The Stories of Ampersand Estates

Set among towering Karri forests and the winding Donnelly River, Ampersand Estates is a place shaped by time, resilience, and quiet perseverance. Our Monument Stories honour the people, structures, and landscapes that laid the foundations of the estate — from early settlers and hand-built shelters to spaces that now host celebration, reflection, and renewal.

Each monument tells a chapter of our story. As you walk the estate, we invite you to pause, read, and connect with the past through the landmarks that still stand today.

The Settler’s Stables

An Echo of Hooves

In the 1870s, Seventh-Day Adventist settlers from Scotland cleared this land by hand, carving fields from dense Karri Forest with saws, axes, and a single shared horse. On the banks of the Donnelly River, they built their first stable — a lifeline that later became a shearing shed and, after the 1983 floods, a monument to endurance.

The rhythm of hooves and timber still lingers here — a place where the estate’s first stories began, and where new ones continue.

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The Water Tower

A Tank of First Light

Settled in the 1870s by the Scott family, this ridge was chosen as the source of life for the estate. Using traditional water-divining methods, the family located a spring beneath this hill and built a raised tank to capture its flow.
Resting on four concrete legs, the tower created natural water pressure long before electricity reached the region, supplying the Settlers’ Cottage and surrounding farm with precious drinking and washing water through harsh summers and wet winters.

The tank stands unchanged today—a rare example of early rural ingenuity, and a testament to the resilience, resourcefulness and deep respect for the land that shaped the earliest days of Ampersand Estates.

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The Oldfield’s Barn

A Heart Reclaimed

Originally built by the Oldfields family, this barn began as a working sheep shearing shed — the heart of the early estate. Crafted from local timber and shaped by hand, it still bears the family’s name etched into its beams. Now thoughtfully restored, it has been reimagined as a venue for weddings and celebrations, where new stories are made in a space rooted in history.

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