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History of metropolitan suburb names - B


The following information is a summary of origins for suburb names within the Perth metropolitan area. Please select the first letter of the suburb you wish to see:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

BAILUP

This rural locality derives its name from Bailup Creek, and a Police Station and Inn established on the Toodyay Road in the 1840’s. The name is Aboriginal unknown origin.


BALCATTA

The area now known as Balcatta was once contained in the northern half of Perth Shire location Au granted to T.R.C. Walters on the 10th March 1840. The name Balcatta was recorded by Alexander Forrest in 1877 as being the Aboriginal name for the northern position of Careniup Swamp and the name was used on an offer of sale by Mr Mews in 1888. A later owner, James Arbuckle, named his house Balcatta after the area it overlooked.


BALDIVIS

This suburb was one of the State Government's Group Settlement schemes which was implemented in the 1920's to alleviate unemployment. A school building was completed and was given the name "Baldivis" a name coined by local settlers after three ships that brought them to WA in 1922, the "BALRANALD", the "DIOGENES" and the "JERVIS BAY". The most coincidental item is that all three ships were built in the same place and in the same year. Also all of the vessels made their maiden voyage to WA within six weeks of each other.


BALGA

"Balga" is an Aboriginal word for the grass tree Xanthorrhoea commonly known as "black boy" trees. The name was chosen in 1954 for a portion of what was then known as the "Mirrabooka Project Area". This was a State Housing Commission subdivision between Yokine and Wanneroo which also contained the suburbs of Nollamara and Yirrigan. Work commenced on the laying out of streets in Balga in 1959.


BALLAJURA

Ballajura is the name of the farm originally pioneered by Kerruish and Eaton and was held by Kerruish until his death in 1947. E.M. Kerruish migrated to Australia in 1903. The property was located about 5km south-west of the present suburb. The farm was actually named "Ballajora" after Kerruish's birth place, a small village on the Isle of Man.


BANKSIA GROVE

Formerly part of Neerabup then named Cockman in December 1998, Cockman was renamed Banksia Grove on the 3rd of June 1999. The name is descriptive of the prominent vegetation in the area and the surrounding terrain.


BANJUP

Surveyor James Oxley in 1889 recorded the names of two water features as "Lake Bangup" and "Bangdown Swamp". Exactly who gave these features their unusual names is unknown and only one of these names was shown on maps, ie. "Bangup Lake". Land for the Armadale - Jandakot Railway link was resumed in 1907 and a station was constructed. The station was located 3.6 km north of "Bangup Lake" and was named "Banjupp". This is presumed to be a corruption of the original name of the lake. The name "Banjupp" was used until the 1930's when the spelling was amended to Banjup.


BARRAGUP

Barragup is the Aboriginal name of the place in the Serpentine River where the Aborigines constructed a "mungur" or fish trap. Early setters would buy fish from the Aborigines here as they caught them in abundance when the first winter rains flushed them out of the river. The meaning of the name is not known.


BASKERVILLE

This suburb takes its name from "Baskerville", the name given by William Tanner to Swan Location 5, his estate in the Swan valley. Tanner, a prominent Perth citizen and landowner, took up the land in 1831. Although the area was widely known as Baskerville, the name was not approved for the suburb until 1992.


BASSENDEAN

The name "Bassendean" was first recorded by Surveyor J.W. Gregory in 1841 as the name of 1455 acres for Mr. P. Brown, who had his homestead on the West Bank of Swan River. Peter Brown (or Broun) was WA's first Colonial Secretary in 1832 and apparently named his property on the Swan River after a family property in England, Bassendean in Berwickshire. This area was also previously known as West Guildford. A competition to choose a new name for the area was held in 1922, 2 school children nominated the name "Bassendean" after Peter Brown's property.


BATEMAN

The name is taken from Bateman Road which was itself named after the Bateman family. The name of "Bateman" is that of a well known Perth merchant firm. The company began business in 1857, but the family arrived in the colony on the "Medina" in 1830. John Bateman built a store in Fremantle dealing in merchandise of many kinds and became postmaster at Fremantle in 1833. He also took part in the establishment of a whaling business at Fremantle and after his death in 1855, his sons took over the family business and form a company in 1857.


BAYSWATER

"Bayswater" was the name of a property in the vicinity of Slade Street advertised for sale in the Morning Herald, 31st July 1885 and was purchased by a Mr Gribble. It is presumed to be named after the London suburb of the same name. Bayswater, London is derived from a corruption of "Baynard's Watering Place" and is a part of London lying to the north of Kensington Gardens and was a hamlet near what is Gloucester Terrace.


BEACONSFIELD

Named after a property known as "Beaconsfield" which was located in the area in the 1880's and the name was officially adopted for the Post Office on the 1st August, 1894. The origin is unknown, but probably named after the town in England of the same name or the Earl of Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disreali, the ex Tory Prime Minister of England in 1881, who died in April 1882, he was created Earl of Beaconsfield in 1879.


BECKENHAM

Subdivision of this area took place around the turn of the century, most of the streets being named after towns near London. The Gosnells Road Board's suggested, "Beckenham" (also a town near London and a street name within the area).


BEDFORD

The area was called "Bedford Park" following subdivision by the International Investment Land and Building Co. Ltd. of Sydney and Gold Estates of Australia (an English company). The name honours Admiral Sir Frederick George Denham Bedford, Governor of Western Australia from 1903 to 1909. This suburb was a product of the WA Gold Boom of the 1890's and early 1900's.


BEDFORDALE

Named after Admiral Sir Frederick Denham Bedford, Governor of Western Australia from 24th March 1903, to the 22nd April 1909. Governor Bedford chose the street names to commemorate several famous Admirals.


BEECHBORO

This name has been in use since 1892 when Henry Brockman of Gingin, the owner of part of Swan Locations M and M1, first subdivided that land into farmlets. A number of estate names were used by Brockman and "Beechboro Park" was one of them. It is the name of an ancestral home of the Brockman family in Kent, England.


BEECHINA

"Beechina" is the Aboriginal name of a nearby white gum valley, further north-east. It was first recorded by surveyor P Chauncy in 1847, when he was carrying out the survey of the first road to Northam.


BEELIAR

"Beeliar" is the Aboriginal name for the southern metropolitan region. R M Lyon recorded the name in 1833, referring to it as "the district of Midjegoorong" (an Aboriginal leader). The name was approved for the suburb in 1993.


BELDON

The suburb name Beldon is named after A W Beldon whose name appears in a list of early landowners and surveyors of Wanneroo. Little is known of Beldon. The suburb was originally proposed to be named Albert Grove in 1974 after Sir Albert V Jennings a founder of the Company Jennings Industries, which was the co-partner in the development. Beldon was approved as the name in 1975.


BELHUS

this suburb takes its name from "Belhus", the name given to the Swan valley property acquired by Edmund George Barrett-Lennard in 1897. Formerly known as "Ellen's Brook", Barrett-Lennard renamed it after the family estate in England. Barrett-Lennard was one of the pioneers in the table grape industry and when establishing the vineyard, incurred great expense in irrigation from the old mill weir on the property. He also visited Spain to study cultivation and conditions.


BELLEVUE

The name is a variation of "Belle View" which was used as the property name by Edward Robinson when he built a homestead in the area in 1887. The name Bellevue was used by the Railways Department on a time table on the 25th May 1897.


BELMONT

Most of the suburb of Belmont island was assigned to Captain Francis Henry Byrne in 1931. It is believed that Byrne named his land "Belmont" after his estate in England. The land was not developed, until 1882 when Shepherd Smith of Sydney purchased it and it was Smith in 1897 and 1898 who instigated the major subdivision of the area. For many years the lots were quite large due to the development of the area for training racehorses and because of the proximity to the Belmont Park Racecourse.


BENTLEY

The Canning Road Board, in April 1940, proposed the name "Bentley Park" for the suburb because an area within the proposed district had been locally known as "Bentley Hill" for over 70 years. Enquiries as to the origin of the name indicated that there was a considerable camp established on this hill when the Albany "Block" Road was being constructed about 1870 and that the Warder in Charge of the men was named "Bentley". John Bentley was an enrolled Pensioner Guard, formerly a Private of the 7th Regiment and served in the Crimean War. He arrived in the colony aboard the "York" on the 31st December 1862. The suffix Park was dropped from the name in 1967.


BERTRAM

A new suburb in the Town of Kwinana, Bertram derives its name from a Group Settler of the 1920’s who owned land in the area.


BIBRA LAKE

The suburb of "Bibra Lake" takes its name from the extensive lake within its boundaries. The existence of the lake was first reported by A C Gregory during a survey of George Robb's land in May 1842. Gregory recorded the Aboriginal name of the lake as "Walubup". During the following year, Benedict Von Bibra, surveying his own selection on the southern shores of the lake, recorded the name as "Walliabup" and the latter version was used exclusively on maps for more than half a century. In 1877, it was found the Von Bibra's association with "Lake Walliabup" was apparently still recalled by locals who referred to the feature as "Bibra's Lake". This alternative name was added to plans and eventually in 1967, adopted in place of the Aboriginal name.


BICKLEY

In the 1890's a siding in this area was known as "Heidelburg" or "Heidelburg Grove" it being the name given to his property by George Henry Palmateer who held 300 acres in the area in 1893. In 1915, because of World War I, the Railway Department was asked to change the name to something not of German origin. The Under Secretary for Lands proposed the name "Bickley" after a pioneer in the area and a member of the first Legislative Assembly - Samuel Wallace Alexander Walsh Bickley or Wallace Bickley, as he was more commonly known, was the original owner of 640 acres on the Canning River in 1843 and the brook which entered the Canning River at the corner of the land was known as "Bickley's Brook".


BICTON

The present suburb of "Bicton" once comprised four grants taken up in 1830 by Alfred Waylen, Joseph Cooper, William Habgood and John Hole Duffield respectively. Bicton was the name of Duffield's estate in his home village in South Devon, England. The vineyard he established upon his death in 1859 was also given this name.


BOORAGOON

Booragoon is the Aboriginal name for the lower reaches of the Canning River and was chosen as a suburb name in the early 1950's by the then Melville Road Board from a list published in the West Australian on 3rd January 1925.


BOYA

To supply the stone required to build the groynes at Fremantle Harbour, a Government quarry was established in the hills a little south-west of Darlington. A spur line was run into the quarry from the existing railway and, by July 1901, dozens of iron and hessian huts housing approximately 150 workmen were clustered near the site. In August of 1901, construction began on a railway siding for the use of this settlement and the first name proposed was "Yan-Yeen". This was rejected because of a duplication in Victoria and the Aboriginal word "Boya", appropriately meaning rock/stone, was chosen instead. It was later found that the correct Aboriginal name for the area was "Nyeedoup" but Boya remains appropriate as the Aboriginal sub-tribe who once inhabited the hills were known as "Boya-Ngoora".


BRENTWOOD

Named after a town north-east of London in England. This was the birthplace of John Bateman Junior who adopted the name for his homestead. Subdivision of the area was begun by the State Housing commission in the early 1950's and the name was adopted at the request of the Bateman family.


BRIGADOON

This area was named after the Pastoral Company which owned the land prior to subdivision. "Brigadoon", according to Websters 20th Century Dictionary in its section on noted names in fiction, mythology and legend, is the name of a Scottish village in a musical play of the same name by A J Lerner in 1947. The village is said to come to life for one day in every one hundred years.


BROOKDALE 

Brookdale derives its name from the location of the suburb. Wungong Brook flows through it, and adjoining suburbs end in "Dale" (Forrestdale, Armadale, Bedfordale). The name was approved in 1997.


BULL CREEK

Named after the creek within its boundaries. The name was adopted by the City of Melville Council in December 1968. The creek was named after an early settler, Lt Henry Bull.


BULLSBROOK

The name originates from the railway station, established during the construction of the Midland Railway in the 1890s and named after an adjacent watercourse, Bull's Brook. The watercourse may have been named after Lt Henry Bull who was granted Swan Location 1 about 8km south on the 15th May, 1831. Another possibility is that the watercourse was named after Richard ("Bull") Jones, one of Henry Bull's servants, who resided in the region for many years.


BURNS BEACH

This suburb in the City of Wanneroo is located on land originally owned by the Midland Railway Company. In 1908 the Wanneroo Road Board, following a request by 50 residents of the district, applied for a 50 acre reserve for camping and a health resort at the beach. The request was granted, and by the late 1920’s the area was well used by locals and referred to by them as “Burns Beach” after a farmer who ran sheep in the area.


BURSWOOD

Burswood is derived from "Burrs-Wood", the name given to his property by the original land holder of the area, Henry Camfield. Camfield named his property "Burrs-Wood" (two 'r's) after his fathers farm in England. The area became known as Burrswood Island in 1841 when a canal was cut through the peninsula so as to shorten the trip to Guildford. The present accepted spelling of "Burswood" is the result of a spelling error by the men who painted the sign for the first railway station in the area (now Rivervale station).


BUTLER

This suburb name was chosen by the City of Wanneroo in 1979. The name honours John Butler who is the first recorded explorer of the area (1834). Butler settled in the Claremont area, and Butler's Swamp, now renamed Lake Claremont, was named after him.


BYFORD

In 1906, Surveyor A.W. Canning commenced laying out a number of Townsite lots in the area and "Beenup Townsite" was declared in May that same year. By 1919, dissatisfaction with the towns name was general amongst the residents, and the Progress Association requested that the town be renamed "Lynwood". This request was refused because of a duplication in Queensland. A further request in early 1920 expressing a preference for the name "Byford" was acceptable and the name was changed. The name is believed to have been chosen because it is 'by a ford' on Beenyup Brook.

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