__NOTOC__ Glen Forrest is a suburb within the

Shire of Mundaring The Shire of Mundaring is a local government area in eastern metropolitan Perth, the capital of Western Australia. The Shire covers an area of and had a population of approximately 38,000 as at the 2016 Census. History The Greenmount Road ...

, south of

John Forrest National Park John Forrest National Park is a national park in the Darling Scarp, east of Perth, Western Australia. Proclaimed as a national park in November 1900, it was the first national park in Western Australia and the second in Australia after Royal Nat ...

, west of

Mahogany Creek Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Uni ...

, east of

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

, and north of the

Helena River The Helena River is a tributary of the Swan River in Western Australia. The river rises in country east of Mount Dale and flows north-west to Mundaring Weir, where it is dammed. It then flows west until it reaches the Darling Scarp. It passes ...

. Its northern boundary is determined by the

Great Eastern Highway Great Eastern Highway is a road that links the Western Australian capital of Perth with the city of Kalgoorlie. A key route for road vehicles accessing the eastern Wheatbelt and the Goldfields, it is the western portion of the main road link ...

. The area was originally named Smith's Mill, after A. C. Smith & Son's

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, djarraly in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with roug ...

saw mill, established in October 1877. In 1915 local residents petitioned to change the area's name to Glen Forrest, to honour

Sir John Forrest Sir John Forrest (22 August 1847 – 2 SeptemberSome sources give the date as 3 September 1918 1918) was an Australian explorer and politician. He was the first premier of Western Australia (1890–1901) and a long-serving cabinet minister i ...

, first Premier of Western Australia. The suburb is bisected by a disused railway track - the original route of the Eastern Railway - which is now known as the

Railway Reserve Heritage Trail The Railway Reserves Heritage Trail also on some maps as ''Rail Reserve Heritage Trail'' or ''Rail Reserves Historical Trail'', and frequently referred to locally as the ''Bridle Trail'' or ''Bridle Track'' is within the Shire of Mundaring in ...

, and

Nyaania Creek Nyaania Creek () is a creek in Western Australia. It is a seasonal tributary that flows into the Helena River with a catchment that moves through a number of hills suburbs just east of the Darling Scarp. Its source is in Mahogany Creek, and it ...

. It has a number of significant conservation reserves including the Glen Forrest Super Block, which is adjacent to Ryecroft Road (the main connecting road to Darlington). The major early industries were forestry, and the Stathams Brickworks, which had its own siding, just east of the railway yard.Stathams brickworks is sometimes confused with 'Stathams' - the

Statham's Quarry Statham's Quarry (also known as Darling Range Quarry, and then Perth City Council's Darling Range Quarry after 1920) is the site of a quarry on the Darling Scarp on the southern side of the entrance of the Helena River valley on to the Swan Coas ...

in Gooseberry Hill The brickworks was located on a patch of white clay that is now a park and recreation area. It has two commercial areas - one adjacent to and just north of the former railway station site, and the other at the intersection of Hardey Road and Great Eastern Highway. Like

to the west, Glen Forrest had at its earliest times a winery, Glen Hardey, on the valley edge down which Hardey Road passes.

Gallery

File:GlenForrestUniting Church building.jpg File:GlenForrestSportsClub in 2011.jpg

Notes

References

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External links

Glen Forrest
on

Geoscience Australia Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowl ...

Mundaring and Hills Historical Society website
{{Shire of Mundaring suburbs Suburbs and localities in the Shire of Mundaring Darling Range