​This is an edited excerpt from "Cockburn - Making of a Community" - copyright Town of Cockburn 1978

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT DISTRICTS

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CLARENCE: The first settlement in the District, commenced in December 1829, was named Clarence for the Duke of Clarence, heir to the British Throne. The original boundaries of the Town of Clarence were approximately Mayor and Yangebup Roads to the north; Stock Road to the east; Wattleup Road to the south and the coastline to the west, taking in the current Postal Districts of Munster and Henderson and part of Wattleup.

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 COCKBURN: The District as a whole was known as the Fremantle Road Board’s District from 1871; as the Cockburn Road Board’s District from 1955; as the Shire of Cockburn from 1961 and has been known as the Town of Cockburn since 1971.

 

POSTAL DISTRICTS

 

The Town of Cockburn has thirteen Postal Districts within its boundaries which have been named as follows:

 

ATWELL: Named in 1973 after Ernest Atwell. The Atwell brothers owned several livery stables in Fremantle around the turn of the century and Ernest Atwell had owned land in the area named after him since 1896. In the 18405 a pastoral lease of 10,000 acres had been held in the area by J.H. Monger and another of 4,000 acres by Henry Albert. The first development of the area came in 1890 with the opening of the Jandakot Agricultural Area.

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BANJUP: Named in the mid-19505 from the lake in the District. During the survey of J.A.A. Lots in 1889, surveyor James Oxley recorded the name of Lake Bangup. A siding on the Fremantle- Armadale railway was named Banjupp in 1907 and this name was altered to Banjup in the 19305. Amongst the earliest landholders in the District were W.F. Ribe, F. O’Farrell and W. Maclagan and some who were resident for many years were George and Harol Treeby, William Tait and John Shanks.

 

BIBRA LAKE: Named after Benedict von Bibra who selected land in the District in 1844. In 1898 Bibra Lake was reserved for recreation and all applications to lease land fronting the lake were strenuously opposed by the Fremantle District Roads Board, which was given control over the Reserve in 1902. Tearooms were erected and the Reserve became a popular venue for picnics and sports gatherings. Early landholders around the Lake were W. Turner, A. Davis, J. Brown, D. Joslyn, T. Cook, J. Liddelow and the Tapper family.

 

COOGEE: Named from nearby Lake Coogee. Originally this lake was named Lake Munster after Prince William, the Earl of Munster, and later King William IV. The aboriginal name Kou-gee was recorded in 1841 by Thomas Watson and has been variously spelt Koojee, Coojee and Coogee.

 

COOLBELLUP: Named in 1957 from the aboriginal name for North Lake. Coolbellup was originally the eastern portion of George Robb’s Cockburn Sound Location 10 and Coolbellup was recorded as the aboriginal name of a lake near the eastern boundary of the grant in 1842. In 1954 most of the land west of the lake was resumed by the State Housing Commission and an intensive housing scheme in the area was developed. Early landholders in the District were G. Jarvis, Joseph Meller and the Dixon family.

 

HAMILTON HILL: Named in 1830 after the farm established by George Robb. Robb applied for 2,000 acres of land starting from the summit of a small hill bordering the west side of a swamp ‘from which place we take our distance 11/4 miles from the sea’. The hill is situated near present day Cardigan Street and Robb’s grant stretched as far east as North Lake. Letters written by Sidney Smith, Robb’s manager on the farm, give his address as Hamilton Hill in August 1830.

 

HENDERSON: Named in 1873 after Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson whose report in 1911 led to the beginning of the Henderson Naval Base at Woodman Point. The first to acquire land in the District were Richard Goldsmith Meares, Thomas Peel and Wallace Bickley. In later years a large part of the area was held under pastoral lease and freehold by the graziers, W5. and G. Pearse. In 1915 the whole area was resumed by the Commonwealth Government for defence purposes and in 1950 the land was transferred to the State Government in connection with the Kwinana Oil Refinery Project.

 

JANDAKOT: Originally named from Lake Jandakot which was renamed Forrestdale Lake in 1973. Maps of the Swan River Colony produced in the early 18305 show a lake of vast extent situated south west of Kelmscott. The original discoverer remains unknown but, in February 1833, Surveyor General Roe found that the size of the lake had been greatly exaggerated. The lake became well known as a watering place on the original track between Canning River and Pinjarra and in 1844 its aboriginal name was recorded as Jandacot by surveyor, J.W. Gregory. During subsequent years the name was recorded variously as Jandicott, Jandakoot and Jandakott but the spelling eventually adopted was Jandakot. The aboriginal meaning of the word is said to be, ‘place of the Whistling Eagle’.

 

MUNSTER: Named in 1954 from the original name of Lake Munster given to Lake Coogee. The District had been known as South Coogee since the 18705 and this earlier name remains in local use by older settlers. The District contains the site of Peel’s original settlement, the first recorded land grants in the Cockburn District, and around Lake Coogee the remains of the cottages built by Pensioner Guards in the 18805. The Munster District is unique in the continuous occupation of the Anderson, Newman and Sawle properties by those families since the last century.

 

NAVAL BASE: The northern part of this District lies within the Town of Cockburn and the District is named from the Henderson Naval Base which was commenced in 1913. The northern part of the District was first granted to Thomas Peel in 1829 as Cockburn Sound Location 14.

 

SPEARWOOD: Early surveyors recognized the Spearwood bush as a common growth in the area and in 1897 the name Spearwood Gardens Estate was given to one of the first subdivisions in the Cockburn District. Settlement appears to have begun in Spearwood in the 1850s when Alfred Hooker took up Cockburn Sound Location 97. Although several adjoining blocks were taken up during the same period by Charles Manning, a survey carried out in 1859 shows that Hooker’s block contained the only improvements in the area, a small house and a fenced enclosure. Hooker’s block was bought by E.T. Troode in 1860 and by George Smart in 1895.

 

SUCCESS: Named in 1973 for the ship commanded by Captain James Stirling when he visited the Swan River in 1827. The District was originally part of the grant selected by George Dunnage who arrived in the Colony aboard the Gilmore in 1829. Dunnage and his seven servants constructed a cottage, outbuildings and a well on the grant and cleared a road to the Clarence Townsite. In 1911 the grant was purchased by the Government in connection with a drainage scheme for the Jandakot Agricultural Area and over the years has had various uses. It was once an Agricultural Department depot for bullocks and was later used to assist starving stock during periods of drought. An old homestead near the lake was used by campers and duck-shooters and a great deal of banksia was removed by firewood cutters. A scheme for soldier settlement was undertaken north of the lake in 1919. The area was extensively drained and a tramway was constructed from Jandakot along what is now Branch Circus but a rising water table caused the land to be withheld from selection until many years later. In 1954 the area was proclaimed a Class ‘A’ Flora and Fauna Reserve.

 

TREEBY: Named in 2016 after a family of settlers who took up a ‘selection’ on Forrest Road (now Armadale Road) in the Jandakot Agricultural Area in the late1890s. Joseph Treeby and his wife, Emma, and his eight children, were newly arrived from South Australia. Joseph Treeby had growing sons to help him and soon cleared enough of the block to start a market garden there. Sadly, Joseph Treeby died of a heart attack aged 52 while digging a drainage ditch but the Treeby family stayed on at Jandakot, working the market garden seven days a week. The three girls worked alongside their brothers in the garden, made their own clothes and helped with the weekly baking of bread.

In 1915, three brothers enlisted to serve in the Great War. Frederick was killed, Harold was wounded, and Ernest survived. They are commemorated in the Banjup Memorial Park together with 11 other men of Banjup (5 of whom were killed) who served in the Great War.

 

WATTLEUP: Named in 1962 from a road in the District known as Wattleup Road since 1931. The greatest part of the District was selected as a timber grant by Thomas Watson in 1831 and was later sold to George Leake, a Fremantle merchant. When Leake died in 1849 the land passed into the hands of his daughter, the wife of William Brown, and was retained by various members of the Brown family until 1930. In the latter year, it was acquired by Isodore Walters and Whitfords Ltd. and subdivision was commenced at the western end of the location in 1931. In 1961 T. and T. Enterprises Pty. Ltd. subdivided the eastern section into 10 acre garden lots and proposed naming their subdivision Wattleup Gardens Estate.