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CLONARD - SHEEP YARDS REMNANT DRY STONE WALLS

Location

275 OHERNS ROAD EPPING, WHITTLESEA CITY

File Number

09/005194-01

Level

Heritage Inventory Site

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Clonad_Epping_sheepyard
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Clonad_Epping_sheepyard
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Clonad_Epping_sheepyard
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Clonad_Epping_sheepyard
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Clonad_Epping_sheepyard
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Clonard aerial of sheepyards

Statement of Significance

The remnants of the dry stone sheep yard walls at Clonard were built at an unknown date on the old 480 acre (194 ha) Maryfield farm. This was purchased in 1840 by John Alston, and probably used for grazing, with the less stony parts cropped for wheat or hay, until Alston lost the farm in the 1840s depression. It was leased from 1858 to Friedrich Winter, who probably built the dry stone walls around the boundary at that time, and is likely to have used the farm largely for dairying. It is not known whether the sheepyard walls were built by Winter, or whether they were begun by Alston.

The remnants of the dry stone sheep yard walls at Clonard form an irregular complex of walls on the western part of Clonard, to the west of the Hume Freeway. The walls are in poor condition. Some enclose small paddocks, some of which would once have been used for stock and some for small cultivation paddocks. Some walls are distinctive in appearing to follow the natural divide between the stony land and patches of clear soil, and probably separated stock from the crops grown within. This latter kind of wall seems to be particularly associated with the Wollert area, and a few other examples have been identified. Some walls do not appear to form enclosures, and may have been part of yarding strategies, or may be walls remaining from once-larger paddocks.

The remnant sheepyard dry stone walls at Clonard are of archaeological significance for their potential to contain information about the construction and use of the site.

Group