Unlike many of the 'historical' towns we have visited, Toodyay's origins were not based on the discovery of gold, but agriculture.
This may well account for the fact that there are only three pubs in town, one of which, The Newcastle, is no longer licensed and serves as private accommodation. A notice to the effect is displayed very prominently at the front door!
The Victoria Hotel is another matter. This pub was built in 1864. The pictured billiard saloon, which is one of the few now remaining in WA, was added in 1895 although the old tables have long since been replaced by pool tables.
We did embark on a mini pub crawl in Toodyay when we sampled the wares on offer here at the Victoria and at the other operating pub, the Freemasons. Both disappointed. Little remains of the original interior style, the beer (like everywhere in WA) was expensive and the menu prices had to be seen to be believed. $30 for a mixed grill??? It brought the Nullarbor roadhouse charges into some perspective. Needless to say, dining out was not a feature of our Toodyay stay.
The town Post Office is of some significance in that it is one of the few remaining examples of over one hundred which were built throughout settled WA in the late 1890's to a standard design.
Just beyond the Post Office we come to the Memorial Hall. The front of this building was built in 1899 but not until the locals had engaged in some serious lobbying and even then funds were not made available until the nearby York Town Hall was completed.
We later saw this building the York Town Hall) and can understand why this took a pot of public money (photos in next blog or two). It was interesting to note the plaque on this hall which recognises the contribution the local RSL made to its restoration in 1957.....no less than their entire 'building fund' of nine hundred and fifty six pounds four shillings and sixpence.....do not forget the sixpence!
These two buildings provide probably the most impressive section of the Toodyay streetscape.
The Ellery Arcade still houses shops, next to which the Freemasons Hotel serves as the town's second operational pub, but as I commented earlier, the interior of the Freo pub and its prices were sadly disappointing.
At the other end of the main street, the Mechanics Institute building is far less imposing but does have an interesting history.
These Institutes were usually funded by local industrialists and town leaders as 'libraries of instructive literature'...for the town's hoypoloy. This modest building was constructed in 1874 and as such was one of the town's first civic buildings. Apart from technical manuals and the like, it also housed a 'Young Men's Reading Club' and served as a meeting room, town hall, theatre and Council Chamber in its early years. Turning full circle, it is now home to Toodyay's public library.
Connors Mill and the old Newcastle Gaol are in close proximity and are both impressively maintained. The mill was the last of three built in Toodyay and was so efficient it soon forced its competitors out of business.
In 1923 the mill was converted into a power station which generated the town's electricity until it was connected to the grid in the 1950's. Nothing like making use of what is on hand, particularly when the nearby town of Northam houses one of the largest mills in the country.
The Newcastle Gaol was not the town's first but was built in 1862 following the escape from the original lock-up by the area's most daring bushranger, one Joseph Bolitho Johns aka 'Moondyne Joe' (more of Joe later).
Inside this wonderfully restored and maintained complex we found one of the best exhibitions and explanations of early colonial life we have ever seen.
Large informative posters in the various rooms, of which this is but one example, detailed the stories of many of the town's early inhabitants and prominent families in a way which was both easy to read and anything but a 'history lesson'.
They combined to present a 'warts and all' account of just what went on in Toodyay in the days of yore and created a very real picture of the endeavour, privations, and triumphs of the early settlers, including many tales of the strictures of the social mores of the day.
The flagstone floors and thick walls of the many smallish rooms of the old administration area of the gaol maintain a delightfully cool temperature throughout. The range of items which have been included in the various displays is incredible.
From the admin section we moved on into the Court Room where two particular books in the display cases caught my attention. One was a handwritten Police records book in which the details of many of the town's inhabitants were noted. This reminded me vividly of my early life 'in the job' when, in the country in particular, the local police were used by all manner of government departments as area records keepers....all manner of records! One of the more obscure I clearly remember was the need to maintain a 'register of bee-keepers'. What on earth has this to do with policing, I hear you ask. Well the fact of the matter was that in those days the police were often the only folk to whom the government could turn to undertake these tasks (which in itself is another matter!). Needless to say, this is now very much a thing of the past but the register in the Newcastle gaol brought it all back to me. (editorial indulgence!)
The second book which attracted my attention was of a far more gruesome nature....a 'Register of Executions' in which the details of those hung and the nature of their crimes were all meticulously recorded for posterity. What an oddity.
From the Court Room (at the far end of the shot) one moves out into what I would describe as the working part of the gaol....the cells and exercise yard, complete with the original well and a sprouting remnant of the original yard fig tree.
Each cell has been given over to a different display. One tells the poignant story of the Dorizzi family. Tom Dorizzi came to Toodyay in 1925 and married a local lass who went on to bear five sons. In 1929 Tom, who ran a very successful wood yard and cartage business, rented the now defunct gaol building as his family home. The cells were converted into bedrooms for each of the boys, all of whom worked in the family business until the outbreak of WW2, when Tom, Bert and Gordon enlisted in the 2/4 Machine Gun Regiment.
All three were captured with the fall of Singapore and sent by the their Japanese captors to the prisoner-of-war camp at Sandakan, North Borneo. None returned home. On 11 February 1945 Gordon and Bert were both shot for applauding the allied bombing nearby their camp. Tom died on the infamous Sandakan-Ranau death march on 11 march 1945. What a dreadful blow to the Dorizzi family.
At this point it seems apt to leave the Newcastle Gaol and take a quick look at Toodyay's Memorial Gardens where the names of all from the area who fell are recorded on small plaques along the avenue of roses which forms a boundary of the lawned area and memorial plinth.
After our town walk we felt obliged to view another local landmark of some significance, the nearby Windmill Hill Cutting. Trains had played a major role in our Toodyay sojourn. The main east-west line ran alongside the boundary of the caravan park in which we stayed. And it was busy...and very noisy. Huge freight trains would rumble past at all hours of the day and night. It can be a salutary experience to be awoken in the dead of night convinced that the passing train is about to make its run right through the van.
Before the Perth bound monsters could wreak their havoc on our tranquillity, they had to pass through the nearby cutting, which I have to say is pretty impressive. Constructed in 1963-4 this is the deepest cutting on the standard gauge rail and, at 510 metres, is one of the deepest in the country.
And so we come to the end of our stay in Toodyay. But, as promised, before we move on to York, more history and the Medieval Banquet, the promised story (in brief) of Moondyne Joe, Western Australia's most famous 'bushranger'.
Joseph Bolitho Johns was transported to WA in 1853 after being sentenced in 1849 to ten years penal servitude for stealing food in his native Wales. Before being pardoned in 1855 Johns had been a 'ticket of leave man' for a couple of years during which time he worked fencing and trapping in the area near Toodyay known by the local aboriginals as 'Moondyne'.
But despite now being a free man, Joe couldn't keep out of trouble. He was charged with horse theft, and whilst languishing in the original Toodyay Gaol awaiting trial, he escaped. The incandescent ire of the local Magistrate prompted him to launch a series of petitions and protestations which eventually resulted in the 'new' Newcastle Gaol which still stands.
Joe's freedom was short-lived. He was recaptured and served out his three years, paradoxically not for horse theft, of which he was acquitted, but for escaping custody!
Released in 1864 Joe was again in strife nine months later, this time for allegedly shooting a deer, a charge he consistently denied and which he considered grossly unjust. Not that Joe's indignation did him any good....ten years with hard labour....thanks very much, your Honour!
Believe it or not, Joe again escaped, but only enjoyed 12 months freedom creating mayhem in the Avon Valley before being caught. This time he was sent to the Fremantle Gaol where a cell was built especially for him and where he was chained by the neck to a post.
But Joe was not well. As a concession to his ill health he was allowed to break rocks in a gaol yard (as you do when ill!). Here the wily Joe built a pile of rocks near the outer prison wall. He left a small space behind these rocks which acted as cover whilst he then proceeded to tunnel through the outer prison wall and scarper once again.
And he may well have remained on the run for goodness know how long if not for another extraordinary twist in Joe's life. Joe decided that two years' freedom warranted a celebration, so off he went to the nearby Houghtons Wine cellar, where, after breaking in and enjoying a cup or two, he was again recaptured, this time by the winery owner who just happened to be accompanied at the time by two members of the local constabulary there, coincidentally, on a completely different mission (a quaff or two themselves perhaps?)
Poor old Joe couldn't take a trick but this time he served his time and, after release and another pardon (it is said that the Governor of WA had stated when Joe was imprisoned in Fremantle that if he could escape from there he would grant him a pardon...and he apparently kept his word) he lived out the rest of his life in honest employment (or at least was never again caught committing a crime). Joe's story ends with his marriage, a later descent into insanity (totally unrelated to his matrimony..tut, tut....his wife was already dead!), death in the Perth insane asylum and a pauper's grave.
It is said that despite his continuing reputation as a bushranger, Joe never actually bore arms nor committed any armed robberies. Who knows.....reality and myth of the time were often indistinguishable and why let real facts mar a good story? Whatever he may or may not have done or been, Joseph Bolitho Johns was certainly a master of escape and remains one of Toodyay's best know early characters.
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