Russ Historic Cottage
Open Mon-Wed Fri-Sat 10-noon (Entry by donation)
Corner of Point Leander Drive and St Dominic’s Road.
Titus Russ, who built this cottage in 1868, had arrived in Fremantle on the Sabina in 1853 with his parents, and came to Dongara to work for The Cattle Company. Titus married Caroline Wintle Smith and built this cottage on land owned by his employer out of stone quarried up the river and pushed to site in a wheelbarrow. It is a fine example of a rural worker’s home. The kitchen floor was made from crushed anthill, packed down to make a hard surface, the walls were built by the random rubble method, with jarrah shingles on the roof and timber flooring.
The Russ family occupied the cottage for many years. Robert Russ used the ground to the rear of the cottage as a market garden and operated the newsagents and store on a nearby site.
Russ Cottage was restored by the Irwin District Historical Society in 1970 and furnished as an 1870s yeoman’s cottage.
Johnson siblings and Elizabeth Russ outside Russ Cottage, c1893 I IRME 1174
