Final Fulham

Wimmera Mail Times Picture: Elijah Macchia

The Fulham Station homestead, at Kanagulk, was originally settled in 1840 by Francis Desailly. It was the first homestead to be settled in the Balmoral area.

Today, current owners Greg and Heather Walcott have the refurbished homestead on the station and its 65 acres (26.3hectares) on the market.

Greg & Heather (Wimmera Mail Times Picture: Elijah Macchia)

 The original landlord, Sir John Owen, may have never seen the land. He sold it privately to George Armytage and his family who established the buildings. The buildings date from 1846 and were progressively built after that.

In 1857 Fulham became the home for Charles Armytage and his wife Caroline. Eight of their 10 children were born at Fulham (50 miles from the nearest doctor). Fulham's remoteness encouraged them to purchase Como House in South Yarra as a town house in 1864.

The Armytages finally sold their Fulham and Mt Sturgeon properties in 1948, to the Soldier Settlement Commission, and the Commission developed Fulham Estate into settlement blocks.

 
Greg Walcott’s father successfully applied for the homestead block, and the homestead has been with the Walcott family ever since. Greg then inherited Fulham from his father and has spent almost his entire life living at the property.
Now they are moving on, and Fulham is looking for a new owner.

Wimmera Mail Times Picture: Elijah Macchia

Fulham Homestead was first listed with the National Trust in July 1965. Most of the heritage-listed buildings at Fulham have been built with ironstone. The stone is from within a kilometre of the homestead which was built on an ironstone shelf. The homestead is made from rubble-coursed ironstone with 2ft-thick walls, and contains two bedrooms, bathroom, living area, office and kitchen.

The Guesthouse

Along with the homestead building, there is a detached guesthouse featuring three bedrooms, two bathrooms, lounge and fully renovated kitchen, as well as a reading room with windows that frame an ancient Moreton Bay fig tree.
 

The tennis court & gardens (Wimmera Mail Times Picture: Elijah Macchia)

Greg and his wife Heather have developed the site - from the garden with sculptures Greg as created, along with a vegetable patch, a child’s play set under a tree and a lawn tennis court. “The garden was established when the property was built and then it was bulldozed. When (Heather and I) were married it was only a horse paddock, so we gradually re-established the garden in stages...there were a few established trees but very little else so eventually we have developed it right down to the water’s edge,” he said.

The garden slopes down to meet the Glenelg River at a broad bend. The property has its own watering hole finished with a bbq pit, wooden bench & table, an outdoor toilet, and a canoe landing stage.

The station cookhouse

The station cookhouse is one of the 10 heritage listed buildings which the Walcott’s have reinvigorated to a dining room with the original fireplace and stone oven still intact, now utilised as a wood-fired pizza oven.

Greg said moving away from this piece of 'living history' where he had spent almost 65 years of his life, would be a huge change.

Wimmera Mail Times interview video
If you have a spare $1.1 million- $1.2 million, then, Expressions of Interest close on Friday May 25 at 1pm.