Descendants of George Augustus Savell

George Augustus Savell is the son of John Savell and Jane Hastings.  He was born 20 Sep 1878 in Enfield, NSW, Australia, and died 23 Nov 1907 in WA, Australia.  He married Alice M Atkinson 1906 in Perth, WA, Australia. 

George Augustus Savell was the first of the four Savell brothers to have travelled to Western Australia.  He arrived on the s.s. Rockton, arriving on the 9th of November 1896 at Fremantle along with 450 other passengers from the Eastern States.  The ship departed on the 29th of October, with a stop-over at Melbourne on the 2nd of November and arrived at Albany on the 7th.

The hills suburb of Glen Forrest was first settled as a timber milling centre as early as 1877. In 1902 the Government declared a Townsite here and named in Amherst. It was renamed Smith's Mill the next year, and in 1915 changed to Glen Forrest. The name was the suggestion of a local resident, and combines "Glen" from the nature of the topography and "Forrest" from John Forrest, the first Premier of Western Australia.

In their history of the area, Cala Munnda: A Home in the Forest, John Slee and Bill Shaw offer a graphic description of the problems the early timber cutters faced: 'A pair of sawyers would select a suitable tree and then cut a scarf in one side with their axes and fell it be cutting through from the opposite side with a cross-cut saw. They would then dock the trunk of the tree into suitable lengths with the saw. The next step was to dig a saw pit in the ground. This could be 6 metres to 9 metres long, 1.2 metres wide and 1.2 metres or more deep.

A team of horses would drag a section of the docked log up on to skids which were placed across the saw pit, so that the log lay lengthwise along the pit. One man then stood in the pit and the other on top of the log, and with a pit saw they would proceed to cut the log into planks of various thickness, cutting to a chalk line, or a line made from the sooty bark of a jarrah tree rubbed into the string. This unbelievably laborious task was carried out every day in dozens of saw pits around Perth'.

The township of Kalamunda came into existence in 1881.  Twenty years after the arrival of the Stirks (1901) the townsite of Kalamunda was approved. It was reputedly named after the local Aboriginal words 'cala' meaning 'home' and 'munnda' meaning 'forest' - 'a home in the forest'.

In 1891 the timber potential of the area attracted the Canning Jarrah Timber Company which took up a 100 000 acre timber lease and built a zig zag railway between their mill and the main railway connection at Midland. So steep was the climb that the engine had to alternate between pulling the load and pushing it. The government took over the railway line in 1903 and it was run until 1949. Today there is little left of the village which grew up around the timber company however the old zig zag railway has been turned into a scenic drive which offers superb views over Greater Perth and the broad coastal plain.

Extract from Electoral Rolls

1901 Savell, George, Smiths Mill, WA, Contractor

1905 Saville, George, Kalamunda, WA, Carter

1910 Savell, Alice J H, Kalamunda, WA, Married

1914 Savell, Alice Mary, 293 Church St, Richmond, VIC, Cook (This may be his wife?)

Reported in the News       West Australian Monday 18th November 1907

Death Notice     West Australian Monday 28th November 1907

Funeral Notice     West Australian Monday 27th November 1907

Victorian National Archives

Family name	Given name / title	Age	Ship name	Departure month	Departure year	Destination	Film Ref month	Film Ref year	Page
SAVELL	G MR	26	ROCKTON	NOV	1896	WA PORTS	NOV	1896	005

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