Cnr Swamp Road & Karri Street

115 Beach Road

Craigie Lea, 115 Beach Road, a single storey brick and iron house (now opthomolgists) is a late representive example of the Victorian Georgian style of residential housing common to Perth, Fremantle and the South West of Western Australia during this time period; the place is associated with the Manning family, who were early farming pioneers in the Bunbury district; the place represents the growth of Bunbury and the improvement in housing due to the influence of the goldrush and financial boom of the 1890s.

In 1891, Clement Magowan a tin miner from Greenbushes, subdivided his land on what was then Swamp Road. He sold Lots 1 – 5 to Joseph Manning in June 1897. The Manning family were early farmers in the Bunbury district. Craigie Lea was built c1897 on Lot 3 by Manning and bricklayer Charles Hill. The house was named after a place in Scotland near where Manning’s wife Jane was born. At the time it was built, Craigie Lea was on the urban fringe of Bunbury. Joseph Manning is attributed to carving out a track through another section of his land at Punchbowl from the house to the beach. This track was then used by the Bunbury Council as a basis for Swamp Road. The Manning family objected to the name and in 1906 Beach Road was gazetted as ‘westward from Vasse Road (Spencer Street) to William Street, thence south-west to a link road.’ Members of the Manning family lived at Craigie Lea from 1897 to 1983.