Atwell is a suburb within the metropolitan area of

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, situated south of Perth City, and located in the

City of Cockburn The City of Cockburn ( ) is a local government area in the southern suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth about south of Fremantle and about south of Perth's central business district. The City covers an area of and had a po ...

local government area.

Geography

Situated on 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 ...

, between the coast, and 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 ...

, the terrain is generally flat, with many small natural and created

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

. It is situated on the western boundary of the Jandakot ground water protection area, and hence suburban development to the east is not permitted. It is bounded to the north by Armadale Road, the

Kwinana Freeway The Kwinana Freeway is a freeway in and beyond the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking central Perth with Mandurah to the south. It is the central section of State Route 2, which continues north as Mitchell Freeway to A ...

to the west, Tapper Road to the east and to the south by Gibbs Road. Atwell street 1

History

The Whadjuk Nyungar Aboriginal people were the first human inhabitants of the region, occupying the region from 40,000 years ago. The many lakes and

of the region were important for sustenance and spiritually. After European settlement of the Perth region in 1829, the land of much of the area including and surrounding what is now Atwell was granted to G Dunnage. The area was later part of the dairy property owned and operated for many years by Ernest Atwell. Originally it was purchased in the 1920s to rest

horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 milli ...

he used in his

livery stable A livery yard, livery stable or boarding stable, is a stable where horse owners pay a weekly or monthly fee to keep their horses. A livery or boarding yard is not usually a riding school and the horses are not normally for hire (unless on wor ...

business, which was conducted in

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

. It was later developed into one of the largest dairies in the Perth region. The huge amount of land was slowly sold off but the dairy was still operating until the late 1950s. The house and worker’s cottage were eventually demolished when the area was cleared for

redevelopment Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space. Description Variations on redevelopment include ...

. Development of the suburb of Atwell began in the early 1990s through the creation of several

housing estates A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular through ...

such as Beeliar parklands. It has continued to expand with the estates, Atwell Waters, and Harvest Lakes being developed. Most of the available land in the suburb has now been developed for residential, parks and reserves, roads and some retail.

Statistics

Selected medians and averages from the 2016 census: Selected medians and averages from the 2011 census:

Services

Community centres

There are two

community centres A community centre, community center, or community hall is a public location where members of a community gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may be open for the whole community or for a sp ...

in Atwell. The Atwell Community Centre on Reynardson Ave, and the Harvest Lakes Community Centre, situated in the grounds of Harmony Primary School. Atwell comm centre

Education

There are two

primary schools A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

in Atwell. Atwell Primary School was established in 1998 and had 773 students in Semester 1 of 2020. Harmony Primary School was established in 2004 and had 550 students in Semester 1 of 2020. The senior high school, Atwell College, established in 2008, had 1421 students in Semester 1 of 2020. Atwell College also incorporates th
Kim Beazley Learning Community
that enables the full-spectrum of opportunities for students with disabilities. There are also two child care centres that cater primarily for non-school age children.

Health

Atwell currently has a general practitioner's medical centre, an infant health clinic, a

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

and a

physiotherapy Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is a healthcare profession, as well as the care provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through patient education, physical intervention, disease preventio ...

clinic, near the retail precinct on Reynardson Ave. A second medical centre, pharmacies, physiotherapy clinic and an

Optometrist Optometry is the healthcare practice concerned with examining the eyes for visual defects, prescribing corrective lenses, and detecting eye abnormalities. In the United States and Canada, optometrists are those that hold a post-baccalaureate f ...

have been established at the Harvest lakes retail precinct.

Retail

There are three retail precincts in Atwell. A small centre in the north on Lydon Blvd was opened in the late 1990s, consisting of a

delicatessen A delicatessen or deli is a grocery that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessens originated in Germany (contemporary spelling: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the mid-19th centur ...

and a

Chinese restaurant A Chinese restaurant is a restaurant that serves Chinese cuisine. Most of them are in the Cantonese cuisine, Cantonese style, due to the history of the Overseas Chinese, Chinese diaspora, though other Chinese regional cuisine, regional cuisin ...

. A second larger centre was opened on Reynardson Ave in central Atwell in the early 2000s consisting of a

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

and several other food and service stores. A third

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

was completed in June 2014 in Harvest Lakes that consists of a Woolworths supermarket, a Cafe', Chinese and

Italian restaurants Italian cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine#CITEREFDavid1988, David 1988, Introduction, pp. 101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes, and cooking techniques developed in Italy since Ancient Roman cuisine, Roman times, and later spread ...

and several other food and service stores.

Recreation

Leisure

Atwell has a large number of parks and reserves. The two major parks are Atwell reserve, which has a lake,

playgrounds A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates Play (activity)#Children, play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for othe ...

skate park A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, quarter pipe ...

and

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (often shortened to BBQ worldwide; barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to coo ...

facilities and Harvest lakes park which has a lake and playgrounds.

Sports

Atwell Oval is the main sporting ground with two sports fields for

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

in Winter and

Cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

in Summer. It has a clubhouse and change rooms for th
Jandakot Jets Junior Football Club
which plays

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

, as well a
Jandakot Lakes Junior Cricket Club
which plays

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

. In addition,

Softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

and

Tee ball Tee-ball (also teeball, tee ball or T-ball) is a team sport based on a simplified form of baseball or softball. It is intended as an introduction for children to develop bat-and-ball game skills and have fun. Description Tee-ball associations g ...

are also played here. Atwell and Harmony Primary school ovals are open to the public and have cricket pitches and nets. Atwell oval

Transport

Public

Regular bus services on route 527, operates North to

Cockburn Central railway station Cockburn Central station ( ) is a bus and railway station on the Transperth Trains, Transperth network. It is located at the juncture of the Mandurah railway line, Mandurah and Thornlie–Cockburn line, Thornlie–Cockburn lines, from Perth ra ...

, located just outside the North Western boundary of Atwell, and Gateways regional shopping centre in Success, and South to Aubin Grove and Honeywood estate in Wandi. Train services connect to Perth and

Mandurah Mandurah ( ) is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's second most populous city, with a population of 90,306. Mandurah's central business dis ...

. Aubin Grove train station which actually straddles Atwell and

Success Success is the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations. It may be viewed as the opposite of failure. The criteria for success depend on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person mi ...

opened in April 2017.

Bus

* 233

Cockburn Central Station Cockburn Central station ( ) is a bus and railway station on the Transperth network. It is located at the juncture of the Mandurah and Thornlie–Cockburn lines, from Perth station inside the median strip of the Kwinana Freeway serving the su ...

to Gosnells Station – serves

Beeliar Drive Beeliar Drive is a major arterial road in the southwestern part of the Perth Metropolitan Area. It provides an important and unbroken east-west link between Kwinana Freeway and Stock Road providing access to residential developments in Beelia ...

and Armadale Road * 518

to Murdoch TAFE – serves

and Armadale Road * 523

to Treeby – serves

and Armadale Road * 527

to Aubin Grove Station – serves

, Armadale Road, Tapper Road, Lydon Boulevard, Waters Avenue, Brenchley Drive, Beenyup Road, Harmony Avenue, Harvest Lakes Boulevard and Lyon Road

Rail

Mandurah Line The Mandurah line, also known as the Southern Suburbs Railway, is a suburban railway line and service in Western Australia, linking Perth's central business district (CBD) with Mandurah to the south. Operated by the Public Transport Authority ( ...

** Aubin Grove Station

Road

Atwell is well connected with transport infrastructure, being situated adjacent to a transport hub at Perth's southern approaches. Access to Perth in the North and Rockingham /

in the South is via the

which is accessible via interchanges at Armadale Road and Gibbs Road. East Access to Armadale is via Armadale Road. Western access to

is via

and

North Lake Road North Lake Road is a major road in the southwestern suburbs of the Perth metropolitan area functioning as an intermediate arterial collector positioned between the limited-access Stock Road to the west and Kwinana Freeway to the east. North La ...

Pedestrian and cycling

Footpaths and dual use

cycle paths Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to: Anthropology and social sciences * Cyclic history, a theory of history * Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. * Social cycle, various cycles in ...

are present on all of the major roads within Atwell. A dual use path on Armadale Road leads to the

dual use path, which connects to the more than 750 km cycle routes in the Perth Region.

Other Atwells

References

External links

{{City of Cockburn suburbs Suburbs of Perth, Western Australia Suburbs in the City of Cockburn