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History of Rockingham
Rockingham - Safety Bay (including Garden Island)
Commuter seaside resort town south of Perth
Located only 46 km to the south of Perth (with the industrial area of Kwinana
just to the north of the town) Rockingham is part of the PerthKwinana commuter
belt. It is a very pretty centre located on Mangles Bay with a rapidly growing
population in excess of 65 000. It is a pleasant seaside resort.
Rockingham's greatest claim to fame is that it was the site of the first
permanent European settlement on the Swan River in Western Australia. The
settlers who arrived in 1829 were forced to wait on Garden Island for about six
months before they were allocated land.
The coast around Rockingham had been explored by the Dutch and the French prior
to the arrival of the English. Indeed Nicholas Baudin had named Garden and
Carnac Islands respectively Ile Buache and Ile Berthellet and when Captain
Stirling arrived to explore the area in 1827 the names of the islands were well
established. In his journal Stirling wrote that at 'Buache Island we found fresh
water by digging in the sand. I had a well made, fifty yards from shore, and it
was instantly filled with fresh water'. It was probably this rather romantic
perception of the island which helped Stirling to decide that Garden Island (he
renamed it) would be the site of the first settlement.
On 7 June 1829 Stirling decided that until the site of Perth had been surveyed
and further explorations had been carried out Garden Island should be the site
of the temporary settlement. Storehouses and shelters were duly built on the
island, wells were dug and a bakery was constructed. There is a memorial to this
early settlement at Cliff Head on the island.
It is unfortunate that Garden Island, which has a number of important historical
sites, is restricted. It is now joined to the mainland by a 4 km causeway.
Access along the causeway is restricted to Naval personnel stationed at HMAS
Stirling and the only access to the island for non-Navy personnel (which
probably means you) is by boat or ferry.
The early settlement of Rockingham occurred when Thomas Peel arrived with a
group of settlers aboard the ship Gilmore which anchored in Cockburn Sound on 15
December 1829.
Peel, cousin of the famous British Prime Minister Robert Peel, had developed a
scheme to settle 10 000 people in the district. The British Government had
granted him 1 million acres (404 million ha). He was preparing to sail to
Western Australia when the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Sir George
Murray, demanded that the colony be started by 1 November 1829. Peel arrived
late and his grant was cut to 250 000 acres (101 000 ha). On 15 December 1829
169 settlers arrived at Cockburn Sound and they were followed shortly afterwards
by the two further vessels, the Hooghly (a vessel of 465 tons) and the Industry
(87 tons).
Peel was furious that his original land grant had been reduced by his failure to
arrive on the coast by 1 November. However Captain Stirling persuaded him to
take up land south of Woodmanıs Point which he named Clarence, in honour of the
Duke of Clarence.
The settlement at Clarence was a disaster. The colony could not move until the
arrival of the Rockingham (427 tons) which had been delayed by a series of
accidents. The Rockingham arrived in heavy weather on the afternoon of 13 May
1830.
The excellent little booklet The Ship Rockingham by R. H. Shardlow recounts what
followed; 'Peel, impatient and dissatisfied with the proceedings, ignored the
bad weather and made his way out to the ship to 'assist'. He was later accused
of having interfered with the handling of the ship...For reasons unknown he
ordered all the single men to be sent to Garden Island in four of the shipıs
boats. However, they were unable to row against the gale and were blown ashore
on the mainland and swamped in the surf. Fortunately there were no casualties.
The ship fared no better. While easing out the cable in order to bring her
closer inshore to facilitate unloading, the pitching seas put such a strain on
the capstan that it broke.
The ship drifted out of control and ran aground, broadside on...Miraculously all
managed to make the shore without loss of life. Fearing the ship would break up
the stores were hurriedly brought off and the cattle were swum ashore only to
wander off into the scrub.
There was little shelter in Clarence. Most of the people tried to huddle in a
small, wooden house washed up from the ship. Others had to sleep in barrels,
boxes and under sacks or pieces of canvas.' It was not an auspicious beginning
for a grand settlement scheme.
Like all well intentioned schemes, Peel's proposal looked good on paper but did
not work in reality. These first settlers were left on the beach until Peel
decided to move south to Peel Inlet. A few followed him but most were
disenchanted with the scheme and moved north to the Swan River colony.
By August 1830 the remnants of the settlement on Cockburn Sound became known,
possibly with a fine sense of irony, as 'Rockingham Town'.
In fairness to Peel when he finally established his settlement his plan did
enjoyed some success. He can be credited with the early development of the
Mandurah area. He sold land, surveyed roads, and imported stock and was probably
the first European to recognise the huge potential of the jarrah forests which
lay inland from the coast.
It wasnıt until the 1870s that the tiny settlement of Rockingham began to grow.
A syndicate headed by the Wanliss brothers began cutting the jarrah trees in the
hinterland and, determined to export their rich harvest, they built a sawmill, a
jetty at Rockingham, and a railway linking the mill to the jetty. For a brief
period Rockingham became the most important port on the coast. Its importance
declined with the construction of the railway from Perth to Bunbury in 1893
which resulted in much of the produce from the area being transported either to
Perth or Bunbury. Around this time C Y O'Connor completed the Inner Harbour at
Fremantle. With this excess of port facilities Rockingham continued to decline.
By 1908 the Rockingham port had been closed.
For most of this century Rockingham remained a sleepy little seaside village. It
was only with the establishment of Kwinana in the 1950s and the development of
the Naval Support Facility at Green Island in the 1970s that the town was
revitalised.
Today Rockingham is a pleasant day trip from Perth. It has a comfortable, lazy
beachside ambience which makes it a delightful town removed from the more urgent
lifestyle of the centres which lie to the north.
Things to see:
Rockingham Museum
The Rockingham Museum is one of the best laid out and most interesting folk
museums in the country. One of the museum's highlights is the Z Force display.
The Z Force were formed during World War II as a combined Army, Navy, Air Force
British and Australian force. They were trained on Garden Island. As a secret
force they were responsible for entering Singapore Harbour in tiny submarines
and successfully blowing up a number of Japanese ships. It is claimed that
during the course of the war this clandestine force managed to kill over 1700
Japanese with the loss of only 112 British and Australian lives. They were
eventually captured in Singapore at the end of the war.
While the Z Force display is the highlight of the museum there are also
excellent displays relating to clothes and fashions, the Group Settlement farms,
household items, childrenıs toys, antique photographic equipment and souvenirs
from the two World Wars.
Penguin Island
A popular tourist diversion is to take a ferry trip to Penguin Island which,
from March to December, is home to a colony of fairy penguins. There is also a
colony of seals on nearby Seal Island. Ferries to the island leave regularly
from Mersey Point south of Rockingham township.
Rockingham Heritage Trails
The excellent Old Rockingham Heritage Trail is one of the most comprehensive
Heritage Trails available. It lists 23 points of interest in the
Rockingham-Kwinana area. Highlights of the trail, which is a 30 km drive around
the area, are Day Cottage (1885) which once served as a wayside inn,
Chesterfield Inn (1912), Bell Cottage (1880s) and the huge grain terminal at
Kwinana.
The Rockingham-Jarrahdale Heritage Trail is also interesting. Starting at the
beach in Rockingham, where in 1898 there were three jetties capable of handling
1 000 tons of timber at a time, the route follows the old railway line which
brought timber from Jarrahdale to the coast.
Tourist Information
Rockingham Tourist Centre
43 Kent St
Rockingham WA 6168
Telephone: (08) 9592 3464
Facsimile: (08) 9592 2778 |
