European Uses of Swamps

…between the Darling Range and the coast there are a few salt water lagoons, and many fresh water lakes, the majority of which are nothing more than swamps during the dry season, and none of them are of any economic importance

Fraser 1827

Whilst the botanist Charles Fraser’s first observations of Perth’s wetlands did not offer much promise of any economic benefit, the newcomers to the Swan Coastal Plain did begin to use the resources of the swamps. This led to the fairly rapid draining and “disappearing” of wetlands. Claise Brook and the chain of lakes that drained into it were first used by Europeans to supply water to run flour mills in the fledgling city of Perth. Reveley’s Mill was the first flour mill in Perth and was the site of the city’s first known reservoir at lots 15 and 16 between St Georges Terrace and Bazaar Terrace (now subsumed into Mounts Bay Road). The mill became the site of Perth Technical College and now houses Central Park, a 51-storey office tower.

Samuel Kingsford built the next mill on town lots 20 and 69. Kingsford drained water from Lake Kingsford via a drain that was purportedly up to 6 metres deep in some places. Kingsford was granted perpetual rights to the waters of Lake Kingsford, Irwin, Sutherland and Henderson as well as any land in between. To put this into perspective, the area of these lakes reached from Wellington Street to Charles Street, North Perth and into Leederville and West Perth. 

Gardening

Between 1870 and 1881 the number of Perth families involved in market gardening increased from 63 to 97, comprising 50 percent of the colony’s gardeners. This growth in gardening was made possible through the draining of the swamps behind the town. The North Perth swamps were the early food bowl of the city and provided the city of Perth with almost all  of its fresh produce (Atkinson 1985). 

The peaty lake beds of the dry summer swamps proved to be the richest soil for supplying desperately needed fresh produce to Perth.

By the 1870s, Perth was surrounded by gardens in a fan which spread out from Cole’s garden in the east to Leeder’s in the west. Early gardeners included Richard Gallop, Frederick Backshall, and James Leeder. Vegetables were sold on the street or delivered by horse and cart.

There were some winters when the drainage system failed and the gardens were flooded resulting in partial or complete loss of crops. The Chinese gardeners came later in 1890s (Stannage 1979).