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Halfway House
There were at least three buildings known as Halfway House (as in roughly halfway between Fremantle and Perth).
Freshwater Bay. John Butler was the proprietor of the Bush Inn aka Halfway House, which was licensed to trade from April 1830. It was close to the Perth-Fremantle track, and apparently in the area bounded by the present Forrest, McNeil and View Streets and the river - near enough to it to be a stopping-off for river traffic as well as for travellers on the track. (The inn was not near the site of the present Albion Hotel in Cottesloe.) Butler's name for his property was Prospect Place (which became an early name for what is now Peppermint Grove). He arrived with his wife and children and brother Archibald on the Skerne, January 1830, and was granted the 250 acres of Swan Location 84 at Freshwater Bay (now Peppermint Grove), including Butler's Hump aka Keane Point.
The Bush Inn/Half-Way House/Prospect Place was let by Butler to Thomas Bailey in about 1835, who continue to run it until 1838/9, when Bailey made over the lease to Robert Powis, who allowed the inn licence to lapse.
Cottesloe. The Albion Hotel in Cottesloe, established in 1870 on the new Perth-Fremantle track - now Stirling Highway - was another halfway house.
Point Walter. Kate Caldwell writes: "... Chester Park ... which is now Hilton Park. When the land was subdivided and put up for sale, a competition was held for a suitable name for the district, and this name was decided on as being most appropriate. The location would originally appear to have been granted to one McDermott. About 30 years later it came into the possession of Richard Davis, who after his arrival from England in 1853 had carried on the Half-way House at Point Walter. With the advent of steam, the boats were not using the canal, and it became silted up and the toll-house fell into disuse. He therefore removed to Bicton, and later to the Chester Park property, which he in turn sold to Chester. At the time of the subdivision it was owned by Simpson."
References and Links
Caldwell, Kate 1931, 'Fremantle street names', Early Days: Journal of Royal WA Historical Society, 1, 9: 45-57.
See also: ferries.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 19 June, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/buildings/halfwayhouse.html (it was last updated on 31 March, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.