Helena Valley is the name of a river valley and a locality in the foothills of the

Darling Scarp The Darling Scarp (), also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to ...

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia.

Geology

The river valley is the centre of the catchment of the

Helena River The Helena River is a tributary of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in Western Australia. The river rises in country east of Mount Dale and flows north-west to Mundaring Weir, Western Australia, Mundaring Weir, where it is dammed. ...

and extends from the edge of the Darling Scarp where Boya, Gooseberry Hill and Helena Valley define the "mouth" of the valley that opens to the

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

, east and south east past

Mundaring Weir Mundaring Weir is a concrete gravity dam (and historically the adjoining locality) located from Perth, Western Australia in the Darling Scarp. The dam and reservoir form the boundary between the suburbs of Reservoir and Sawyers Valley. The ...

and Lake C.Y. O'Connor to its origins in the region of

Mount Dale Mount Dale is a mountain in Western Australia about east of Armadale in the Shire of Beverley. At high, it is one of the highest points in the Darling Scarp. It is best known for its walk track, which forms part of the Bibbulmun Track. Th ...

. The soils of Helena Valley are characteristic of the eastern

, ranging from sand to

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...

and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

, with a neutral pH tending towards moderately acid.

Locality

The locality is within the

Shire of Mundaring The Shire of Mundaring is a Local government areas of Western Australia, local government area in Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council, eastern metropolitan Perth, the capital of Western Australia. The Shire covers an area of and had a popul ...

, situated just south west of Boya and Greenmount Hill, 5 kilometres from Midland. It consists of many rural houses, but also contains six estates, and a shopping centre located in one of the estates. Helena Valley Primary School is located at the base of Greenmount Hill.

Transport

Bus

* 307 Midland Station to

Kalamunda Bus Station Kalamunda bus station is a Transperth bus station located next to the Kalamunda Central shopping centre in Kalamunda, Western Australia. It has four stands and is served by eight Transperth routes operated by Path Transit and Swan Transit ...

– serves Helena Valley Road * 322 Midland Station to Glen Forrest – serves Scott Street

Early settlers

* James Drummond, noted botanist, after whom the street Drummond Gardens is named

Notes

References

* *

External links

Helena Valley
on

Geoscience Australia Geoscience Australia is a statutory agency of the Government of Australia that carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on aspects of geoscience, and serves as the repository of geographic and geolo ...

* REIWA suburb profile fo
Helena Valley
{{Shire of Mundaring suburbs Suburbs and localities in the Shire of Mundaring Suburbs of Perth, Western Australia Helena River