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LAL LAL HOMESTEAD

Other Names WILSON'S HOMESTEAD ,  LAL LAL HOMESTEAD Location 105 BRIDGEWATER LAKES ROAD, CAPE BRIDGEWATER, GLENELG SHIRE Level Recommended for Heritage Overlay

[1/4] 52606 lal Lal 114 [2/4] 52606 Lal Lal Homestead 112 [3/4] 52606 lal Lal Homestead 111 [4/4] Extent of Registration - Lal

Statement of Significance

What is Significant?
The Lal Lal Homestead Complex, located approximately 2.5kms north-east of Cape Bridgewater Lakes Road, Cape Bridgewater dates from 1853 when Richard Charlton Hedditch (1809-1893) dissolved his partnership with John Kennedy in the Cape Bridgewater Run. The homestead was originally a vernacular, symmetrical four-roomed stone house under a double hipped roof with surrounding verandahs. Hedditch and his wife, Rachel Forward Hedditch, nee Read (1815-1904) had migrated soon after their marriage in 1837, first to South Australia and then to Van Diemen's Land. Moving to the Portland Bay settlement, they were teachers at the Church of England School from 1841 to 1845. They established themselves on land eventually taken up as a pre-emptive right claim by their son, William Forward Hedditch (1857-1939) who farmed the land for over seventy years. He married Marion Nunn Jones (1850-1937) in 1890 which probably triggered the side extension to the house. Richard's father, Samuel Hedditch joined the family some time prior to his death in 1869. Richard and Rachel's first born, Charlton Waldy Hedditch drowned at the age of 23 in 1863 while trying to save the passengers of a lighter which sunk in Bridgewater Bay. Along with other members of the family, he was buried in the private cemetery on the Lal Lal property. The house has been substantially modernised, with the verandahs replaced and extensive internal alterations but it is in very good condition. No garden survives. The outbuildings are of interest for the recycled use of very early heavy gauge corrugated iron.

How is it Significant?
Lal Lal Homestead Complex is of historical and architectural significance to the Glenelg Shire.

Why is it Significant
Lal Lal Homestead Complex is of historical significance as one of the earliest surviving homesteads in the Cape Bridgewater area and for its direct and long association with the Hedditch family, important and enduring pioneers.The homestead is of architectural significance as one of the larger and now most intact structures from the early 1850s, and for its late nineteenth century extension marking a new generation's occupation of the property.