Roleystone is a suburb 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 in the south eastern corridor.
History
In 1830, several grants of land were given to British colonists along the upper
Canning River
The Canning River ( or ) is a major tributary of the Swan River in the South West Land Division of Western Australia. It is home to much wildlife including dolphins, pelicans, swans and many other bird species.
Source and route
With headwate ...
, with
Stephen Henty
Stephen George Henty (3 November 1811 – 18 December 1872) was a farmer and politician in colonial Victoria, a member of the Victorian Legislative Council.
Henty was born in West Tarring, Sussex, England, the son of Thomas Henty (1775–1839) an ...
acquiring 5,000 acres and Captain Charles Blisset Churchman obtaining 107 acres. These land grants encompassed what is now
Araluen and Roleystone, the name of the latter being derived from "Rolleston", the title Churchman gave his property.
The land remained untended with Churchman dying in 1833 and Henty surrendering his land grant in 1841. It was purchased by Thomas Buckingham in 1858, who referred to it as "Rollingstone".
The area was also referred to as "The Rolling Stone" and "Rowley Stone" in early police reports.
In 1865, Buckingham built a sawmill, which was located at Sparrow's Place, later known as Butcher's, on the Roleystone Road, about 6.5 kilometres from
Kelmscott
Kelmscott is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in West Oxfordshire, about east of Lechlade in neighbouring Gloucestershire. Since 2001 it has absorbed Little Faringdon, which had been a separate civil parish. The 2011 Census ...
. The area was subdivided into farmlets in 1902, and was subsequently developed as orchards and market gardens.
Buckingham's homestead still stands along with a brick and mortar
sheep plunge dip on the property of Araluen Golf Resort. In 1905, Roleystone was opened up for closer settlement, with property brochures extolling the virtues of the scenery and fertile valley soils.
Roleystone is now an area of large residential "R5"
zoned properties—with 2000 m
2 minimum block sizes—surrounded by larger rural properties of native bushland and fruit
orchard
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...
s. The residential gardens, and surrounding council and regional reserves are home to a variety of native wildlife with
bandicoot
Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipela ...
s,
brushtail possum
The brushtail possums are the members of the genus ''Trichosurus'' in the Phalangeridae, a family of marsupials. They are native to Australia (including Tasmania) and some small nearby islands. Unique among marsupials, they have shifted the hyp ...
s,
shingleback lizards and
Children's pythons in relative abundance. Large numbers of
western grey kangaroo
The western grey kangaroo (''Macropus fuliginosus''), also referred to as a western grey giant kangaroo, black-faced kangaroo, mallee kangaroo, sooty kangaroo and (when referring to the Kangaroo Island subspecies) Kangaroo Island grey kangaroo, i ...
s are found in bush surrounding the suburb.
On 6 February 2011, a declared total fire ban day, a bushfire occurred on private property adjacent to the Brookton Highway in the Roleystone/Kelmscott area. There were a total of 72 homes destroyed and 37 homes damaged. This is the second biggest house loss in Western Australia to a single bushfire event behind the
2016 Waroona-Yarloop bushfire.
Facilities
Roleystone has a number of shops at their Jarrah Road precinct with a grocery store, newsagent, pharmacy, bank and hardware store. Nearby suburbs offer a greater choice of bigger supermarket chains such as Coles or Woolworths. The main suburban residential area to the west of Roleystone is served by a neighbourhood shopping centre, with Stargate Kelmscott and
Armadale Shopping City providing other commercial services. The suburb originally contained a primary school (K-5; 1905) and
Roleystone District High School (6–10; 1983). The two schools were amalgamated into Roleystone Community College (K-10) after a community consultation process held in 2009, using new and existing buildings on the site of the existing Roleystone District High School, with state government and federal (
Building the Education Revolution
Building the Education Revolution (BER) was an Government of Australia, Australian government program administered by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) designed to provide new and refurbished infrastructur ...
) funding. The majority of Year 11 and 12 students travel to schools in nearby suburbs, including
Kelmscott Senior High School,
Lesmurdie Senior High School,
Mazenod College and
St Brigid's College.
The
Araluen Botanic Park and the Araluen Golf Resort are located in the south of the suburb off Croyden Road and are popular picnic and wedding locations, especially during "Springtime at Araluen" when all the flowers are in bloom. Araluen is also known for the Araluen Chilli Festival, which was held in the park each year until 2009. In 2010, the festival was relocated to the
Fremantle Esplanade and renamed ''Araluen's Fremantle Chilli Festival'', and since then has continued to be operated by—and to provide funding for—the Araluen Park.
Brookton Highway (State Route 40) runs through Roleystone.
The suburb is served by a number of school bus services and by
Transperth
Transperth is the public transport system for Perth and surrounding areas in Western Australia. It is managed by the Public Transport Authority (PTA), a state government organisation, and consists of train, bus and ferry services. Bus operat ...
bus route 241, which runs every hour during the day, connecting the suburb to
Kelmscott railway station
Kelmscott railway station is located on the South Western Railway, 25.9 kilometres from Perth Station in the suburb of Kelmscott. It is served by Armadale Line services which are part of the Transperth network.
History
Kelmscott station opene ...
and Stargate Kelmscott shopping centre. All services are provided by the
Public Transport Authority.
Transport
Bus
* 241
Kelmscott Station to
Kelmscott Station – serves
Brookton Highway, Peet Road, Urch Road, Raeburn Road, Holden Road, Northward Road and Westborne Road
Local sporting clubs
Roleystone is home to an Australian rules football club, The Roleystone Tigers. There is both a junior football club (established in 1973) and a senior football club, with the latter having amateur league team.
The Roleystone-Karragullen Cricket Club was established in 1950 and currently fields five senior men's and two senior women's teams along with nine junior sides.
The Roleystone Country Club is located on Wygonda Road and has views down the Brookton valley.
Local music and arts
Roleystone is home to the Roleystone Musicians Club. The club was established in March 2007.
Kevin Peek
Kevin Peek (21 December 1946 – 11 February 2013) was an Australian guitarist, playing both Rock music, rock and classical music, best known for his work with the progressive rock band Sky (English/Australian band), Sky.
Biography
Peek wa ...
, a guitarist and member of the band
Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...
, named a Sky song after Roleystone, his home town.
Roleystone is also the home of the Roleystone Theatre – both the venue and the group. The group was formed in 1933 as the Roleystone Choral and Dramatic society, with a name change in the 1970s to the Roleystone Theatre Group. The Group is a community theatre presenting plays and musicals throughout each year.
The Roleystone Theatre (venue), first built by Roleystone and
Karragullen residents in 1922 and now owned by the
City of Armadale
The City of Armadale is a local government area in the southeastern suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth, about southeast of Perth's central business district. The City covers an area of , much of which is state forest risi ...
, is currently closed for remedial building works (2018 to 2022). The Roleystone Theatre Group was utilising the Roleystone Hall as their temporary home until early 2022, however until the theatre is re-built and re-opened they do not have a performance venue. It is hoped the revitalised theatre building will open in 2023.
Another notable cultural group in Roleystone is the ''Bohemian Club of Roleystone'', an exclusive collective dedicated to celebrating
1960s and 1970s counterculture. Founded in Roleystone, the club blends
bohemian lifestyle
Bohemianism is a social and cultural movement that has, at its core, a way of life away from society's conventional norms and expectations. The term originates from the French ''bohème'' and spread to the English-speaking world. It was used to ...
with a passion for
psychedelic arts,
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
, and
free-spirited expression.
Members engage in
psychedelic exploration, drawing inspiration from
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
and
Thelema
Thelema () is a Western esotericism, Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and a new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial ma ...
, and regularly host gatherings that incorporate esoteric practices and artistic expression.
Local news media
There is one local newspapers/magazine: the ''Roleystone Courier''. This monthly magazine is owned and created by a local resident.
Additionally, The Roleystone Times, an independent local online news website founded by Roleystone Media Group, offers up-to-date coverage of local events, news, and community stories. It is affiliated with the Bohemian Club of Roleystone.
References
External links
Araluen Botanic Park
{{City of Armadale suburbs
Suburbs of Perth, Western Australia
Darling Range
Suburbs in the City of Armadale