Mundaring and Hills Historical Society inc.

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.

24/08/2026

24/08/2026

FACEBOOK 24TH AUGUST OCTAGONAL HALL IN GLEN FORREST

On Saturday one of our members Mary Richmond gave a talk at an event to celebrate the restoration of the wall outside the Octagonal Hall.
You may have seen an article in the Echo regarding the restoration of the wall with a photograph of the Artisan Stonemason Ron Coltman.
The original wall was built by local members of the Progress Association in June 1935. Of course, the Hall itself was built in 1897 and as Mary said in her talk it predates most of the buildings in Glen Forrest (then called Smiths Mill).
The Octagonal Hall was a very important building for the early locals of Smiths Mill and according to Ian Elliot in his book, Mundaring A History of the Shire, “when it hosted almost every kind of activity and recreation, from dances, send offs, welcome home parties, smoke socials and wedding receptions to fetes, square dances, concerts and community singing.”
Mary recalled in her talk of when as a child attending a school event in 1951 to commemorate 50 years of Federation where some children dressed up to look like prospectors in the Goldfields, and she remembered a goanna cooking on a mock fire which was in fact a damper made by the headmaster’s wife. She remembers dancing around a maypole. She also remembered the Fancy-Dress Balls, Anzac Day services and Social Evenings which catered for all age groups with games like musical chairs, limbo stick or drop the hanky! These alternated with old time and modern dances for the grown ups. The local Brownie Pack met at the hall and later the new head teacher Arthur Hall organised the buying of a new film projector and Friday night pictures began. These activities continued until 1960 when a new hall was built on Marnie Road, and this old hall was leased to the Country Woman’s Association and then later the local Wildflower Association who continue to use it for their meetings and yearly Native Plant Sale which happens the day before Mother’s Day in May.

10/08/2026

FACEBOOK 10TH AUGUST CHICKENS IN THE HILLS

As Australia is very aware of Bird Flu at the moment with fear of our Poultry Industry being affected- at this stage it isn’t.
We thought we would focus on the early poultry industry here in Mundaring Shire.
Many people in the Shire would have run poultry farms and they were busy thriving businesses.
Most villages would have had them namely Darlington, Glen Forrest, Mahogany Creek and Mount Helena and Parkerville had particularly large farms.
The area of Zamia (near Coppin Road) where there was a railway siding was at one time the centre of the Hills Poultry Industry.
In the 1930s the farms would have had Black Orpingtons and White Leghorns.
Thousands of eggs were being gathered, cleaned, weighed and packed and sent off on the train for either export or the local market. Also, day old chicks were sold.
It was a very labour-intensive industry, the birds had to be fed, the pens cleaned, heat lamps and incubators to be maintained, green feed to be cut, water to be provided and eggs collected twice a day.
Hygiene was also very important, so pens, perches and walls had to be cleaned. Kerosene and carbolic acid were used at that time. Parasites such as stickfast fleas, tick, lice and red mites had to be eliminated, and incoming birds had to be quarantined.
Brooklyn Poultry Farm was one of the bigger farms in Parkerville situated north of Glendower Street some 26acres between Seabourne and Kintore Road from 1909 until 1945.
One of the various owners was George Allman who was also a member of the Greenmount Road Board (Now Mundaring Shire) had a road in Parkerville named after him.
Another large poultry farm was “Hills Poultry Farm" located off Richardson Road and run by John Taylor.
Robert and Margaret Feldman took up an adjacent poultry farm in 1959, but they went into poultry meat rather than eggs . Much of this information can be found in Rob Borsje's book “A History of Parkerville & Stoneville". We are always looking for more information and photographs if you have any that could be added to our collection.

03/08/2026

FACEBOOK 3RD AUGUST CHIDLOW CONTINUED

After last week’s article on Lake Leschenaultia near Chidlow we received some fantastic responses especially from Lawrence Jones, Patrick Bertola and Donna Mills prompting us to add more stories of the people of Chidlow and the Lake.

The photo of the kiosk sent us to a book written by Florence Edwards called “The Joys and Sorrows of a Migrant Family” in which is a chapter on their time in Chidlow. They came from Narrogin and moved to a property in Chidlow believed to be on the corner of Rosedale and Clifton streets.
They worked on improving a neglected orchard from which they picked and packed fruit into cases which went to the railway station to be sent to the markets. In 1950 Florence asked the Shire if she could open a kiosk at the lake. She paid 10 shillings a week and it was open from September through to April and she sold lots of produce from the orchard and later sweets and cold drinks. As the crowds at the lake increased, the Shire decided to build a shop. Later Bill and Penny Rebbetttes took over the café which they called Stokers and they also hired out canoes. We are also looking for more information on this era of tourism along with the Miniature Railway.
We also found these photos from The Western Mail on 15 September 1932, when a hike was taken on the previous Sunday by a group from the Railway Department from Chidlow to the Lake. The reporter stated that “The fears of those who prophesied the despoilation of the bush were unfounded. As commendable restraint was exercised in plucking wildflowers and there were no instances of hooliganism!”
The then called Chidlows Dam was officially opened on Sunday 17th December 1933. An article in Trove states that the lake had been acquired for a nominal rental from the Railway Department by the Greenmount Road Board. On the day, the band of the Fremantle Naval Reserve under the conductorship of Mr. Lionel McKenzie, gave a programme of music during the afternoon. We have number of photos of the lake but not that one as yet. We would love to see any of our reader's early photos. We are also hunting down early photos of Stokers Café which Lawrence Jones mentioned in his comments.
Lastly we have a photo of the miniature railway which was started in 1990 by Sid Shepherd, Bob Moss and Bill Angwin which operated for 10 years before the tracks and trains were removed to Toodyay where it is till operating.

27/07/2026

FACEBOOK 27TH JULY Lake Leschenaultia

An article in this week’s Echo has prompted us to look at the history of how the water source for the Eastern Railway became the much-loved Lake Leschenaultia.
There is a huge amount of history about this site and this week we will focus on some of the photographs in our collection.
The lake was originally constructed as a water source for the Eastern Railway. Early steam trains required large quantities of water, and as the goldfields and areas east of the Avon Valley had only minimal supplies, the government had to provide additional watering points.
The water was pumped from the lake to storage tanks at Chidlow’s Well Station and used to replenish the storage tanks to refill the steam engines. Henry Stoker was the pumper at the Lake from 1898 to 1910 when he was replaced by John Taylor. The pump keeper’s house was moved from the lake and re-erected next to the Chidlow Station Master’s House in 1923.
In 1949 the lake was officially named after the blue leschenaultia flower which locals likened to the colour of the water on a bright sunny day.
By 1947 salinity levels had risen too high for the water to be used in the steam engines and the Railways Department leased the area near the dam wall to the Mundaring Roads Board for recreation purposes and it soon became a popular picnic place.
Between 1950 and 1952 the Lake became a recreational reserve and was opened to campers. By 1961 construction of a shop , tea rooms and a caretaker’s residence was underway.

20/07/2026

FACEBOOK 20TH JULY. THE RETURNED SERVICES LEAGUE IN MUNDARING.
Recently it was reported in the Echo that the Mundaring RSL were calling for new members and this prompted us to look at the history of the RSL.

The first Anzac Day was on 25th April 1916 one year after the Gallipoli Landing. Shortly after this in Sydney there was a meeting of veterans which resulted in the formation of the “Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia” in May 1916. After 1916 they were disappointed in the lack of support given to them on their return home. The RSSILA was officially chartered on 25TH April, 1917.
In November 1940, ‘Airmen’s was added to the name, evolving it into the ‘Returned Sailor’s, Soldier’s and Airmen’s Imperial League of Australia’ (RSSAILA). Eventually, in October 1965, the collective decision was made to simplify the name to the ‘Returned Services League of Australia’. The last change occurred in September 1990, acknowledging current serving members, resulting in the birth of ‘Returned & Services League of Australia’.
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Here in the Shire of Mundaring, we have at this time only three RSL Sub-branches namely Bellevue, Chidlow and Mundaring.

As reported in the local paper The Echo on June 26th the membership of the Mundaring Branch is dwindling and currently, they meet at the CWA building in Sculpture Park.

However you may not know that they once met at what is now the Scout Hall.

We are in position of a letter dated 7th May 1975 when the State Secretary informed the Shire they were disbanding and transferring to the Glen Forrest Sub Branch. Since then the Hall has only been used as the Scout Hall.

Looking through our photographs for this post we have realised we don’t have any older photographs of the scout hall so if any of you have one we would love to see it and take a scan …thankyou.

13/07/2026

FACEBOOK 13TH JULY No.1 Pumping Station

The article in this weeks Echo about ongoing funding for conservation issues at Mundaring Weir caused us to look at our many photos of the Weir , its construction and history.
As you can imagine structures change and are damaged by forces over time but it is important to maintain and conserve our European history.

When did you last visit the site ?

Here are some photos of different aspects of the Weir and Pumping Station

29/06/2026

FACEBOOK 29TH JUNE IS YOUR HOUSE HERITAGE LISTED??

The sale of the “Forrest Arms” in Glen Forrest today has prompted us to look at what are the responsibilities of both seller and buyer of a “historic building in the Shire of Mundaring.”
For clarification the building on William Street, Glen Forrest is now classified as Category 3 (moderate significance) on the Shire's Heritage List, that is: “May have some altered or modified elements, not necessarily detracting from the overall significance; contributes to the heritage of the locality".
The Forrest Arms has in fact changed quite a bit in appearance over the years especially after it ceased to be a hostel and became a private home in 1958. One of the owners was an architect and totally changed the appearance of the front of the building by adding 4 huge columns (see photos).
From when it was first built in in 1897 the “pub” had 14 publicans over 24 years the longest being J J Wood. It was de-licensed in 1921, became a hostel until 1958 and then became a private residence called “Braidwood”.

22/06/2026

FACEBOOK 22ND JUNE BRICKWORKS IN GLEN FORREST

Most people when they travel to the Swan Valley will notice the sign for Midland Brick but did you know that there were a number of Brickworks in Glen Forrest in the early years.
Burkinshaw’s Vulcan Brickworks and Bunnings Bros. brickyards were in the area either side of what is now Burkinshaw Road. Excavations at Bunnings claypit hit a spring which flooded the pit and it was closed. You can still see the flooded claypit on the west of the road which was used for many years in the 20s and 30s as the local swimming pool.
In 1901 Thomas Statham and William Burton discovered a large bed of clay under their gravel pit at the eastern end of Railway Parade. Convinced that it was suitable for the manufacture of fire bricks they registered a new company, The Darling Range Quarries, Fire Brick and Gravel Co. Statham was the managing director. Sheds were erected, machinery installed and a kiln was built to enable tests to be carried out on 1st February 1901.
The business grew, and as well as fire bricks, other products were made including hearths and especially shaped blocks for furnaces, firebox linings, furnace linings and “loco” blocks. Their main customer was the West Australian Government Railway for “loco” blocks.
Brick making was hot backbreaking work especially when the bricks were fired in the kilns. It took 7 days for the kilns to build up heat starting on Sunday morning when the first fire was lit and more logs would be added over the days. By Wednesday the temperature was 300c, by Friday all the fire-holes were filled.
The men had to run across the top of the kilns stopping any draughts and there were little flames escaping which meant they wore old boots for this job as “they weren’t going to be any good afterwards”
The last owners of the brickworks were Monier Concrete and Tile and they sold the site to Mundaring Shire in the late 1960s It was used as a refuse tip which was accessed from Strettle Road and later a BMX track was also built on the site.