Homestead (building)

This article is about a dwelling and outbuildings. For other uses, see Homestead (disambiguation).
An abandoned homestead in Western Australia

A homestead is an isolated dwelling, especially a farmhouse, and adjacent outbuildings,[1] typically on a large agricultural holding such as a ranch or station.[2]

In North America the word "homestead" historically referred to land claimed by a settler or squatter under the Homestead Acts (United States) or the Dominion Lands Act (Canada). In Old English, the term was used to mean a human settlement, and in Southern Africa the term is used for a cluster of several houses normally occupied by a single extended family.

In Australia it refers to the owner's house and the associated outbuildings of a pastoral property, known as a station.[3][4]

  1. ^ "homestead". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. ^ Taylor, John (1995). Methodology for identification and assessment of rural homesteads and farmhouses in the Great Southern area of Western Australia. Royal Institute of Architects (W.A.) and the Heritage Council of W.A.
  3. ^ Taylor, Peter (1988), Station life in Australia : pioneers and pastoralists, Allen & Unwin, ISBN 978-0-04-332135-5
  4. ^ "Chisholm, Alec H.". The Australian Encyclopaedia. Vol. 8. Sydney: Halstead Press. 1963. p. 275.