Mount Hawthorn history: the Hawthorn Estate and Anzac Cottage

Mount Hawthorn’s streets of modest inter-war houses were laid out in a run of estates between 1899 and 1910, and one of its best known buildings went up in a single day.

How Mount Hawthorn got its name

The name comes from the Hawthorn Estate, subdivided in 1903. The City of Vincent quotes investor James Hicks, who said in 1938 that he named it Hawthorn after a visit to the suburb of Hawthorn in Victoria.

Before the suburb

The City of Vincent records that the Whadjuk Noongar valued the area’s seasonal wetlands, and that nearby Galup, place of fires, was used for camping, meetings and gathering food.

Land was granted to European settlers in the 1870s, and investment syndicates, including a Sydney land and building company, began subdividing it in the late 1880s and 1890s.

How it grew

The estates came in quick succession: Merredin Park (1899 and 1901), the Hawthorn Estate and Randwick Heights (1903), a second Merredin Park subdivision (1906), the North Perth Town Sites (1908) and Ambleside (1910).

A tram ran along Oxford Street, and in 1947 North Beach Road was renamed Scarborough Beach Road. The area was part of the Municipality of North Perth from 1901, the City of Perth from 1914 and the Town of Vincent from 1994.

Places that tell the story

Anzac Cottage at 38 Kalgoorlie Street was built by more than 200 volunteers in one day, on 12 February 1916, for Gallipoli veteran Private Cuthbert John Porter. It was opened by Premier Scaddan on 15 April 1916 and is on the State Register.

The former Mount Hawthorn Hotel on Scarborough Beach Road was built in 1932 to a design by Cavanagh and Cavanagh, and became the Paddington Ale House in 1987.

The Hawthorn State School opened in 1906 and moved to Scarborough Beach Road in 1908. The police station on Ellesmere Street dates from 1928, and the library on Oxford Street opened in 1965.

Mount Hawthorn today

Mount Hawthorn is in the City of Vincent. Parts of the suburb, including streets around The Boulevarde and Matlock Street, are protected for their inter-war character.

More about Mount Hawthorn

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

Sources

• City of Vincent: Mount Hawthorn history
• inHerit: Anzac Cottage
• inHerit: Mount Hawthorn Hotel (former)
• City of Vincent: Character Retention Areas

Top image: Anzac Cottage, Mount Hawthorn. Photo: Mitch Ames, 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