This River Class Frigate Destroyer Escort was commissioned into the Royal Austalian Navy on 2o January 1970.  After 26 years in service, she nows sits on the sandy bottom in 30 metres of water just off of Point Piquet at Meelup.

The two divers relaxed and enjoyed the Treeton Estate white and red wines.   A perfect way to end a fantastic diving experience.

My enquiry to the Treeton (Yorkshire) Historical Society was promptly answered by Sue Dauris.  With no information at hand, she suggested that a contact in Canada – Shirley Parent – might have the time, interest and experience to follow up the question.

Shirley was born near the village of Treeton and retains a life long love of that part of Yorkshire.   And she is a dynamo in chasing up genealogy and local history.  Her enquiry to Jan Mathews at the newly-formed Margaret River & Districts Historical Society was warmly received but provided little new information. Little (often no) documentation has survived from this part of the State’s history and the naming of Treeton is just one of many mysteries relating to those places that are so familiar to us today. Jan did comment “it is safe to assume that there was a native of Treeton involved, and as there is only one Treeton in England, it must be yours“.

With no written documentation publicly available, the only hope of finding out more would be to track down people who have information through their family histories.

So the next step for Shirley was to contact the West Australian newspaper.  The quote below was published in the ‘Can you help?’ section of the paper on Monday, September 21, 2009 copy of the paper (page 29):

Treeton connections

Looking for descendants of “soldier settlers: who migrated from Treeton in South Yorkshire circa 1922 and farmed anywhere in WA – in particular those who settled in Treeton Road in the Cowaramup area.  Also hoping to hear from anyone whose relatives may have lived or even visited Treeton, in Britain – perhaps during or after World War I or World War II.  They may have come from the nearby towns of Rotherham or Sheffield.

Contact: Shirley Parent, 107-980 Huron Street, London, Ontario, Canada N5Y 5L5.  Email: sparent@rogers.com

Shirley and I would love to hear from you if you have any information: letters, photographs or family stories.

John Simmonds

Other streets will be named in honour of the early settlers, who in 1922, cleared forest and erected tin humpies in this area.  

But is there another story from this time? 

Treeton Estate got its name from the road that runs past our gate and because the name describes our tree-lined surroundings so perfectly.  And Treeton Road takes its name from Treeton, a small village in Yorkshire (UK).  According to Treeton’s local history group:

Referred to in the Domesday Book as Trectone, the name changed through Trectone, Tretone, Treton and Tretthon to the present-day Treeton.  In the UK, virtually all of the place names decided on up to around the 14th Century were due to the environment of the area. In Celtic Terms ( 800BC – 400 AD )- Tre meant a hamlet, village, or town. The Saxon Terms ( 350AD – 1000AD) Ton meant a house or a farm.

In 1922, many of the new Group Settlement Scheme settlers in Cowaramup were soldiers who had served with the British forces in France. And there is a story that many of the roads built at this time were given names designed to appeal to these men and their famlies.  Fearful over traveling so far across the world to a place about which they new so little, names like Treeton may have represented a beacon of hope that their destination was ‘just like home’.  

Truth or myth?

How many of our other local road names date from the 1920’s settler expansion?  

The Internet seems empty of an answer and I would love to hear from anyone who can fill in any gaps in the story. 

John Simmonds