The Bilgoman Well Heritage Trail is located 9km east of Midland along Great Eastern Highway.
This trail is a 100m walk through bushland to one of Chauncy's wells and the site of an old convict depot. Beginning at Bilgoman Olympic Pool, follow the trail route map and look for signs bearing the Heritage Trails Network symbol.
Please note: Persons using this Heritage Trail do so at their own risk.
Bilgoman Well
In mid-March 1846, Surveyor Chauncy recorded the Aboriginal name of the tea-tree swamp at this site as 'Bilgoman' and dug this well "14 feet deep thro' white pipe clay". Bilgoman Well became a regular stopping place for travellers and teamsters until the 1880's, when rail transport took over. It was a popular picnic spot up to the 1940's but was gradually forgotten amongst the regrowth of paper-barks, tea-trees and bulrushes. The well was rediscovered in 1979 by members of the Darlington Ratepayers and Residents Association, who restored it as a community Bicentennial project.
Convict Depot
During 1849 concern over the State's flagging economy prompted some colonists to call for the introduction of convicts to provide a cheap labour force. Between 1850 and 1868 almost 10,000 convicts were transported to Western Australia . Prior to the issue of 'Tickets of leave' for good behaviour, most of them spent some time under the control of the Government for employment on public works. For a period of twenty years or so, gangs of convicts under the watchful eyes of their warders, carried out maintenance on the York Road . Road stations or depots to house these men and their overseers were established at regular intervals along the route. Three huts near Bilgoman Well formed part of one of these establishments. The huts are assumed to have been constructed during the 1860's but today only ruins remain.