The Chesterfield Inn and its stables are

State Register of Heritage Places The State Register of Heritage Places is the heritage register of historic sites in Western Australia deemed significant at the state level by the Heritage Council of Western Australia. History In the 1970s, following its establishment of the ...

-listed buildings in

East Rockingham, Western Australia East Rockingham is an industrial suburb within the Kwinana Industrial Area, part of Perth, and located within the City of Rockingham. History The suburb developed as a rural community in the 1850s when various pioneers took up land and settled i ...

. The Inn was built in 1855 in the

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

Queen Anne Revival style and is the oldest commercial building in its area. The former Inn and its stables are part of the East Rockingham Heritage Precinct, which also includes other

, such as

Bell Cottage ruin The Bell Cottage ruin is a State Register of Heritage Places-listed ruined Victorian Georgian style cottage in East Rockingham, Western Australia. The ruin is on one of the earliest land grants in the Rockingham area and is one of the oldest str ...

, Hymus House and

Day Cottage Day Cottage, also referred to as Ellendale, is a State Register of Heritage Places-listed Victorian-style cottage in East Rockingham, Western Australia. The cottage is part of the East Rockingham Heritage Precinct. History Prior to the constru ...

Overview

The Chesterfield Inn lies on what was one of the earliest land grants, and is one of the earliest buildings in the Rockingham region. It functioned as a stopping points for travellers on the

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

to Mandurah road and also briefly functioned as a post office from 1915 to 1918, the first in the region. The former stables of the Inn, located approximately 300 metres north, are also State Heritage listed. The Inn was a popular spot for couples on honeymoon because of its distance from both Fremantle and Perth.

History

James Herbert, a local publican who had previously operated the ''Bush Inn'' in the district, purchased the land on which the Chesterfield Inn stands and obtained a liquor licence in January 1857 for the Rockingham Arms, the future Chesterfield Inn. In 1867, Herbert sold the Inn to William Rewell, with ownership subsequently transferred to Andrew Seubert in 1870 and William Summers in 1874. The Rockingham Arms became the Chesterfield Inn in the 1890s, having been purchased by John Chester in 1876. Chester eventually transferred ownership to his daughters Caroline and Eliza in 1890. The Inn was originally constructed as a two storey building but almost destroyed by a fire around 1910 or 1911, after which it was rebuilt as a single storey dwelling, now owned by Ernest and Selina Huxtable. After the death of the last licensee, a Mr. Huxtable, a change in the state's licensing laws, and the relocation of the main road, the Chesterfield Inn stopped functioning as such but retained its name, and featured in a series of articles on historic Western Australian homesteads in the Western Mail in late 1939. The former Inn also served as an encampment for the 10th Light Horse Regiment, from 1912, as a private dwelling and a dairy farm before becoming a

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared ba ...

in 1979. A fire damaged the building in 1992 and it remained unoccupied from then on, its condition deteriorating until renovations by

LandCorp Landcorp Farming Limited ("Landcorp") is a state-owned enterprise of the New Zealand government. Its brand name is Pāmu, the Te Reo Māori word 'to farm'. Its core business is pastoral farming including dairy, sheep, beef and deer, as well as ...

took place in 2017. A security fence was installed, later non-heritage listed additions to the building removed, the front wall repaired and the roof restored in view of future occupancy.

Heritage listing

The Chesterfield Inn is part of the East Rockingham Heritage Precinct, which also includes other

, such as the

, Hymus House,

and the Mead Homestead, as well as heritage listed places on the municipal inventory like the East Rockingham Cemetery. The former Inn was added to the State Register of Heritage Places on 27 June 2003, and is the oldest commercial building in its area.

References

External links

Chesterfield Inn conservation plan (1999)
{{State Register of Heritage Places in the City of Rockingham State Register of Heritage Places in the City of Rockingham East Rockingham, Western Australia Homesteads in Western Australia 1855 establishments in Australia Historic hotels in Perth, Western Australia