Sawyers Valley is sited 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 ...
about 40 kilometres from
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 is ...
, Western Australia in 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 community began as a sawmill and railway siding to process timber from the forest surrounding 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 ...
to the south. Local employment included forest and
Goldfields Water Supply Scheme
The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme is a pipeline and dam project that delivers potable water from Mundaring Weir in Perth to communities in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields, particularly Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. The project was commi ...
maintenance, small
orchards
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of lar ...
, and the
Midland Railway Workshops
The Midland Railway Workshops in Midland, Western Australia, were the main workshops for the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) for over 80 years.
History
The first railway workshops in Western Australia were located at Fremantle an ...
. The suburb's name comes from the occupation of many of the first European settlers to the area in the 1860s, who were
sawyers working at the local saw-pits. The
Sawyers Valley Tavern, which sits on the Highway opposite 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 ...
, was first established in 1882 and the Sawyers Valley railway station was built in 1884.
Local activities
The Sawyers Valley township, situated on the north-east corner of
Beelu National Park, has many active sporting and community groups, including the Sawyers Valley Voluntary Bush Fire Brigade and the Sawyers Valley Primary School.
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 the
Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail
Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail (also known as the Golden Pipeline Drive Trail) was a project conducted by the National Trust of Western Australia along the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme pipeline at the time the pipeline was being celebrated f ...
pass through
Sawyers Valley.
Notes
References
*
*
External links
Sawyer's Valleyon
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
Suburbs of Perth, Western Australia
Darling Range