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Suburb Profiles
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LivCom Suburb Profiles
The City of Melville received its two LivCom awards for excelling in the areas of: Enhancement of the Landscape; Heritage Management; Environmentally-Sensitive Practices; Community Sustainability; Healthy Lifestyles; and Planning For The Future.
Alfred Cove
Alfred Cove is named in memory of Alfred Waylen, a pioneer landowner in the Melville district from 1834-54.
Applecross
Major features of Applecross include Heathcote Cultural Precinct, Canning Highway commercial area, Jeff Joseph Reserve, and foreshore areas.
Ardross
Ardross has the heritage-listed 40-hectare reserve Wireless Hill on its western border. Wireless Hill is an urban bushland reserve containing varied bird life and remnant original bushland and wild flowers including 19 species of orchids. Wireless Hill Reserve is listed as one of the community’s favourite places within the North East Neighbourhood.
Attadale
Attadale was part of the Wadjuk Beeliar culture area used for seasonal movement, hunting game and ceremonial purposes. Burke Drive was an area where Aborigines mined quartz. The river foreshore provided a plentiful supply of fish, shellfish and birdlife for food purposes and thus became a favoured camping place.
Bateman
Bateman borders on the Piney Lakes Reserve, which was of great spiritual and cultural significance to the original custodians of the area. Many artefacts have been found in the region.
Bicton
As first settler in the area of Bicton, John Hole Duffield was granted the land in 1841 and named it after the village Bicton in South Devon, UK.
Booragoon
Pre-European occupation utilised the area bounded by Booragoon Lake, which was a popular camping area with ample food supplies and birdlife. The WA Museum has discovered evidence that the western side of the lake has been used as a camp site and food source for at least 38,000 years.
Brentwood
The suburb of Brentwood borders the waters of Bull Creek and would have been a camping and fishing area for the Aboriginal inhabitants. The proximity to Bull Creek ensures a variety of birdlife and river bank sedges provide food and habitat for native fauna.
Bull Creek
Prior to European settlement, the Wadjuk Beeliar people used the Bull Creek Wetlands as a summer source of food and fresh water. The Bull Creek area is significant to the Beeliar Aborigines and is referred to as Gabbiljee – which means the watery place at the end of the river.
Kardinya
Kardinya’s name is believed to be of Aboriginal origin meaning "the place of the Karda", (Racehorse Goanna) although some earlier interpretations have included references to the rising sun.
Leeming
This suburb is named after George Waters Leeming, a Surveyor in the Department of Lands who surveyed this district in 1886.
Melville
In 1827, Captain James Stirling named Melville Water after Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty 1812-1830. The land adjacent to Melville Water became known as the Melville Water Park Estate (later Applecross) when it was subdivided from 1896.
Mount Pleasant
This area was known as Canning Bridge up to the 1940s. Mount Pleasant was the name of H.R. Simpson’s property when he settled in the area (c 1911).
Murdoch
The suburb of Murdoch was part of the Somerville Pine Plantation which was University of WA Endowment land. The university site is also significant for the Aboriginal people.
Myaree
The name of this suburb is of Aboriginal origin and is thought to mean ‘place of green foliage’. This suburb developed in the late 1950s as the centre for light industry in Melville. Many streets are named after men who served and died in the First World War.
Palmyra
The majority of this district was developed between 1901 and 1919 after the gold rush. The word Palmyra means 'city of palms' and was named after a city in the Syrian Desert. It is believed a competition was run to find a suitable name for the district and Palmyra was also thought to be a play on the words 'palm area'.
Willagee
This suburb was thought to be named after Wilgee Lake located in what is now Kardinya. The name 'Wilgee' is a Nyoongah term meaning 'red ochre' – Wilgee and other lakes in the area had an abundance of red ochre. Willagee had important spiritual significance in The Dreaming because it was the place of the emu, where they bred.
Winthrop
The area around Piney Lakes is a very significant site for the traditional custodians. The area on which the suburb of Winthrop was established was university endowment trust land, much of which was developed as the Applecross Pine Plantation, later known as the Somerville Pine Plantation.