The old homestead
Back before the Rio vista House was built, the Chaffey family lived in the homestead as their temporary and first home in Mildura. It was only until 1892 which is when the Rio Vista House was all ready to have W.B Chaffey and his family move in and the size was a lot greater than the homestead. The original homestead which fell into bad shape got demolished in 1923 but the site is 100 metres upstream.
But it was rebuilt in the 1970's due to the historical and time-capsule value it brought and is at the location it is now, with all sorts of machinery, information and history around the homestead.
The wood building is the old homestead, including furniture and other bits and pieces used and put on for display which I will show down below. The brick building was added to include the information on display as reference for learning and history.
An old horse-drawn cart to take the family around town to where ever they needed to go. Plus the fireplace setup with old pots for cooking. They didn't have it open for viewing due to all the schoolkids, so I took shots while outside, not long after we got there as I didn't think we could go inside at all.
Front door and halfway for the home with a decent bit of space, for the size of the homestead. My dad's reflection while I quickly got a shot!
Lantern on the dining room table and a big enough setup for those that were in it at the time. Homely and no doubt would've felt amazing living in it, by the Murray River.
The bedroom is not heaps big, but they wouldn't have needed as much room as we would today. It would be sufficient for living in and nice and cozy for them.
As part of the station for the homestead this steam engine was used as the first irrigation pumping for grape vines. That is a major part of how it all started and part of the reason as to why it was all re-created upstream from the old site.
Finally, we have the presidents for the Mildura committee/group or whatever it was called as I forget and the sister city of upland California, planting trees in which this tree was to celebrate Mildura and the Chaffey's.
Learning experience
The Homestead was something I never got to seeing 9 years ago in my previous visit, nor did I know about it. What I experienced was the early days of my great great grandfather and his family, and the way they lived before Rio Vista House. I was so happy to have learned even more, just from this visit to the Homestead.
The final post will be on Rio Vista House!
