John Henry Monger Snr was born in Faversham, Kent England in 1800. With his wife Mary he arrived in WA on the ship Lotus in 1829.
An engineer by trade he started a sawmill near Perth by a lake, today known as Lake Monger. Their first child John Henry Jnr was born in 1831.

In 1836 the family left Perth and walked to York with the idea of settling. On land they purchased they built a hotel and a store. Faversham House started in the mid to late 1840’s still stands proudly as a magnificent testimony to the Monger’s endeavour. The sandalwood trade was highly productive for John Henry and the expanding family prospered in their new location.

John Henry Jnr was one of the first Europeans born in Western Australia. On a trip to England he married a Henrietta Joaquina Manning a devout Catholic girl of Spanish Peruvian descent. Considered unworthy for her, John and his bride eloped, married and came to Australia with assistance from John Henry Snr. Henrietta’s father Charles Manning also came to Australia to live in 1854. Henrietta was the eldest of his 21 children.

When John Henry Snr died in 1867 John Jnr carried on his father’s business interests and increased his land holdings. The sandalwood trade was still lucrative and the prosperous John Henry Jnr contributed much to public life. He built the Methodist Church and in 1870 was elected to the Legislative Council as the Member for York. Faversham House the Monger York residence was added to as the family increased. John Henry Jnr died in 1892 and is buried at the East Perth Cemetery with his mother and father.

Alexander Joseph Monger was the third son of John and Henrietta. After completing his education in Melbourne he returned home but left after he was “bawled out” by his father in front of farm workmen. He joined a camel team to Coolgardie and managed to borrow enough money to open a store. Within two years he had repaid the debt and journeyed to London without telling his father. AJ was 23 when his father died and he became the owner of Faversham House and the fertile farmlands of Daliak Estate which he had to buy back as it had been shared with his brothers and sisters.

AJ knew little about farming but was keen to learn and his efforts were eventually well recognised in farming and business with the Award of an OBE. In 1906 he married Florence McCracken from Melbourne and after extensive renovations to Faversham House they settled in York.

AJ died in 1947 and his second son Peter became the owner of Daliak Estate. AJ’s eldest son Ernest had perished in Cairo in WWII. Today Peter’s sons Paul and Rodney still farm the magnificent Estate located at the foot of Mt Bakewell. Peter Rodney Monger, great great great grandchild of John Henry Snr and son of Rodney and Patricia Monger is set to carry on the proud tradition of this legendary family that has contributed so much to the advancement of agriculture in the Avon Valley.