Naming the Swamps

Although the swamps were already named and mapped by Noongar people, after colonisation these wetlands were generally named after leading colonists or those who leased them:

• Lake Sutherland after Henry Sutherland, a surveyor who became Colonial Treasurer and a member of the Legislative Council; 
• Lake Irwin after Captain F.C. Irwin of the Imperial Services who was acting Lieutenant Governor after Stirling’s departure (J S Battye 1924); 
• Lake Henderson was named after Colonel Henderson, head of the Imperial Services of the colony; 
• Lake Kingsford after Samuel Kingsford, who had been given the right to drain water from it; 
• Stone’s Lake after G.F. Stone, the first lessee of the land and the Attorney General, although Edward Barron (after whom Edward Street, edging the lake, would be named) later held the lease; 
• Lakes Poulett and Thomson in honour of British Cabinet member Poulett-Thomson, later the Lord Sydenham, who served as president of the Board of Trade in the 1830s; 

Beaufort and Francis Streets after Sir Francis Beaufort, RN, Hydrographer to the Admiralty. Beaufort Street ran past a large swamp, later renamed Birdwood Square after Lieutenant-General Birdwood and another swamp in the east was named Haig Park, after Field Marshall Douglas Haig, both as a result of the Gallipoli campaign.

(Morel-EdnieBrown, 2008)