Parkerville Past - History about Parkerville, Western Australia

Parkerville Past

Home
Post Office Directories
Electoral Rolls
Childrens Home
Roll of Honor
Miscellaneous
Search
Contact
Please bookmark this page Ctrl + D

Parkerville is a small semi-rural village in the Hills about 30 kilometres to the East of Perth, Western Australia.
Its history parallels that of many of the neighbouring Hills areas, where good stands of native timber attracted white settlement as soon as the railway was opened.


Parkerville townsite was first surveyed by James Oxley in 1893 and the railway opened in March 1896. Perth City Council soon began quarrying for gravel and blue metal. Most of the early workers were young single men, many from the Eastern States and probably looking for more promising employment in the light of the waning rushes in the Goldfields. But the seasonal nature of local work meant that the early settlement of Parkerville was still very transient.


Later more permanent settlers began to develop farms and by the 1940s the area was one of the main orchard and poultry farming districts in the state.
With the closure of the railway in 1966, the town became a quiet backwater several kilometres from the Great Eastern Highway. More recent development has seen growth in housing and division of the farms into rural living lots, but the town centre remains as a remarkably intact historic precinct.

Web Designer - Daniel Beard.................Content - Lyn Beard
Site Map