Introduction
The settlement of the Flaxley area is intrinsically linked with Hack’s Three Brothers Survey and the Davenport brother’s Davenport Survey.
Though small, Flaxley is a historically important link in the Battunga Country trail. It has a hall, tennis club, a church and is home to the Flaxley United Table Tennis Club, Flaxley Landcare Group and has the most unique Post Offices of the district.
History
The settlement of the Flaxley area is intrinsically linked with Hack’s Three Brothers Survey and the Davenport brother’s Davenport Survey.
By June 1839 John Barton Hack’s brother and business partner, Stephen, had taken up residence on his Three Brothers farm. Early in 1840 Stephen sold this farm to George Deane who renamed the property Watergate. Like Barton Hack, Deane overcapitalized and, during the recession of 1843, sold his property to Robert Davenport.
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In his South Australia and its Mines, Dutton recorded Davenport’s comments regarding his new property:
The farm I purchased soon after I arrived in the Colony….I found exceedingly productive of European grains and fruits, of almost every description. I have orchards and plantations of the apple, peach, almond, etc and some hundreds of trees. The olive thrives and the best varieties of the grape….My best trees I got from Mr McArthur’s garden in New South Wales. I have encouraged a few mechanics and labourers to settle around me, whose employ I could at any time command and who by reason of their productive little homesteads placing them in so independent a position, I have never found to be any incumbrance (sic). I have named the place Battunga after the native appellation, which the natives interpret to mean “the place of large trees”.
The first church in the area was built on the Davenport property and was called the Watergate Chapel. This chapel also served as a school. A Methodist Church (now Uniting) was built in 1874 and from 1899 to 1943, this church was also used as a school.
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