Okely family collection

The Okely Family      

J. H. Okely made an application to lease land in what is now the Carine area in 1868.

In 1871, Alfred Okely bought a 20 hectare property on the western side of Big Carine swamp from Edward Hamersley and an adjoining parcel of land in 1883.  This land passed to his sons and then to James Milne Okely, who represented a third generation of family settlers living at the Carine Homestead.

The Western Australian Post Office Directory of 1898 records F. Duffy as a farmer in the Wanneroo district, the boundaries of which would have included modern-day Carine and Duncraig as well as the districts to the north of these suburbs. This land was variously used into the early years of the 20^th Century for cattle grazing, dairying and market gardening. The 1898 Western Australian Post Office Directory also records that R. Bettles was a farmer in the Wanneroo district. Research by a branch of the family shows that the Bettles family moved to the Carine area in 1891, where they ran a dairy in Okely Road, until 1915. There were 10 children, at least some of whom were taught to read and write by their mother Jane, as there was no local school at that time.

It has been recorded that the dairy cattle led themselves to and from Star Swamp and grazed in what is now the Star Swamp Bushland Reserve area, until the original pastoral leases were subdivided for residential purposes after the dairy closed in 1915. One of the Bettles children, David, worked as a young man for the Godecke family, who were market gardeners in the Carine area.

In 1913 David married Martha Ashworth, and the couple purchased a 10 acre property at Balcatta from James Arbuckle. They raised a large family on the property and are remembered in the local area. The Western Australian Post Office Directory of 1914 records that David Gordon Bettles was a market gardener in the Balcatta area at that time

Official recognition came in the form of a street named after the family – Bettles Street in Marmion. The Duffy and Okely families have been similarly recognised and the ‘Carrine’ farm adopted as the name of the surrounding suburb. In 1907, Jim Arbuckle Senior moved with his wife from the family market garden business in Osborne Park to Balcatta, to extend the enterprise. He and his wife had nine children, the eldest of whom was also named Jim.

After attending the newly-opened school at Gwelup, Jim Arbuckle Junior left school to work with his father in his expanding market gardening business. This was further extended in 1932 when he moved to a property at Carine, which he developed initially in partnership with his brother Beresford. The Arbuckle family’s contribution to the market garden industry, and especially seed production, was recognised and acknowledged when Jim Arbuckle Jr was awarded the MBE in 1979.

This collection of early photographs depicting the Okely family gives us a glimpse into life in the late 19th century and early 20th century. These images are historically significant to the City of Stirling documenting the development of the area through agriculture, dairying, viticulture, the establishment of homesteads and roads, family and community life.