Mundaring & Hills Historical Society

31/10/2025

Here are the winners from the Whim Festival MHHS competition for naming the timber types!!
In the 11 and under category, the winner was Daniel Saladine,
and in the 12 years and over, it was Stephen Fox.
Congratulations to you both!!!! They both received a $25 voucher from Dymocks @ the Mundaring Station Master's House on Wednesday.

27/10/2025

On this day 27th October 1886 the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbour.
After its dedication, the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.
Thinking of the idea of welcoming visitors or new residents to our Shire brings up the question of what we, the residents Mundaring Shire, would choose as a welcoming sign or icon.
We currently have a fairly old wooden sign opposite El Caballo Blanco for those coming from Northam. There is also a similar wooden sign opposite Bowra & O’Dea Funerals coming from Midland. There is nothing coming off either of the Roe Highway exits until we see the “Welcome to the Perth Hills” sign near Chippers Leap.
If you were driving from Kalamunda along Mundaring Weir Road then of course you would pass by our iconic Mundaring Weir, the main reason why some people drive “up the hill” but there is much more to our shire for both locals and visitors.
We invite you to give some thought into why we should erect an equally iconic structure or signage that represents the Shire.
Many of our Australian towns have large structures such as the Giant Banana or Prawn. Wagin for instance has the Giant Ram. What should we have - a large exclamation mark?
Your ideas are welcome! The best idea gets the prize- a weekend for two in the telephone box of your choice in Mundaring.
Can you identify the locations depicted below??

27/10/2025

The Whim Festival, Oct 26th was a great day - everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Thanks to the Mt Helena Residents & Ratepayers Progress Assoc. for organising, the event went well, even though it threatened rain in the morning, the sun came out in the afternoon. Here's a short video of our area of the park . . .

20/10/2025

FACEBOOK 20TH OCTOBER LION MILL, TIMBER AND THE WHIM FESTIVAL

This coming Sunday 26th October we will be at the Whim Festival where our focus will be on the early timber mill industry and the use of Whims. We also will be available to talk with locals or visitors about their early history and involvement with the area.
So, what is a whim?
It's device for hauling logs out of the forest.
Moving logs over any distance was a major challenge. The trees encountered by early settlers were very heavy, 1.3 tonnes per cubic metre. An article in a newspaper in 1845 describes attempts to transport a 7-tonne log from Canning to Fremantle for export
“after great labour the log was slung in chains and then transported for a quarter of a mile (400m) when the chains broke like a bundle of twine …. It will be a matter of great difficulty to get this huge log to the beach, and we confess that we do not see how it is to be got on board any vessel”
At first transporting logs to the mill was done by bullock teams or draught horses. When a log is dragged along the ground the leading end tends to dig into the ground and a “shoe” was used. A large piece of heavy steel plate attached with chains. Hauling logs on wheeled machines such as jinkers and whims was only possible on hard ground. During boggy conditions the “shoe” was used. This practice was used for well over 70 years and eventually made redundant by the advent of tractor pulled arches.
Arches were used to lift the nose of a log off the ground. These were replaced by the whim from the 1880s to the 1930s
Whims only had two wheels; jinkers could have up to eight wheels.
Whims seem to have been a WA invention in the Canning Mills area
To find out more about these devices visit us on Sunday where we will have more information and many old photographs of this early hard-working Industry.

13/10/2025

FACEBOOK 13TH OCTOBER MUNDARING ARTISTS

As this weekend is the start of the Mundaring Hills Open Studios, we thought we would look through our Collection for information and especially photographs of some of the artists that have lived in the Shire.
Many of the artists lived in Darlington and Darlington Arts Festival came into being in the 1950s.
The early festivals were informal one-day events showcasing the work of local painters and potters. These were organised as a thank-you gesture to raise funds for volunteer firefighters who regularly saved both homes and studios from summer bushfires.
Early festivals were organised by artists Guy and Helen Grey-Smith. They were soon joined in Darlington by other ambitious young artists: Robert Juniper, George Haynes, David Gregson, Philippa O’Brien, Mac Betts, Brian McKay, Wim Boissevain, Richard Woldendorp, Leon Pritchard and others whose works were widely collected.
You can read more about the festival’s history in Arts on the Edge: Darlington, the Place, the People, the Festival written by local author Trea Wiltshire and published by the Darlington History Group, www.dhg.org.au.

The Mundaring Shire has its own Art Collection which comprises donated pieces and others purchased. The collection is managed by Mundaring Art Centre and can be viewed on their (MAC) website.

The artists shown below can also be found on the MAC website.

In 1979 the Mundaring Art Centre (MAC) was first opened in a building on Great Eastern Highway, near Brooking Road. It had been a service station but came with its problems so 18 years later MAC moved to the old Post Office building on the corner of Great Eastern Highway and Nichol St.

09/10/2025

FACEBOOK 9TH OCTOBER MUNDARING SHIRE AND ITS BEGINNINGS

As we will all be voting for our local government elections, we thought a brief history of the “evolution /history" of the Shire of Mundaring would be interesting for our followers.

From the early beginnings of Western Australia and especially Perth the most important aspect for the early settlers was roads and the safe travel on them. It came upon the local government and Governor Hampton to appoint local district committees to report on the state of the rural roads in 1868.
These “Road Boards” were responsible for the repair and construction of roads bridges and drains. They were financed by the government but also revenue was raised from “cart licenses”.
By 1893 the Swan Road Board District covered a vast area which included The Lakes, Belmont and south to Mount Dale. By 1898 it was decided to make a new Road Board district which included settlements along York Road as well as Kalamunda and Gooseberry Hill to be called the Darling Range Road Board. Because the board members lived on both sides of the Helena River it was difficult to hold meetings, especially when they had to walk a long distance, sometimes in hot or wet weather.
In 1903 the two districts separated, and the York Road area became known as the Greenmount Road Board and by 1906 a new office was erected in Lion Mill (now Mt. Helena). This is now the Mt. Helena Veterinary Clinic
In the mid 1920’s Mundaring had become the commercial centre of the district therefore a new office was built on the corner of York Road and Mann Street and renamed Mundaring Road Board in 1934. There was another name change in 1961 to become Mundaring Shire Council.

22/09/2025

FACEBOOK 22nd September W**ds w**ds w**ds!!!

With the coming of the school holidays those of you who are not going away on holiday will probably be pulling up w**ds

We have many groups in the Mundaring who spend many hours removing w**ds from our reserves

W**ds such as

Freesia South Africa
Paterson’s curse Asia introduced as a garden plant in 1850s
Blue Periwinkle Mediterranean
Cape W**d South Africa
Guildford Grass (Onion grass, Onion w**d, Rosy Sand Crocus) South Africa
Arum Lily South Africa
Watsonia or Bugle Lily Southern Africa
All of these plants and many more have become environmental w**ds brought to Australia by early settlers to put in their gardens.
The ships sailing from England stopped to restock in South Africa and passengers brought plants that they saw and admired for their new gardens.
Any plant with Cape in the name came from South Africa. Also, plants were brought from Mediterranean countries where the climate is similar. they are hardy and not eaten by Australian fauna, so they spread uncontrolled by nature.
There are a number of friends groups in the Shire who help to control w**ds and care for Reserves. If you check out the Shire’s website you will see these 3 mentioned and also how to find other groups.

Helena River Catchment Group founded in 1977
Jane Brook Catchment Group founded in 1997
Susannah Brook Catchment Group reformed in 2017

17/09/2025

15TH SEPTEMBER SAVE PERTH HILLS AND ST. GEORGES CATHEDRAL

As you may be aware there was a Rally outside St. Georges Cathedral on Sunday organized by Save Perth Hills.
Looking through our early history files we can confirm that the land that was a government grant to the Anglican Church in the 1800’s. This has been reduced in area over the years when part of it became the Padbury Boy’s Farm School teaching boys farming skills and supplying other Anglican Swan Homes with produce.
Around 1960 the government bought the farm and renamed it Hillston, also known as Stoneville Boys Home.
Later some of the land was subdivided and called La Grange Estate, including the streets Woodlands, Wildberry and Clutterbuck.

On the map the area coloured yellow is the Parkerville Children’s Home. The area between Roland and Stoneville Road marked 2038 acres 3 roods 13 perches is the original government grant. All the other blocks are privately owned.

St. Georges Cathedral was built and consecrated in 1888. Materials used were: Rottnest Island Limestone. local bricks and jarrah timber from White and Keane’s Timber Mill in Mt. Helena. The area was then known as White’s Mill.
St. Georges Cathedral was built and consecrated in 1888. Materials used were: Rottnest Island Limestone. local bricks and jarrah timber from White and Keane’s Timber Mill in Mt. Helena the area was then known as White’s Mill.

The Lion Mill was in operation between 1882 and 1898 and timber was cut for sleepers for the Eastern Railway , Charles Harper's Guildford Residence "Woodbridge" and also the interior of St Georges Cathedral.

Continuing with the subject of timber...the Whim Festival is happening again this year on Sunday 26th October and we will be there .....come and see us!

05/09/2025

ANOTHER NOTE FROM ROB (THE PRES)
If you find the posts below interesting, then head to our website for more blog posts over the years. Please also check out our DISCOVER tab, and find out more info about the Shire of Mundaring Precincts.

Mundaring & Surrounds History | MHHS aims to preserve, document, acquire and interpret the history of the Eastern Hills near Perth, Western Australia. MHHS assists individual researchers, schools and other groups to compile local history. The Society is also responsible for the Mundaring District Mu...

05/09/2025

https://www.mundaringhistory.org/post/timber-industry-in-mundaring

Railways and the power of steam more than any other factors made possible the development of the Mundaring district says Ian Elliot in his book Mundaring A History of the Shire. The worldwide demand for jarrah railway sleepers and jetty piles were responsible for the construction of private railway....

05/09/2025

https://www.mundaringhistory.org/post/new-rueben-beacham-plaque-unveiled

Chipper’s Leap is a granite outcrop on Greenmount Hill located on the northern side of Great Eastern Highway, near the locality boundary between of Swan View and Greenmount. Chippers Leap is named for John Chipper, who jumped from the rock on 3 February 1832 while trying to escape an attack by a p...

05/09/2025

https://www.mundaringhistory.org/post/sawyers-valley-primary-school-140-years-old

Sawyers Valley Primary School began in 1884In October 1998 a townsite was declared at Sawyers Valley but prior to that the second stage of the Eastern Railway was completed and Edmund Lacey established a new sawmill on the northern side of the line. The first school in Sawyers Valley was in a house....