. Those who resisted or could not do the required labour, were flogged, as they were for many trivial 'offences.'
An environment of deprivation and extreme cruelty and abuse was the norm at this institution,. Most of these vulnerable children had been placed in institutions due to family poverty, having a single mother, family fracturing or the families inability to cope.
The revelations about the principal of Bindoon Boys Town from 1942 until 1954, Brother Francis Paul Keaney, are so heinous that his grave was later dismantled by the church.
1840s
In 1829, W.L. Brockman emigrated to the Swan River Colony in Western Australia. He became the first person to take up land in what is now the Shire of Bindoon in 1843. The Brockman River runs though the property which covered both sides of the road in the area around of Bindoon Hill.In 1844, Trowbridge William Haselwood bought the property and built a dwelling, which from 1848, became an unofficial 'post office' where mail was collected and delivered. The ruins of the original homestead can still be seen north of the town.
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| This is a photograph of William Locke Brockman (1802–1872), early settler and politician in colonial Western Australia. The original photograph is help by the Battye Library, catalogue number 62104P. In the 1860s, Brockman became involved in the public push for representative government. |
1850s
Joseph Purser brought the property in 1852. Purser was a miller and possibly built the flour mill on the banks of the river. By 1857, the property was called Bindoon, (previously Bingdoon) and operated as a wayside inn and post office. Joseph had the monthly mail service tender between Gingin and Victoria Plains until 1863.
Joseph Purser brought the property in 1852. Purser was a miller and possibly built the flour mill on the banks of the river. By 1857, the property was called Bindoon, (previously Bingdoon) and operated as a wayside inn and post office. Joseph had the monthly mail service tender between Gingin and Victoria Plains until 1863.
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| Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News (WA : 1848 - 1864), Friday 6 October 1854 |
1860s
After Purser was killed at the mill in 1866, the widowed Frances Purser married James Atkinson in 1868, and Atkinson continued the mail run.
1870s
In 1875, Atkinson took the second wayside license in the area, and called his wayside inn the 'Shepherd's Home.' The Shepherd's Home ceased to operate in 1879.
1890s
A report from the State Records office details a gold find at Bindoon in August 1896.
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| Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Bindoon, WA, about 1890s. the oldest public building in the Shire of Chittering |
THE TRIAL.
The charge preferred against Mr. Brock-
man was that of ill-treating an aboriginal
native named Cooardie, who was in his
service, by placing him in stocks for a
whole night without food, and by acting
in other ways towards him.
The charge preferred against Mr. Brock-
man was that of ill-treating an aboriginal
native named Cooardie, who was in his
service, by placing him in stocks for a
whole night without food, and by acting
in other ways towards him.
West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Thursday 9 February 1899
1900s
Stephens bought the place from Findlater who had originally bought Stephens to work for him. The mill never worked from when Stephen's bought the place in 1919.Sam and Mary Stephens lived in place until 1941 when their son Greg Stephens had the new homestead built on the Great Northern Highway frontage on the west rise of Bindoon Hill.
Tom Hayden moved into the place during the time he worked for Eric Stephens. After a cyclone came through and blew the roof off, Hayden moved elsewhere, and the place became a ruin. Greg and Eric Stephens were brothers who owned the place. When they divided the property, Greg took the land on the west and Eric took the property on the east side of the highway. Greg later became ill and sold his entire property to Nic Humphries. See more
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| MR. J. SHEPPERD'S HOMESTEAD AT BINDOON, ON THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.,Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Friday 14 March 1913 |
WWI
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| PRIVATE JOHN ALBERT WOODS, killed in action at Dardanelles. Son of .Mr S Woods, of Midland Junction; grandson of the late John Woods, of Fair Lawn, Victoria Plains; grandson of late Edmund Keane Byrne, Mount Pleasant, Bindoon: and grand- nephew of Mr. Robert Jones, GinginBrook;Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1955), Friday 25 June 1915 |
1920s
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| The Chittering: Valley, Bindoon. WA. Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 1 July 1920 |
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| COUNTRY CRICKET WEEK : RURL TEAMS VISITING THE CAPITAL BINDOON-CHITTERING. Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954) Thu 12 Mar 1925 A newspaper article in 1934 mentioned a tradition of "Moondyne Joe" knowing of rich gold near Bindoon, and another report of a 'rich gold reef' discovered there. |
the settlement of orphaned and needy boys on their own farms. This did not happen.
Brother Francis Keaney, who ran Boys Town, told the boys, 'This property was left to you by Mrs Musk and everything you are doing is for your benefit.' Keaney, became known for his cruelty and using child labour, with boys as young as 10, building the large granite buildings on the site. (THE BINDOON FILE: BOYSTOWN, BINDOON, 1947-54.) Lionel P. Welsh
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| Bindoon parlour coach, Bindoon to Perth, WA, 1930s |
1940s and WWII
Victory in WWII cost the British socially, mentally and economically. The loss and economic restraint greatly impacted ordinary people. Many children were placed in institutions.
Children as young as 10 were put to work at the abandoned farm to clear the ground, with shovels and picks and then to construct the dormitories and other essential buildings. Those who resisted or could not do the required labour, were flogged, as they were for many trivial 'offences.'
An environment of deprivation and extreme cruelty and abuse was the norm at this institution,. Most of these vulnerable children had been placed in institutions due to family poverty, having a single mother, family fracturing or the families inability to cope.
The revelations about the principal of Bindoon Boys Town from 1942 until 1954, Brother Francis Paul Keaney, are so heinous that his grave was later dismantled by the church.
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| WX14753 Tpr. H. Densley, Bindoon. Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 12 March 1942 |
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| Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 10 October 1943 |
The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954)aturday 8 May 1943
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THESE TENTS were the boys and Brothers' residence in March, 1942 (Bindoon, WA). .Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 15 October 1944 |
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| Bindoon, WA, Vol. 15 No. 1 (6 January 1945) |
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| One of dams built by boys. Bindoon, WA, Vol. 15 No. 1 (6 January 1945) |
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| Dormitory at Bindoon, WA, Vol. 15 No. 1 (6 January 1945) |
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| Built by boys between 16 and 18, Bindoon, WA, Vol. 15 No. 1 (6 January 1945) |
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| Work began at Bindoon, 8 March 1942. Boys laying tiles, Bindoon, WA, Vol. 15 No. 1 (6 January 1945) |
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| Boy in charcoal pit at Bindoon, WA, Vol. 15 No. 1 (6 January 1945) |
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| The boys clearing land at Bindoon, WA, Vol. 15 No. 1 (6 January 1945) |
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| Schoolroom at Bindoon, WA, Vol. 15 No. 1 (6 January 1945) |
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| Boys building Bindoon, WA, Vol. 15 No. 1 (6 January 1945) |
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| Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 25 November 1948 |
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| Technical school, partially completed, Bindoon, WA. Lives and homes in Bindoon are being threatened by an out-of-control bushfire, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 25 November 1948 |
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| Walkabout.Vol. 15 No. 9 (1 September 1949) |
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| Boys' Town, Bindoon, WA, Walkabout.Vol. 15 No. 9 (1 September 1949) |
1950s
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Sixteen of the Maltese boys who arrived at Fremantle in the liner Asturius yesterday before they left to go to St. Joseph's trade and farm school at Bindoon. Mr. Joseph Abela (left) and Father R. Vella both travelled with the boys as welfare officers. Father Vella is also the chaplain for Maltese immigrants.West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Monday 23 June 1952 |
Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954) Thu 23 Dec 1954
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| Bindoon, NSW, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 23 December 1954 |
1970s
Bindoon Boots began as Bindoon Cottage Craft in 1972.
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| Some senior students having a barbecue at the Stefanellis Bindoon property. WA. https://www.flickr.com/photos/barkochre/ |
1980s-90s
Bindoon Rock Festival was held in the 1980s and 1990s.
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| Bindoon Rock Festival, WA, 1980s |
2000s
After a ten-year negotiation process and Supreme Court proceedings, the 'Catherine Musk Fund' was finally settled in 2010. A total of over $300,000 was distributed to former residents of Bindoon who applied for grants.
Around Bindoon
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| The Chittering Road Board is a heritage listed building constructed during the inter-war period. Completed in 1929 the building is an example of Inter War Free Classical Style civic architecture. Bindoon, WA |
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| The first ball was held in the Bindoon Hall on 24 June 1939, Bindoon, WA |
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| Bindoon General Store established in 1936, WA |
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| The Scottalian Bindoon Hotel was built in 1947, WA |
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| Old house on the Bindoon to Moora road, WA |
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| The crumbling ruins at the farm, Castle Hill, Bindoon, WA. The remains are heritage listed. These cottages were built in the 1880s. Philip Schubert A |
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| Bindoon Military Training Area (MTA) is a military training facility located near Bindoon, Western Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) training infrastructure and is primarily used by the Australian Army for conducting military exercises and training activities. Chris Mansfield |
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