Mundaring and Hills Historical Society inc.

12/10/2026

FACEBOOK 12TH OCTOBER SLOW FOOD FESTIVAL

On Sunday 18th October, the Slow Food Festival will be happening at Sculpture Park from 11am til 5pm. We will be there, so please come along and see us ! Both food and w**e are being celebrated. Here's a link: https://www.mundaring.wa.gov.au/events/slow-food-festival-mundaring/1308.

As it’s been a while since anything like this event has been held in Mundaring, we thought we would see what we could find in our collection about previous events and we found that we do not have any photos, but we were able to check out the internet and found information about both Theo Kalogeracos who founded Little Caesars Pizzeria and Alain Fabregues, who started The Loose Box, both in Mundaring. Later Alain instigated the start of the Truffle Festival in Mundaring which ran for a number of years.

From the beginning of Gugeri's Siding, later Mundaring, there have been vineyards operating around the locality.
One of the first was in 1882 when Peter Anthony Gugeri, a Perth w**e merchant, began developing the St. Bernard vineyard near present day Mundaring. Also Richard Watson Hardey had to terrace Chittawarra Brook to establish his Glen Hardey Vineyard in Smiths Mill, later Glen Forrest. In 1886, Dr. Alfred Waylen had cleared land for his Darlington Vineyard. The advent of the railway had helped in the development of these ventures and may other activities such as orchards and other farming ventures mentioned last week.

We still have a number of vineyards in the Shire, namely Lion Mill where a Long Table Lunch was held on Sunday 6th October, as part of the Slow Food Festival. Also, Darlington Winery (not the original) is a successful wedding venue and Malmalling Vineyard in Parkerville is another w**ery which has been operating since 2000.

05/10/2026

05/10/2026

05/10/2026

FACEBOOK 5TH OCTOBER ALL THINGS AGRICULTURAL

As we are in the middle of the school holidays and some of you will have been to the Royal Show, we decided to show various photos of the early days of agriculture in the Hills. There were many orchards and lots of smaller blocks where families grew various crops which were transported to the city via the railway.
This first “fruit and flower” show was held in the Mundaring Hall on St. Patrick's Day on 17th March 1906. People came up on the train using special excursion fares so they could stay for the dancing afterwards. Shows always included an evening dance! Displays at that Darling Range Show included Fruit, Vegetables, Home Cooking, Needlework, Poultry, Schoolwork, Flowers and Apiculture. In the following years shows were held in 1907 in Chidlow, 1908 in Smiths Mill and after WW1 the shows were held in Blackboy Hill’s Drill Hall (Greenmount) and much later in Swan View.
Check out our selection of photos below and if you have any interesting photos relating to agriculture in the Hills, we would love to see them and scan them for our ongoing collection.

21/09/2026

FACEBOOK 21ST SEPTEMBER CHIDLOW STATION OVERPASS

Last week we included in our story a photograph of a car crash in Chidlow which included a section of the overpass. In the accompanying comments it stated that it was replaced in 1943. This piqued our curiosity as to WHY. We have been searching through our collection for images and information on the overpass and as yet do not have the answer!
A photograph shows a train crash in the 1940s, was this when the overpass was damaged ? Included today are a number of photographs in which the overpass can be seen, the last is just before the station was demolished in 1966. We haven't been able to answer our question so check our next post when hopefully it will be answered. We would welcome our followers' ideas.

14/09/2026

FACEBOOK 14TH SEPTEMBER BECAUSE IT’S THE TARMAC WEST THIS WEEK

As some of the roads will be blocked this coming week in the hills namely in Parkerville and parts of Mundaring Weir Road, we thought we would look at interesting vehicles used in the hills over the years. Check them out.

11/09/2026

07/09/2026

FACEBOOK 7TH SEPTEMBER ANNIVERSARY OF LAST OVERFLOW AT MUNDARING WEIR.

Did you know that September 3rd, 1996, was the last time the Mundaring Weir overflowed? There have been a number of interviews on the ABC News about this event but this week we would like to show you some interesting photos of the people who both lived and worked at the site of the weir and and other aspects of the community at the Weir site.

31/08/2026

FACEBOOK 31ST AUGUST THE MUNDARING ROAD BOARD
For those of us who are about to pay our rates for the year you may like to know that . . .
It is 100 years since the Mundaring Road Board opened a building for their office in Mundaring. It was situated across the road from the now Bendigo Bank. At that time Mann Street crossed Great Eastern Highway each way.

The Road Board was originally called the Greenmount Road Board, and the members came from all across the Shire, meeting in various halls or pubs, however it was decided in 1906 to build the first office in Mount Helena (then known as Lion Mill) which was then the most active place in the Shire. Also train travel was paramount at that time and Mount Helena being the junction of the railway lines was the obvious choice.
The two roomed office was built on the corner of Keane Street (now McVicar Place) and Evans Street. It is now the Vet Clinic.
However, as motor transport became more usual it was decided to re-site the office in Mundaring, the centre of the road network.
The second office with a boardroom was opened without ceremony on 2nd February 1926. It was later enlarged in 1935 and demolished in the 1980s . The building we now know as the Shire of Mundaring Administration Office and Civic Centre was completed in 1983.