Kardinya is a suburb 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) south-southwest of the central business district of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
Kardinya is a suburb 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) south-southwest of the central business district of Perth, the capital of Western Australia. It is in the City of Melville local government area. It is predominantly a low-density residential suburb consisting of single-family detached homes. There is a commercial area in the centre of the suburb, with a shopping centre and several other shops. In the northwest is a small light industrial area.
Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Beeliar group of the Whadjuk Noongar people. Kardinya did not attract any interest from Europeans when the Swan River Colony was founded in 1829, as it was far away from any river and was not fertile. European use of Kardinya began in 1870, when fourteen lots were allocated to Pensioner Guards. These lots were used for piggeries, poultry farms and vineyards. In 1904, the a large amount of land in the area was set aside as endowment land for the University of Western Australia. In the 1920s, this land started to be used as a pine plantation, known as the Applecross Pine Plantation, and, after 1947, the Somerville Pine Plantation. The suburb was formally gazetted on 16 June 1961. From 1967 to the early 1980s, suburban development occurred in Kardinya.
Current amenities in Kardinya include Kardinya Primary School, North Lake Senior Campus, Kardinya Park Shopping Centre, and Morris Buzacott Reserve, which is home to several sports clubs. The suburb is quadrisected by South Street and North Lake Road. Transperth bus services operate, most feeding into Murdoch railway station on the Mandurah railway line.
History
Before European colonisation
Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Beeliar group of the Whadjuk Noongar people. They inhabited the area south of the Swan River down to Mangles Bay near Rockingham, and east to the Darling Scarp. No specific sites of Aboriginal occupation have been found in Kardinya, because there are no wetlands there, but the Beeliar people would have passed through Kardinya.
European colonisation
Kardinya attracted no interest from Europeans when they founded the Swan River Colony in 1829. All settlement was concentrated along the Swan and Canning rivers as they were the main method of transportation in the early decades of the colony. Kardinya also had no fertile soil for the crops and fruit trees grown at the time. Only one section of land in Kardinya was part of the early land that was granted to settlers; it was known as Cockburn Location 549, and none of the Kardinya section of that land was used.
The trees in the plantation began to mature in the late 1950s. Harvesting started then. The largest trees were removed first, allowing the others to grow more. Clearcutting began in the 1960s as Kardinya was planned to have a housing development. This finished in 1975, and the university sold most of the land to developers. The south-eastern corner, just beyond Kardinya's boundary, was used to make Murdoch University, Perth's second university. Some trees were left standing, and can still be seen today around the suburb.
Suburban development
The area was originally named Ellis, after J. E. Ellis, who was a long time secretary of the Melville Roads Board. The name "Kardinya" was first suggested as a street name in the area in 1955. The name is of Aboriginal origin. Some sources say it means "sunrise",
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