Mundaring District Museum

Museum to reopen after major refurbishment

Mundaring District Museum will reopen in August 2010 after six months of refurbishment . Housed in the 1908 first Mundaring Primary School classroom, the museum has undergone a transformation with new interpretation panels telling the story of Mundaring.

Our Indigenous beginning

Archaeological evidence from the Upper Swan indicates that Aboriginal people have been in continuous occupation here for over 24,000 years.

When the first colonial settlers arrived at the Swan River the land was occupied and managed by three Nyoongar Aboriginal tribes of the Wadjup language group.

The land to the east bounded by the Swan and Canning Rivers and deep into the Darling Scarp was the Beelu locality known as Munday’s territory.

For Munday’s people the Swan, Canning and Helena Rivers were important food sources. They managed the land by applying a regular mosaic of cool burns known as fire stick farming.

Today Munday’s name lives on in the Shires of Mundaring and Kalamunda and as the ‘Munda Biddi’ track through the forest.

Early European Exploration

Early European explorers found that the only fertile land on the coastal plain was adjacent to the rivers and wetlands. In August 1830 Ensign Robert Dale (then 19) crossed the scarp, struck the Avon River and observed extensive gently undulating, lightly timbered land from the summit of Mount Bakewell (near York) - just the sort of land they were seeking. Dale led a party of settlers over the hills to York in September 1831. Dale and the settlers developed a rough track and this route became the genesis of the York Road. Today’s local government responsibilities evolved from the building and maintenance of roads.

Evolving Local Government

Responsibility for road maintenance rested with the colonial government’s Central Road Trust which imposed a toll system on York Road in the mid 1840s. This Trust was replaced by the short-lived Central Board of Works (1847-49) then responsibility reverted back to the Governor who used convict labour from the early 1850s.

When Road Boards were formed in 1871 the York Road Board became responsible for the whole of the York Rd. In 1887 the area west of Chidlow came under the Swan Road Board whose responsibility extended to The Lakes in 1893.

In 1897 the Darling Range Road Board was formed with boundaries from York Road south to Kalamunda and offices in Perth. This unsatisfactory situation was resolved with the formation in 1903 of the Greenmount Road Board with boundaries similar to the Shire of Mundaring today. The original Greenmount Road Board office was built at Mount Helena (then Lion Mill) in 1906 and remained here until relocating to Mundaring in 1925.

In 1934 the Board’s name was changed from Greenmount to the Mundaring Road Board and new offices were built.

A new Local Government Act created the Shire of Mundaring in 1961 - with more powers and responsibilities.

The Timber Industry

The majesty of the Jarrah forests awed the early European explorers to the Hills. Timber cutters established bush camps either side of the York Road, several in the area that became Sawyers Valley.

The small timber towns associated with the mills and railway stations evolved into service centres for the emerging orchard, poultry and quarrying industries.
One single large Jarrah tree still exists west of Sawyers Valley. This specimen has an 8 metre girth and is estimated to be over 400 years old. Known as ‘King Jarrah’ this protected tree is a reminder of the former glory of the Hills Jarrah forests.

Rail and evolving communities

The railway line from Fremantle to Guildford opened in 1881. The line then continued on to Chidlow by 1884 with stations at Greenmount, Glen Forrest, Sawyers Valley and Chidlow.
By 1886 it had extended to York and on to Albany by 1889.The first hills crossing was too steep for heavy loads so in 1896 a second line was opened between Bellevue and Mt Helena.
In 1898 a spur line was built to create the weir wall for the Goldfields water supply joining at what became Mundaring. Over time stations and sidings were added to the rail network.Some stops became gazetted towns and some had spur lines to
timber mills and quarries.
The first hills line was closed in 1954 and the rest in 1966.The communities of today were initially created along the railway line which now serves as a popular recreational walk trail.

Mundaring and Hills Historical Society Inc.