WEST AUSTRALIANA –

• VI, 106 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 24 cm. #180325
• Suburbs — Western Australia — Perth — History
• Suburban life — Western Australian — Kardinya — History
• Suburbanites — Western Australian — Kardinya — Biography
• Kardinya (W.A.) — History
• First Edition
• Kardinya is a suburb 13 kilometres (8 mi) south-southwest of the central business district of Perth, the capital of Western Australia. It is in the City of Melville local government area. It is predominantly a low-density residential suburb consisting of single-family detached homes. There is a commercial area in the centre of the suburb, with a shopping centre and several other shops. In the northwest is a small light industrial area. Kardinya has a population of 8,730 people.

  Before European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Beeliar group of the Whadjuk Noongar people. Kardinya did not attract any interest from Europeans when the Swan River Colony was founded in 1829, as it was far away from any river and was not fertile. European use of Kardinya began in 1870 when fourteen lots were allocated to Pensioner Guards. These lots were used for piggeries, poultry farms and vineyards. In 1904, a large amount of land in the area was set aside as endowment land for the University of Western Australia. In the 1920s, this land started to be used as a pine plantation, known as the Applecross Pine Plantation, and, after 1947, the Somerville Pine Plantation. The suburb was formally gazetted on 16 June 1961. From 1967 to the early 1980s, suburban development occurred in Kardinya.

  Current amenities in Kardinya include Kardinya Primary School, North Lake Senior Campus, Kardinya Park Shopping Centre, and Morris Buzacott Reserve, which is home to several sports clubs. The suburb is quadrisected by South Street and North Lake Road. Transperth bus services operate, most feeding into Murdoch railway station on the Mandurah railway line.

  History

  Before British colonisation

  Before European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Beeliar group of the Whadjuk Noongar people, who had lived there for 40,000 years. They lived in the area south from the Swan River down to Mangles Bay near Rockingham and east to the Darling Scarp. No specific sites of Aboriginal occupation have been found in Kardinya as there are no wetlands there, however, the Beeliar people would have passed through Kardinya.^{[2]: 6 [3]: 4}

  British colonisation

  Kardinya attracted no interest from the British when they founded the Swan River Colony in 1829. All settlement was concentrated along the Swan and Canning rivers as they were the main method of transportation in the early decades of the colony. Kardinya also had no fertile soil for the crops and fruit trees grown at the time. Only one section of land in Kardinya was part of the early land that was granted to settlers; it was known as Cockburn Location 549, and none of the Kardinya section of that land was used.^[2]: 7

  In 1870, fourteen smaller lots were excised from Cockburn Location 549 and were allocated to Pensioner Guards over 15 years. Pensioner Guards were British army veterans who received a pension after having completed their period of service or been wounded. They served on convict transportation ships to Western Australia. Their role in the colony was to help maintain law and order, and serve as a presence of authority towards the convicts. To get the Pensioner Guards to stay in the colony, they were allocated land which they had to occupy for seven years before they could gain ownership. Convicts were forced to clear the land for the Pensioner Guards. These Pensioner Guard lots were passed down to their descendants. At the beginning of World War I, most were still owned by descendants of Pensioner Guards.^[2]: 8

  Two roads were built in the early 20th century – South Street, which ran from Fremantle west of Kardinya to the eastern edge of Kardinya, and North Lake Road, which ran from Canning Highway north of Kardinya to Bibra Lake in the south, continuing as Forrest Road to Armadale. At first, these roads were just cleared tracks consisting of sand, but after World War I, they were laid with planks.^{[2]: 11–12}

  During the early 20th century, these lots were used as piggeries, poultry farms and vineyards.^[2]: 12 The remaining area was Fremantle Commonage, meaning residents of Fremantle could freely cut timber. This changed in 1904 when an act of the Parliament of Western Australia set aside the land north, west and east of the Pensioner Guard lots as endowment land for the University of Western Australia (UWA), which was being planned at the time. The university did not end up using the land, but in 1922, it asked the Forests Department to police it for the illegal removal of timber.^{[2]: 16 [3]: 170}

  In 1924, the Bibra and North Lake Progress Association asked UWA and the Forests Department if part of the land could be used as a pine plantation. They agreed to the land being used for that purpose for 50 years. In 1926, 382 hectares (945 acres) of land was cleared, and planted mainly with pinus pinaster, or maritime pine. At a high point on South Street, a house for plantation staff was built, and a fire lookout was built on a nearby tree. A second lookout tower was built in 1965. There were never any large fires at the plantation, but several smaller ones were spotted and put out over the years. Initially, the plantation was known as the Applecross Pine Plantation, but it was renamed to the Somerville Pine Plantation in 1946, after William Somerville, who was a prominent person at UWA, being Acting Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Chancellor and Acting Chancellor at times.^{[4][3]: 170} Many streets in Kardinya are now also named after prominent people from UWA.^[2]: 16