Dalkeith history: Adam Armstrong’s farm, Gallop House and the yacht streets

Dalkeith began as a farm and a market garden on the river. Its oldest house survives, and its street names hold a story of their own.

How Dalkeith got its name

Adam Armstrong took up land in the early 1830s and named his farm Dalkeith, after the Scottish town near Edinburgh.

Before the suburb

Point Resolution is recorded as Mandyuranup, a fishing place and market place. The City of Nedlands records that the Noongar people’s connection with the area goes back 40,000 years.

How it grew

James Gallop bought Dalkeith Farm in 1847, and it became a market garden supplying Perth and Fremantle. The farm was subdivided after Gallop died in 1897, and the government bought the house in 1911. The City of Nedlands records that Surveyor Percy Hope designed Circe Circle.

Bushland in Nedlands and Dalkeith was cleared for housing through the 1920s and 1930s. The Dalkeith and Nedlands foreshore was improved between 1933 and 1935 as a Depression relief project, and Dalkeith Primary School opened in 1938.

Places that tell the story

Gallop House, built between 1872 and 1877, is on the State Register and opened as a museum in 1985.

Jutland Parade has a group of Art Moderne houses from the late 1930s.

The Nedlands War Memorial on the corner of Waratah Avenue and Birdwood Parade dates from 1940.

Street names worth knowing

The City of Nedlands records that many of Dalkeith’s streets are named after yachts from the 1912 and 1913 racing season, including Circe, Genesta, Curlew, Cygnet, Edna, Nardina and Rene. Jutland Parade is named after the naval battle of 31 May 1916.

More about Dalkeith

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

Sources

• City of Nedlands: timeline
• City of Nedlands: road and street listing history
• inHerit: Gallop House
• inHerit: Jutland Parade houses
• inHerit: Dalkeith and Nedlands foreshore
• Hughes-Hallett, Indigenous history of the Swan and Canning rivers (2010)

Top image: Gallop House, Dalkeith, 2020. Photo: Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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