Mundaring is a suburb located 34 km east of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Western Australia on 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 suburb is located 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 ...

. The Aboriginal name of the area "Mindah-lung", said to mean "a high place on a high place", was anglicised to become "Mundaring".History of Mundaring
www.heritageaustralia.com.au (Retrieved 1 April 2006) The Mundaring area is considered to be part of the

Perth Hills Perth Hills is a term used primarily for marketing purposes to identify the part of the Darling Scarp and hinterland east of the scarp that lies within the Shire of Mundaring, City of Swan, and the City of Kalamunda and as part of the constituen ...

area.

Newspapers

The Mundaring region is currently well served by weekly and monthly newspapers: * ''Chidlow Chatter'' * ''

Darlington Review ''Darlington Review'' is the local monthly newspaper for Darlington, Western Australia. It is possibly one of the longest lasting community newspapers of its sort in Western Australia, having commenced in 1954. There were a number of Darlington ...

'' – locality specific *'' Echo Newspapers'' – weekly – Midland based Former newspapers in the area included: *''The Darling'' * '' Swan Express'' – although Midland based, had considerable space to "Hills" stories **It is also extracted in entries in the

J S Battye Library The J S Battye Library (more properly known as the J. S. Battye Library of West Australian History) is an arm of the State Library of Western Australia. It stores much of the state's historical records and original publications including books, ...

catalogue with items about the Hills. *''Hills Gazette'' (

Community Newspaper Group The Community Newspaper Group was a community newspaper business in Perth, Western Australia. Owned by Seven West Media, it published 23 community newspapers within the metropolitan region of Perth, from Yanchep and Two Rocks in the city's no ...

) – weekly *''Mundaring magazine'' – monthly

Railway

The only railway line current in the Mundaring Shire – is the third route of the Eastern Railway which passes through

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...

and Swan View. The railway routes mentioned below – first route and second route are no longer operational – and constitute sections of 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 ...

. The Eastern Railway passed through Mundaring on its first route through to Chidlow. Mundaring railway station, and the branch railway leading from it – the

Mundaring Weir Branch Railway The Mundaring Weir Branch Railway was constructed from Mundaring, Western Australia to the site of the Mundaring Weir, and opened on 1 June 1898. Overview One of the rail lines constructed by the Public Works Department in the early 20th ce ...

were significant locations for the construction of the

Mundaring Weir Mundaring Weir is a 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 dam impounds the Hel ...

. Following the construction of the second route of the Eastern Railway, the Mundaring line served as an alternative to the second route at the time of accidents and derailments, until its closing to traffic in 1954. The line through Mundaring was known as the Mundaring Loop to railway administration in its later years of operation, while in earlier years it was known as Smiths Mill Branch (the earlier name for Glen Forrest). The line served a small population but played an integral part in the development and history of Mundaring. The

Mundaring Hotel The Mundaring Hotel was opened in 1899 in Mundaring, a hills suburb of Perth, Western Australia. History On 22 October 1898, soon after the Mundaring townsite was gazetted in May 1898, Henry Hummerston, then licensee of the Helena Vale Hotel i ...

opened opposite the Mundaring Railway Station in 1899 and served patrons on the route.

Mundaring Geophysical Observatory

Mundaring was the location of a

Bureau of Mineral Resources 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 ...

Geophysical Observatory from 1959 to April 2000. The annual reports from the Observatory constituted the seismic record of the state of Western Australia for that period of time as well as reports and summaries of activity.

Environment

The town lies within the

Mundaring-Kalamunda Important Bird Area The Mundaring-Kalamunda Important Bird Area comprises a fragmented 137 km2 of land centred on the towns of Mundaring and Kalamunda in the Darling Scarp region of Western Australia. It lies inside, as well as adjacent to the Beelu Natio ...

, so identified by BirdLife International because of its importance as a non-breeding season roost site and foraging base for the

long-billed black cockatoo Baudin's black cockatoo (''Zanda baudinii''), also known as Baudin's cockatoo or the long-billed black cockatoo, is a species of genus '' Zanda'' found in southwest Australia. The epithet commemorates the French explorer Nicolas Baudin. It has ...

References

External links