Paradise Probation Station Chapel

Paradise Probation Station is situated on the northern bank of the Prosser River

approximately 2kms west along the convict-built road at Orford. The plan shows the chapel situated on the right side.

Paradise Station is referred in conjunction with the Buckland (Prosser’s Plain’s)

Probation Station because convicts built the road between the two towns. The Assistant Police

Magistrate of Prosser’s Plains, John Forster, in his letter to the Comptroller

General of Convicts in December 1843 stated that the road towards Spring Bay have been partially cleared for five miles.

Comments on the back of this letter mentioned that a road party was being sent

to Paradise to continue with the road:

There is at present no accommodation for housing men at Paradise, I

would suggest that the framework of huts sufficient for 1st class be prepared on the station and when ready the men moved to their station – a few days would then suffice to finish the temporary buildings for their accommodation. Should the Comptroller General decide in removing this class to Paradise, I recommend Mr. Young and Mr. Seaburgh as the officers

to be put in charge.

The reply to how long this was expected to take is a follows:

It would occupy at least two months to have the party so that they might

all be employed at the works. They must be supplied with extra tools and

without a smithy the work cannot be carried on the cutting is in place

through the solid rock. Tin tools can be spared from the station and those

of little use for the work to be performed. Most supplies could be easily furnished by ship to Prossers Bay – a road 20 feet wide in my opinion cannot be made in less than two years with 100 men.

By October 1844 the new Paradise Station was almost completed. It was not mentioned in the La Trobe Report (1847)

on Probation Stations.

Some remains of stone and rubble can still be seen today.