The town of
Toodyay is located 85km north-east of
Perth and is situated on the
Avon River. The first Europeans to explore the area were Ensign Dale and a small party from the Swan River Colony who were in search of fertile land for new settlers. Settlers having arrived at the Swan River Colony in 1829 soon discovered that the fertile land that Lieutenant Governor Stirling had promised, was not to be found. With disgruntled settlers leaving, pressure was placed on the Colony to find land suitable for farming. In 1830, Ensign Dale's expedition found a way over the rugged hills of the Darling Ranges and found a river that Dale named "The Avon" and a
grassy valley he called the "Avon Valley".
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The Avon Valley would become the main agricultural and pastoral region up until the turn of the century. In 1836 the original townsite "Old Toodyay" was founded by a group of settlers including James Drummond Senior, Captain Francis Whitfield and Alexander Anderson. Having climbed over the Darling Range at
Red Hill and establishing a new route to the Avon Valley via Jimperding they named a site,
Toodyay, on a bend on the
Avon River (near the present West
Toodyay Bridge). Prior to this Europeans entered the Avon Valley via
York and
Northam. Unfortunately the Old
Toodyay townsite was situated in an area prone to flooding. In 1861 a new town,
Newcastle, was gazetted about five kms upstream, marking the decline of Old
Toodyay, as many moved to the new and safer town.
Newcastle's name was later changed to
Toodyay, in 1911, after complaints were made over the mail confusion with
Newcastle, in New South Wales. The town of
Toodyay grew and still grows from the agricultural activities of the early settlers such as sheep, cattle, wheat, barley, vines and beekeeping. The
population of
Toodyay today is approximately 3,800.
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The infamous bushranger, Moondyne Joe (Joseph Bolitho Johns) roamed the hills around
Toodyay in the 1860's and the town now celebrates his exploits with the Moondyne festival each spring.
This is the only known photograph of Joseph Bolitho Johns, better known as the Western Australian bushranger Moondyne Joe. It depicts Johns holding a tomahawk and wearing a kangaroo skin cape.
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This original photograph was taken by Alfred Chopin. It was first published in The Sunday Times on 27 May 1924, as an illustration accompanying an article on Moondyne Joe by Charles William Ferguson. The original photograph somehow ended up in the hands of Norman Featherstone of Lesmurdie, Western Australia, who held on to it until his death in 1980. He had asked a friend, June Bailey, to destroy his collection of photographs after his death, but Bailey reneged. She held the photograph from 1980 until 1998, when she heard of the impending publication of a second edition of Ian
Elliott's Moondyne Joe: The Man and the Myth. She then gave it to
Elliott, and
Elliott used it to grace the cover of his book.
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.