"Fred" Frederick William ROBERTS
Born 1877 in Mawgan, Cornwall, England [20] [21]
Son of farmer William ROBERTS and Ellen TRIPCONY [20] [21]
He had 12 siblings - Robert, Mary, Laura, Beatrice, Ethel, Winnifred, Herbert, Percival, Josiah, William, Montague and Ernest [20]
In 1881 he was living with his parents and siblings on Trevallack Farm in Saint Keverne, Cornwall [20]
Ten years later in 1891 they living at Norleigh Barton in Inwardleigh, Devon, England [20]
In 1901 he was farming with his eldest brother Robert on Newland Farm in Southwick, Hampshire, England [20]
Married Margaret RETALLACK in 1903 in Cornwall, England [21]
Resided on the Eastern Goldfields in Western Australia and prospected for gold to finance buying farmland [P485]
After a number of years in Western Australia he returned to England with his wife and three children [203]
They departed from Fremantle, Western Australia on the steamship Osterley and arrived in London, England on 24 May 1912 [204]
He was to depart London, England on the Otway on 3 January 1913 but instead departed on the Orontes on 28 February 1913 [203]
After a voyage of a month he arrived on the steamship Orontes in Fremantle, Western Australia on 1 April 1913 [70] [203]
Seven months later his wife and children departed London on the Orama and arrived in Fremantle on 11 November 1913 [70]
Resided at 68 Hare Street, Piccadilly in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia in 1916 and 1917, and was a Motor Mechanic in 1916 [6] [50]
He was one of the first settlers to settle and begin farming in Waddy Forest [81: 24-Oct-1926]
Farmer of Treverry Farm at Waddy Forest in Coorow, Western Australia [3] [6] [19]
He named the farm Treverry after a farm of the same name in Cornwall, England [P485]
His farm was located eight miles east of Coorow on the north side of the Coorow-Latham Road [3] [4: 7-Mar-1931] [62]
On 8 April 1921 he had purchased 634 acres of virgin land at Waddy Forest in Coorow from the Midland Railway Company [27]
The 634 acres was Lot M1288 of Victoria Location 2023 and cost 10/- per acre (a total of £317/0/9, payable by instalments) [27]
On 23 April 1924 purchased another 575 acres of virgin land in Waddy Forest from the Midland Railway Company [27]
The 565 acres was Lot M1474 and cost 8/- per acre (a total of £230/6/7, also payable by instalments) [27]
On 2 March 1925 purchased another 2,824 acres in Waddy Forest from the Midland Railway Company for £122/11/14 [27]
The 2,824 acres consisted of Lots M1534 (9/- per acre) and M1287 (6/- per acre) of Victoria Location 2023 [27]
On 19 March 1926 sold the partly paid off Lot M1534, which was 1,834 acres, to Herbert Harold KERR [27]
Purchased the 40 acre Victoria Location 880 in Waddy Forest, possibly from the Benedictine Community of New Norcia [3] [44]
His farm was situated on the north side of the Coorow-Latham Road [3] [62]
The farm was eight miles east of the Coorow townsite and one mile west of the Waddy Forest Post Office [5: 19-Mar-1937]
During November 1922 he undertook contract road clearing in the Coorow district for the Mingenew Road Board [9: 3-Nov-1922]
In 1923 he reaped 682 bags of wheat from 52 acres of crop on a first year's fallow [81: 24-Oct-1926]
He had 1,050 acres of his Waddy Forest farm cropped in wheat in 1926 [81: 24-Oct-1926]
In 1926 he used two tractors day and night to seed his 1,050 acres of crop in three weeks - a feat for the time [81: 24-Oct-1926]
Around September of 1926 he purchased a new 15-30 McCormick-Deering tractor [81: 19-Sep-1926]
In 1926 he owned a Ford car containing license plate CA-63 registered with the Carnamah District Road Board [325]
In November 1926 upgraded with the purchase of a new Chrysler Six car, which then contained his plate CA-63 [81: 28-Nov-1926] [325]
During the 1927-28 financial year he also owned a Chevrolet truck containing license plate CA-169 [325]
He purchased a new Ford truck from Carnamah dealer Rupert LAFFAN in November 1929 [4: 16-Nov-1929]
In early 1928 he took up 11,000 acres of virgin bush in Coorow in partnership with Perth solicitor Ross MCDONALD [4: 2-Feb-1929]
A new company was registered called Glenloth Park Limited, with 4,000 shares of £1 each [81: 5-Feb-1928]
The company acquired Glenloth Farm in Coorow from them to carry on the business of buying and selling wheat and sheep [81]
Within twelve months they had transformed the bush into a farm with 800 acres on fallow and ready for cropping [4: 2-Feb-1929]
Purchased two new Chevrolet trucks from Carnamah dealer L. Scott WYLIE in October and November 1928 [4: 3-Nov-1928, 1-Dec-1928]
In 1929 he was planning to crop 4,500 acres and finished up in May 1929 with 4,300 acres under crop [39: 21-Mar-1929] [120: 30-May-1929]
Along with his wife spent a week touring the Bunbury, Busselton and the caves district in early April 1929 [4: 13-Apr-1929]
Wrote a letter to The Irwin Index about his tour, stating the contrast between the Midlands and the South West [4: 13-Apr-1929]
Purchased a new Studebaker Director tourer car in Perth in late February 1929 [81: 3-Mar-1929]
The tourer was the sixth Studebaker car he'd owned since 1912 [4: 13-Apr-1929]
Attended the Three Springs Race Club's Race Meeting & Evening Ball held in Three Springs on Thursday 11 April 1929 [4: 20-Apr-1929]
Attended the funeral of Carnamah boy Norman R. WYLIE at the Winchester Cemetery in Carnamah on 28 August 1929 [86: 31-Aug-1929]
In November 1929 he began leasing GREEN Bros' 4,650 acre farm in Carnamah [4: 23-Nov-1929, 7-Dec-1929]
The 4,650 acres in Carnamah were Victoria Locations 2958, 2959, 3053, 3314, 3315, 3316, 3516, 6430, 6431, 7422 and 7423 [3]
Injured one his eyes in an accident on the farm, was taken to hospital but it couldn't be saved and had to be removed [P485]
Advertised in The West Australian newspaper in February 1930 that he was looking for a share-farmer to crop about 700 acres [39]
"... about 700 acres, fallow, with complete tractor, plant, best district in Western Australia" [39: 26-Feb-1930]
Grew 2,700 acres of crop in 1930, the greater part of which was share-farmed [4: 31-May-1930]
Delivered the first load of wheat to the railway siding in Coorow for the 1930 harvest on 29 October 1930 [4: 1-Nov-1930]
They left the farm in Waddy Forest in about 1931 due to the catastrophic drop in wheat prices during the Great Depression [P485]
"He'd finally got the farm cleared and developed then the Depression came, which was real bad luck" [P485]
As it turned out, shortly after leaving the Farmers' Debt Adjustments Act was passed, which could have allowed them to stay [P485]
Tom BERRIGAN, the agent in Carnamah for Dalgety & Co put his farm up for sale on the instructions of its mortgagees [4: 7-Mar-1931]
His farm and its plant were put up for sale by auction at the Wool Exchange in Perth on Monday afternoon 23 March 1931 [4]
In about 1932 his 2,240 acre Treverry Farm in Waddy Forest was sold to Mrs Margaret O. ROBERTS [3]
Mrs Margaret O. ROBERTS and her husband Ivor B. ROBERTS changed the property's name to Barokee Farm [5: 18-Oct-1935]
By 1933 he had returned to the goldfields and was referred to as a mining investor [334: 12-Oct-1933]
He was working as a taxi driver and was living with his wife at 33 Forrest Street in Kalgoorlie in 1943 [50]
Later resided in retirement at 1 Hogarth Street in the Perth suburb of Cannington [50]
He was described as "a lovely person" [P485]
Father of Montague, Olive, Beresford and Patricia [P485]
Died 29 July 1959; buried at the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth, Western Australia (Anglican, ZK, 610) [2]
| Reference: Carnamah Historical Society & Museum and North Midlands Project, 'Frederick William Roberts' in Biographical Dictionary of Coorow, Carnamah and Three Springs, retrieved 15 November 2024 from www.carnamah.com.au/bio/frederick-william-roberts [reference list] |
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