Masons Landing - Municipal Heritage Inventory - City of Canning Cannington, Western Australia, Australia
By jinta29 on 22-Jan-18. Waypoint GA11860

To claim a smiley, please post a photo of you at one of the sign boards or memorials here.

DESCRIPTION 

Mason’s Landing at the end of Liege Street is a small, shady, grassed park in natural surrounds. Mason’s Landing is a popular destination for family outings on weekends and during school holidays. There park has a designated canoe launching facility, a unisex accessible toilet, access paths, barbecue, drinking fountain, play equipment and gazebo/shelter. There is a memorial to Charles MacIntosh in the park.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION 

In the early days of Canning, most of the district’s industries centred around Mason and Bird’s Timber mill at the spot known as Mason’s Landing. Other smaller allied industries such as blacksmithing, wheel wrighting and building were also setup around this landing.  In the 1860s, Mason obtained a timber concession to cut timber on a 640 acre lease in Carmel, referred to as the ‘upper station’. Mason established a steam powered saw mill on the river bank at Mason’s Landing, referred to as the ‘lower station’. In 1871, Mason was joined by Francis Bird and together they formed the company Mason Bird and Co for the purpose of exporting timber. Mason built a house near his landing, which has not survived. None of the buildings associated with the Mason and Bird mill remain. However, Francis Bird’s homestead, Woodloes Homestead, built in 1874, remains today.  At the lower station, there were offices, stores, stables for 20 horses, a forage room, stockyards, and a large warehouse for stacking sawn timber; moored close by were several barges for transporting the timber along the Canning River. Timber was initially hauled from the Carmel site to the landing by bullock teams and then either taken by a horse drawn team to Perth City or it was loaded onto barges and taken down the river to Fremantle. From 1872, the upper station was  connected to the lower station by a tramway. This tramway is said to have been one of the State’s first rail networks, the first being the Government railway line from Geraldton to Northampton, which opened in 1872.  In 1877, Bird left the company and returned to his profession as an architect. When the Fremantle to Perth railway line extended to Midland, most of the teams carted to that centre, thereby diverting a thriving business from Canning. Mason’s Timber Yard declined in importance and was set to be sold by auction in 1882, though there were no bidders, and the business was later broken up and sold privately for other purposes. Mason died in 1893. The scale of Mason’s enterprise is not generally appreciated today, but the timber for many of the State’s older buildings and jetties would have begun its journey from both Carmel and the associated Mason’s Landing. The company supplied timber for the North Fremantle and Causeway bridges in 1865, the Lunatic Asylum at Fremantle, the first Government railway from Geraldton to Northampton and Fremantle’s Long Jetty.  Today there are no remains of Mason’s Landing or the tramway in the study area. However, Bickley Road aligns with the original route of the tramway, on route to Carmel.