York History

The Legend of Mt Bakewell and Mt Brown

The first British Settlement is Western Australia was a convict outpost established in 1826 at King George III Sound (Albany). The following year Captain James Stirling explored the Swan River and reported a land with “every attraction that a Country in a State of Nature can possess”. In 1829 Stirling returned with the first European Settlers and on June 18th 1829 proclaimed the foundation of the Swan River Colony.

Due to the large numbers of settlers arriving at Fremantle, Stirling was forced to limit the river frontage of properties and the amount of land any settler could claim in the Perth region. Since most of the good areas on the Swan, Canning and Helena Rivers were quickly claimed, the demand for new land that could produce food for the Colony was high.

In July and August 1830 Ensign Robert Dale of the 63rd Regiment, accompanied by William Locke Brockman and two other men, explored the country east of the Darling Range and discovered the Avon Valley. Brockman and Dale formed an exceedingly favourable impression of the region, as did Lieutenant Erskine, who explored the area a few weeks later. Accordingly, in October 1830 Lieutenant Governor Stirling visited the valley, accompanied by Ensign Dale, JS Clarkson (who suggested that the area be called Yorkshire after the rolling hills of his native county), JW Hardy, H Camfield and William Stirling, the Governors nephew. Stirling was impressed and elated by what he saw, and noted that with the discovery of the Avon Valley there was no longer any doubt of the ultimate success of the settlement. On Nov 12th, 1830 the district was declared open for settlement, and notice given that “a town to be called York will be laid out in a situation near Mt Bakewell”. There was an immediate rush to select land on either side of the river from Beverley to Northam.

On September 16th 1831, the first settlers reached the valley: Ensign Dale, Rivett Henry Bland, Dr Collie, The Reverend JB Wittenoon, Joseph Hardy, GT Moore and three soldiers. Others soon followed them. The farms of the region were established first, and it was not until 1835 that moves were made to establish the town. By this time the Aboriginal population was beginning to realise the full impact of European colonisation, and to offer understandable resistance. Soldiers were sent from Perth to protect settlers and by 1836 the nucleus of the township was in place, consisting of an army barracks and store with outbuildings, five houses and about 50 acres of cleared land. The first inland town of the Swan River Colony was born, and the story of its subsequent development is traced in the York Heritage Trail’s four walks.