Description

This chimney was part of the foundry used to make rail lines in old Karridale township. In 1961, the south west of the state suffered from a series of devastating bushfires that destroyed Dwellingup and totally destroyed the townsite of Karridale and 100,000 acres of farms, forest and bushland south of Margaret River. In Karridale, the historic homestead of M.C. Davies was destroyed also. Karridale was established as a timber mill in 1884 by M. C. Davies who saw the potential from large virgin forests of Karri trees in the area. The Karridale School opened in 1888. At its peak the town was home to 300 men and their families who worked in the forest and at the M.C.Davies Karri and Jarrah Timber Company mill. Timber from the mill was transported by rail to nearby Hamelin Bay where Davies had built a jetty to support his milling operations. A second jetty at Flinders Bay to the south supported the shipping operations when the weather was unsuited for loading on the west facing coastline. A major storm in 1900 which destroyed the Hamelin Bay jetty as well as a downturn in demand for timber in the early 1900s meant that the industry went into decline and the last mill was closed in 1913. Karridale was a stopping place on the Busselton to Flinders Bay Branch Railway, which was government run from the 1920s to the 1950s.