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Mundaring and Hills Historical Society inc.

Name: Mundaring and Hills Historical Society inc.
Address: 3060 Jacoby Street, Mundaring, WA, 6073, AU
Telephone: (08) 9295 0540

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Mundaring and Hills Historical Society inc.

Community group dedicated to recording, preserving and exhibiting the history of the Shire of Mundaring. Look out for us at community events around Perth.

Contact Details:
Ph: 08 9295 0540
Email: [email protected]

Mundaring and Hills Historical Society Inc (MHHS) was founded in 1989 by a small group of people who had the foresight to preserve the cultural and natural heritage of the Shire of Mundaring. The Society has two principal functions:
- to collect and research artefacts and information relating to the local history of the Shire of

Mundaring, and
- to operate Mundaring District Museum. The Society is supported by the Shire of Mundaring, Mundaring Community Bank, and LotteryWest. Our offices and Research Room are located in the Mundaring Stationmaster's House, and the Museum shares the Old School on Great Eastern Hwy, Mundaring with the Mundaring Visitor Centre. Incursions and excursions for school and community groups can be arranged by appointment. Contact us as above. We welcome research enquiries and appointments to use our Research Room can be
organised by phoning or emailing our office. DONATIONS WELCOME

25/05/2026

FACEBOOK 25TH MAY NEW ELEVATED WALKWAY IN JOHN FORREST NATIONAL PARK

You may have seen that part of the elevated walkway in John Forrest National Park has been opened and it is indeed a beautiful structure. We are awaiting the construction of the new café and interpretation space.

Until then we have many photos and information about the Park in our collection and here are a few of the photographs for you to see.

18/05/2026

FACEBOOK 18TH MAY WINTER FIRES AND LOG CHOPPING

At this time of the year a lot of us in Mundaring will be gathering our firewood which usually entails clearing up our blocks and chopping (or chain sawing) logs to fit our fireplaces. This caused us to look through our collection for photographs of early log chopping events which were popular and can still be seen at the Royal and other Agricultural Shows.

11/05/2026

FACEBOOK 11TH MAY Early Shops

Today’s selection of photographs from our collection focus on early shops in our Shire from the 1890s onwards.
They were family-owned businesses, and the families would live behind the shop.
In the 1950s self service came into being and later came the advent of supermarkets!
Check out our website where you can find Past Exhibitions and look at “Open All Hours”

04/05/2026

FACEBOOK 4TH MAY FOOTBALL
As we are in the throes of football season we thought we would find some early photographs of local football teams here in the “Hills”.
In the early 1900s football was always very popular and often attracted trainloads of spectators from as far away as Perth, whenever a match was played. The teams in the Hills Football Association were from Mundaring, Mundaring Weir, Parkerville, Sawyers Valley, Lion Mill, Chidlow, Wooroloo and Baker’s Hill.
Ben Seabrook wrote about this in, ”Life was meant to be here“ by Ken Spillman (available in Mundaring Libraries) as per below.
"The Hills Football Association was founded in 1946 by men of vision, both for the game and the community. From what I’ve been told it was one of the first organisations to get up and running after the war, with organised competition that raised the various communities’ spirits. To use a term common today, it gave them some “self-esteem”. When we consider the great difficulties of the time, it’s amazing that the association was able to embark on a trip to Geraldton in 1947. They had to pool petrol coupons, travel in trucks and utes and roads were poor. To get a team and management up there - and the money to do so - speaks highly of the executive, football community and supporters.
Most of the men were employed locally - timber cutters, railway workers, and men working on orchards or the Water Supply. While the communities were not exactly isolated, transport was a problem. Most people didn’t have cars and anyone who did was king. In the early days, wood trucks would take a big group like buses do today. I think it was this lack of individual transport that made to communities something special."

The earliest photograph we have in our collection is of Smiths Mill Football team in 1903.
There are more to be found on our website in our Past exhibitions section. Check out “We’ve Got Balls”.

24/04/2026

𝙇𝙀𝙎𝙏 𝙒𝙀 𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙂𝙀𝙏 . . . 𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙏 𝙄𝙉 𝙋𝙀𝘼𝘾𝙀

20/04/2026

20th April Our New Museum Exhibition.

The Mundaring District Museum is located at the Mundaring Visitor’s Centre, 7225 Great Eastern Highway, and hosting a new exhibition showcasing the history of the Shire of Mundaring. The themes within the museum include:
• Convicts, Bushrangers & Policemen
• Old Mundaring Primary School
• Facing the Storm: the war years in Mundaring
• Trains & Tunnels
• Mundaring Weir & the Golden Pipeline
• Wooroloo Sanatorium
Shed some light on our mystery Item? We have a section of timber posts and railing with stamped latitude and longitude location markings. What was it used for and why? Come and give us your opinion!
The Shire of Mundaring has a rich and vibrant history which is impossible to fully cover in one small space at one time. For this reason, the information and displays will be refreshed throughout the year and feature additional histories and stories.
If you have a topic or theme which you think should be included, we will enjoy hearing from you. When you visit the museum make sure you fill in a feedback form or sign the visitors’ book.
Do you have a history question? Do you have an object, memorabilia or photographs within the Shire of Mundaring you think should be kept for posterity? Do you have time to volunteer? We have a range of tasks that our volunteers assist with, including research, scanning, and transcribing.
We also invite you to drop into our office located in the old Mundaring Station Master’s house, 3060 Jacoby Street, Mundaring (diagonally opposite the Mundaring Hotel). We can show you around the house, our collection, the office and explain what the Mundaring & Hills Historical Society’s work covers. The museum is only as portion of what we do.
For further information contact the Mundaring & Hills Historical Society’s Curator, Tracy Willet on 9295 0540.

13/04/2026

FACEBOOK 13TH APRIL WATER

You may have seen the new Water Corporation’s new campaign to save water called “Wasting Bucketloads”. It stated that “More than 30 percent of household water use occurs in the garden, yet research showed one in five people don’t know their watering days”
Perth once received reliable rainfall throughout the year, but the shoulder seasons of autumn and spring are now routinely recording below average falls.
Our local water comes from the Weir and our local history was dominated by the building of the weir and all that came afterwards.

From its opening in 1903 until 1996 the weir regularly overflowed. Now we cannot afford to lose any water, so it is pumped between other dams to avoid wastage.

We thought we would focus on both the construction and later raising of the weir wall which was completed in 1951.

In our collection we have a number of photographs of the building of the extra 32 feet or 9.8 metres and also the living quarters of the workers. After WW11 the problem of shortage of skilled and unskilled workers was eased when European war refugees or 'Displaced Persons' working under a two-year directed labour scheme, were allocated to work on the dam. A total of seventy three refugees worked at Mundaring.

30/03/2026

Last week we looked at some photos of how children travelled to school. This week we feature some vehicles for work, pleasure, community service and seeing a royal visitor.

23/03/2026

Ride to School Day
National Ride2School Day was last Friday 20 March, encouraging students to ride a bike, a scooter, skate or walk to school (no e-bikes or e-scooters allowed!!).
In years gone by, that was the way we all went to school, especially in the Hills where the limited public transport did not cater for pupils at primary schools. Some were fortunate to have a family horse that could carry 2 or 3, most walked, some at least a mile or more, in all seasons, or a bike, when you were considered old enough to ride safely.
Our collection have a some photos of the ways children travelled to primary school and Sunday School in the early years.

16/03/2026

FACEBOOK 16TH MARCH BRIDGES
As the 19th of March is the anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932, we thought we would look through our collection for interesting bridges in the Shire.
When the Eastern Railway through Swan View and Parkerville to Lion Mill was built in 1895 the route included one tunnel, six bridges and 58 culverts.
We have photos of the three bridges in John Forrest National Park and the overpass which was built over the York Road between Mundaring and Sawyers Valley.
Another interesting bridge in the Shire was built by William Quicke in 1919. The Quicke family lived on the south side of the Helena River on a 100-acre block in Pauls Valley near Kalamunda. With no transport available the Quickes had to walk 3 miles to Smiths Mill to catch the train. The children had to walk to school in Smiths Mill and because of this the family built a bridge across the Helena River. The first one was of timber which was washed away. The second bridge built 1919 with timber provided by the Greenmount Road Board and river stone collected locally, it had handrails and was much higher ( see photograph) to allow the river to pass underneath. A special “Opening Ceremony” was undertaken with a member of the Road Board present. This bridge was quite unique as there was no road on either side of this bridge. Road Board Chairman Pittersen reported back to the Road Board that “the bridge was quite satisfactory, but the road was impassable”. Seven years later, after the great flood of 1926, the bridge was washed away.
If you would like to read more of the Quicke’s book The Helena Story we have copies at our office and there is also a copy at both the Mundaring and Boya Libraries.

Address

3060 Jacoby Street
Mundaring, WA
6073

Opening Hours

Monday	9:30am - 4pm
Wednesday	9:30am - 1:30pm
Friday	9:30am - 4pm

Telephone

(08) 9295 0540

Website

https://www.mundaringhistory.org/

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