Applecross history: a Scottish name, Canning Bridge and the jacarandas

Applecross is one of Perth’s best known riverside suburbs. Its name, its street names and its jacaranda-lined streets all have a story behind them.

How Applecross got its name

Swan Location 61 was assigned to Lionel Lukin in 1830. Sir Alexander Matheson bought the land in February 1896 and named it Applecross after a small fishing village on the north-west coast of Scotland. Many of the suburb’s street names come from the same part of Scotland.

Before the suburb

Point Heathcote is recorded as Goollugatup, the place of the children. inHerit records that the Raffles Hotel site was used by Beeliar Noongar people as a summer campsite and hunting ground.

How it grew

The first Canning Bridge was built around 1849 and 1850 and rebuilt by convicts in 1867. Later bridges opened in 1938 and 1958, and the City of Melville links much of Applecross’s residential growth to the opening of the Kwinana Freeway in 1959.

Places that tell the story

The Raffles Hotel began as the Canning Bridge Hotel in 1896. Its Art Deco extension was designed by W. G. Bennett in 1937, and it is on the State Register.

The Applecross District Hall on Canning Beach Road dates from 1934 and is on the State Register.

The Applecross Wireless Station, now the Wireless Hill museum in Ardross, opened in 1912 and closed in 1968.

The jacaranda and plane street trees are heritage listed by the City of Melville, and the Jacaranda Festival is held each November.

Applecross today

Applecross combines riverside houses, apartments around Canning Bridge and the jacaranda streets that have made it one of Perth’s best known addresses.

More about Applecross

For what Applecross is like to live in now, read our Applecross suburb profile. If you own a property in Applecross and are thinking about selling, start with buyers for your property.

Sources

• City of Melville: Local Heritage Survey and Local Heritage List
• Hughes-Hallett, Indigenous history of the Swan and Canning rivers (2010)
• inHerit: Raffles Hotel
• inHerit: Applecross District Hall
• City of Melville: Wireless Station historical timeline
• inHerit: Applecross jacaranda and plane trees

Dates and names are drawn from the sources above. Where sources differ, we have said so or given an approximate date.

By Key Performance Real Estate, 338 Beaufort Street, Perth