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History of metropolitan suburb names - K


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

KALAMUNDA

This suburb was named in 1901 following a request by 32 residents of the area for a townsite to be declared here. The residents chose the name "CALAMUNDA" as the name of the proposed townsite, combining two Aboriginal words recorded in a book on Aboriginal language by Bishop Salvado. "Cala" signifies "home, district, settlement," and "Munda" signifies "forest" and the residents hoped it would be considered an appropriate name. The name was respelt "Kalamunnda" by the Surveyor General, but later in 1901 was amended to Kalamunda.


KALLAROO

Kallaroo is one of the four "Whitfords" suburbs that resulted from the State Government rezoning a large area of coastal land for development in 1969. Kallaroo was chosen as a suburb name in 1970 and is an Aboriginal word meaning "road to the water".


KARAWARA

This suburb was formerly the southern portion of the Collier Pine Plantation. Karawara is an Aboriginal word meaning "green", and was approved as the suburb name in 1973.


KARDINYA

Kardinya is an Aboriginal word meaning "sunrise", and was first used for a road name in this area in 1955. The name was approved as a suburb name in 1961.


KARNUP

The suburb of Karnup takes its name from the townsite declared here in 1924. It is an Aboriginal name, the meaning of which is unknown, taken from nearby Karnup Brook (now known as Karnet Brook).


KARRAGULLEN

The name Karragullen has been in use for this area since 1913 when the townsite of this name was gazetted. The townsite was at the head of the Upper Darling Range Railway. Karragullen is the Aboriginal name for the Cannington area as supplied by the Aboriginal "Tommy Bimbar" in 1916. Another source claims the name means "red gully"


KARRAKATTA

The termination katta is well known, and is given as the Aboriginal word for a hill, or the top of any height, in the early Aboriginal vocabularies. The karra is more difficult as it may be derived from - Karri - a crab, Karak - the red-tailed black cockatoo, Kara - a spider, Karh-rh - an orchid with an edible root. The meaning of the combined word could therefore be the hill, or top of the hill, where the orchid with the edible root is found, or the hill frequented by the red-tailed black cockatoo, or the hill where spiders are found and so on. It is not definitely known which is the exact area called by the Aborigines "Karrakatta" but it is generally thought to be been the top of Mount Eliza.


KARRAKUP

Karrakup is a large area of forest and farm country east of Byford. It derives its name from "Karrak", the Nyoongar word for the red-tailed black cockatoo which is prevalent in the area. It was approved as a suburb name in 1997.


KARRINYUP

The development of the area today known as KARRINYUP had its beginnings in the early 1840's when Samuel Moore took up a grant of 780 acres in the northern part of the suburb. Moore's grant, Swan Location 92 was surveyed by P Chauncey in 1844 and Chauncey recorded a large swamp just to the east of Karrinyup as Careniup Swamp. This swamp is still known by this name today, and is the name from which Karrinyup is derived. When the golf course was being developed in the late 1920's the Foundation Committee altered Careniup to create Karrinyup


KELMSCOTT

This suburb was named after Kelmscott in Oxfordshire, England. An announcement was made in July 1830, that in honour of Archdeacon Scott, the town would be named after his birthplace. The Archdeacon, returning to England from New South Wales aboard the HMS "Success", was stranded at the new Swan River settlement when the ship struck a reef off Fremantle in November 1829. For two months he was the only ordained minister in the colony and, with the assistance of the settlers and the garrison, he built a temporary church at Perth where he held the colony's first Christmas service.


KENSINGTON

This suburb was named after "Kensington Park" racecourse which was situated near the Coode Street Jetty. This course was established in the 1890's as the South Perth Racecourse, but was later changed to Kensington. It is most likely that the name Kensington was adopted from that of the prestigious London suburb


KENWICK

Named after "Kenwick Park" the estate of Wallace Bickley. Bickley's original property was Canning Location 3 which he called "Craigie". He purchased other lands in the vicinity including Canning Location 11 in 1854. In 1860, he advertised for sale or lease, the "Kenwick Park and Springs Estates". Kenwick was included in a list of official postal districts compiled in May 1959 and the original boundaries were defined in the 1959 metropolitan road guide. In an article on Kenwick, it is suggested that Bickley named his homestead "after an estate in England he very much admired"


KEWDALE

This suburb is named after Kew Street, one of the first roads in the district. It is most likely named after Kew in Melbourne. The name has been in use as a suburb name since at least 1949.


KIARA

Formerly part of Lockridge, Kiara was approved as a suburb name in 1990. Kiara is an Aboriginal word for the White Cockatoo (eastern states dialect).


KINGSLEY

The suburb of Kingsley is named after the village of Kingsley which is near Winchester in Hampshire, England. The name was chosen for the historical association with the first owner of land in the area, William Kernot Shenton. Shenton was born in Winchester in 1802. The suburb name was approved in 1974.


KINROSS

Kinross is named after a village near Perth in Scotland. The name was chosen because the adjoining suburb of Burns is also a name of Scottish origin. The name was approved for the suburb in 1989.


KOONDOOLA

Koondoola is an Aboriginal word meaning 'emu', and was approved as the name for this suburb in 1970.


KOONGAMIA

The name of this suburb is derived from two Aboriginal words, "Koong" meaning "hill" and "mia" meaning "home". The suburb was formerly the Greenmount picnic reserve, and was developed by the State Housing Commission in 1955 and 1956.


KWINANA

The name "Kwinana" is taken from the wreck of the S.S. Kwinana which today lies on the shore at Kwinana Beach in Cockburn Sound. The name came from the Aboriginal word for "Pretty Maiden" and the ship was damaged by fire near Carnarvon in December 1920 and was brought to Fremantle. In May 1922 while at Careening Bay, Garden Island, she was blown ashore during a storm to the place where it rests today. The area in the vicinity of the wreck soon became known as Kwinana and in 1937, the Kwinana townsite was gazetted to cover the area now known as Kwinana Beach.

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