William Gentle was born in 1825 in Cambridge England. Sometime after his marriage to Ann Bolton which produced two children he set out for Western Australia arriving in Fremantle on the ship ‘Clyde” in 1863. William braved the many hardships of new settlement and travelled to York where he worked on a friend’s farm before taking up land at Quellington. In 1864 Williams’ wife Ann, son Samuel and daughter Rebecca with her husband John Endersby arrived in Fremantle on the ship “Strathmore”.

William and Samuel worked together for several years and developed interests in the Sandalwood Industry. When Samuel married Susannah Bailey in 1874 their first house was built by the wattle and daub method. This was done by the use of dried mud slabs placed on top of one another. The roof was thatched with blackboy rushes and the inside and outside walls were whitewashed.

Samuel built a school for the education of his children and soon other local families began to send their children to the Gentle School. Later Mr Gentle saw the need for a larger school and donated one and a half acres to the Education Department for a school and living quarters. It opened in 1885 and finally closed in 1944.

In 1957 Samuels’ son Mark bought the building back from the Education Department.
Today it is operated as the Quellington School House Farmstay by the sixth generation of Gentles to farm this historic wheat and sheep property known as Barton Park.

The new house Samuel built in 1910 of brick and iron with glass windows still stands on the property today and is occupied by his great grandson Bruce and his family. Samuel’s grandson Robin is also interested in Sandalwood and has planted many trees on the farm. In the traditional style of the early Gentles who pioneered the land Robin Gentle and his family are ensuring that future generations can build on the magnificent efforts of those early settlers who put their faith in this fertile valley.