By [June 1830] Lionel Lukin was already living on his North Fremantle property, which he named Lilburn after the captain of the Egyptian, and was fully occupied in establishing his Fremantle-to-Perth ferry service.[1]
Above is Lilburn as shown on an 1844 map. Note that north is to the bottom of the map. Lukin's Jetty is shown top right, leading to Water Street, leading to Lilburn Road. Robert Thomson ran the first cross-river ferry to this place or hereabouts, from Ferry Point, aka Willis's Point, on the Fremantle (south) side.
Duffield's cross-river ferry (1835-39) terminated at the other North Fremantle jetty, shown on the left (east) of the image, near where Lukin had established a solid house in which was conducted an inn.
Lukin's former property shown on a 1904 map. North is to the top of the map.
Of those directly involved in river transport in the early days, Lionel Lukin was probably the most successful, operating a weekly service between Fremantle and Perth as early as 1833. The Fanny transported goods upstream for 30/- a ton, with freight rates on downstream cargoes (which were in comparatively short supply) subject to negotiation. The success of this venture encouraged Lukin to open an inn at Lilburn, at the North Fremantle terminus of both his upriver ferry and Duffield’s cross-river service. In 1837, when he put Lilburn up for lease, it boasted a substantial dwelling house, outoffices, a garden and paddock enclosed with a low stone wall. The property also had a reputation for heavy yields of grain from its artificially drained alluvial soils, enriched with liberal applications of seaweed.[2]
The second map excerpt above almost certainly shows (to the right) Lukin's property as described in the paragraph immediately above this one.
References and Links
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 22 August, 2020 and hosted at freotopia.org/places/lilburn.html (it was last updated on 22 August, 2020), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.