North Beach

North Beach is a northern coastal suburb of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia 16 kilometres (10 mi) from Perth's central business district via Mitchell Freeway and Reid Highway.

North Beach is a northern coastal suburb of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia 16 kilometres (10 mi) from Perth's central business district via Mitchell Freeway and Reid Highway. Its local government area is the City of Stirling.

The name North Beach began as a descriptive name, derived from the suburb being at the time the most northerly of Perth's beaches. It was assigned in 1888 when surveyor Charles Crossland referred to the pastoral leases of Samuel Richard Hamersley as his "north beach coastal run".The area originally formed part of the Hamersley Estate, which also included the suburbs now known as Carine, North Beach and Hamersley. These areas were owned by the Hamersley family, who arrived from Europe to settle in the Swan River Colony in 1837 and built a summer home, called "The Castle" in 1865, where their large family as well as the Perth elite congregated for summer holidays. "The Castle" was later converted into the Castle Hotel, but after 75 years was demolished and subdivided in 1998.

Originally set aside as a timber reserve, the area was first settled by pastoralists in the 1860s. It served as a stopping point and watering hole along the Coastal Stock Route between Dongara (near Geraldton) and Fremantle. Cattle drovers frequented the area and Afghan camel drivers were a common sight after the opening of the goldfields in the 1890s - the area also served as a quarantine area for camels entering the colony. A number of orchards operated in the area - the only evidence that remains today is an old olive tree on Hope Street.

The only way into the area at this time was via a wooden block road built by convicts (later Wanneroo Road) and then along a limestone track to North Beach, although numerous tracks through the bushland were developed as time progressed.

During World War I, the Australian 10th Light Horse Regiment was stationed at Mount Flora on coast-watch duties, and kept their horses at a yard at the corner of modern-day Hope and Hale Streets. During the Great Depression, the area around the intersection of West Coast Drive and North Beach Road was a "tent city" that housed "many unfortunate people 'on hard times'".After World War II, the area developed rapidly, and in 1954, the Postal District of North Beach was approved. By 1961, nearly all of the existing suburb had been built and settled.

Star Swamp Bushland Reserve is a bushland reserve occupying about half of the land area of the suburbs of Watermans Bay and North Beach. The precise origin of the name is unknown, but the earliest known use of the name was on a lease application by J.H.Okely of Wanneroo in 1868.

In 1987, the State Government set aside 96 hectares as an A-class reserve, and funding from the Bicentennial Commemorative Program and assistance from local organisations facilitated the establishment of the Star Swamp Heritage Trail within the reserve.