Lynton, Western Australia


Lynton is a townsite in the Mid West region of Western Australia. It is part of a larger rural district known as Yallabatharra. Lynton is situated at the mouth of the Hutt River, 7.6 kilometres by road from Gregory – between the larger towns of Northampton and Kalbarri. Lynton is best known as the site of the former Lynton Convict Hiring Depot.

History

On 22 May 1853, the Port Gregory Convict Depot was built to supply convict labour to the Geraldine lead mine, in the bed of the nearby Murchison River.
The supervisor of the depot, Captain H. A. Sanford, had a residence constructed in the area during 1853 and named it Lynton. The reason for Sandford's use of the name is unknown, although it was "the name of his parent's village in Surrey". The name of Lynton was soon being applied to the broader area around the depot.
Anna Harriette Leonowens, later famous as the author of Anna and the King of Siam, lived in Lynton during the mid-1850s, while her husband, Thomas Leonowens, worked there for the Commissariat. Their son, Louis was born at Lynton in 1856.
The convict hiring depot was moved to Champion Bay in 1857.
Lynton townsite was not officially gazetted until 1854. The adjoining townsite of Pakington, was gazetted around the same time.