Maylands

The suburb Maylands is in the City of Bayswater LGA.
The first colonists on the Maylands peninsula were Wesleyan Methodists who arrived in 1830 on the Tranby, led by Joseph Hardey. They eventually owned all of the land there, which was called Peninsula Farm.
The name 'Maylands' was in use 1896. The railway siding/station was so named in 1899. The origin is uncertain. If it's like Graylands, it will have been named for someone called 'May' - which could be either a first or last name.

MPHA (Maylands Historical and Peninsula Association):
Maylands Landing Field became the first official aerodrome in WA. It closed 30 June 1963 and has now become a golf course.
The brickworks was in operation 1927-1983.

Battye 1912:
PERTH ROADS BOARD.
This body governs the districts known as Maylands and Mount Lawley, Osborne Park, and what is known as the Coast Ward. The most populous part of this area is the firstnamed, the history of which may be said to date from 1901, when the population was about 100. The present population is about 4,500, and during the past decade some 900 houses have been erected, many of them being mansions of modern design. The records of attendance at the Maylands State School offer some indication of the tendency to increase in population in the district, the present buildings having outgrown their capacity, a local church having been requisitioned until the completion of further additions to the existing buildings. The daily attendance averages 630. The Institute for the Blind is situated in the district, as well as various industrial premises.
For the year 1911 the receipts of Perth Roads Board amounted to £9,615, and the expenditure to £6,000. Some idea of the increase of values in the past ten years may be obtained by comparing the rates of 1901, when £115 was the levy, while in 1911 the amount reached £3,653. In 1901 there were no roads; to-day over 50 miles of road exist. The capital value of rateable property in 1903 was estimated at £114,962. In 1911 the valuation was £344,631. There are fine bowling greens and tennis courts in Mount Lawley, while Maylands is following suit. Osborne Park is the market garden suburb, and is reached by tram in a run of about half an hour from the centre of the city.
Battye, J.S. 1912-13, The Cyclopedia of Western Australia, Cyclopedia Co., Perth.

Post Office Directory for 1901 [the first year in which Maylands appears]
MAYLANDS. A suburb, 2.5 m. N.E. of Perth by rail (sin. 5d., 3d.; ret. 8d., 5d.)
Anderson Benj
Burchnall Frank
Carey J. S. sec Victoria Inst. for the Blind
Gammon Thos
Harp Ping
Hudson Jas. station master
Kent S. C. supt. Victoria Inst. for the Blind
Leonard Jno. storekpr
McDonald Alex
McFarlane Geo
Maher, Jno. F
Pady A.E. baker
Payne Geo
Rich Jos
Ridout —
Russell F
Sage E. F. Falkirk tavern
Steriett Mrs. E
Thomson J. A. “Kilbowie,” mgr. Singer Sewing Machine Co
Victoria Institute for the Blind, S. C. Kent, supt
Watson —
White J, carrier

References and Links

Maylands maps.

Maylands churches.

Maylands hotels: Central, Maylands, Peninsula/Tavern, Pineapple.

Maylands buildings: Killowen.

The Hardey family, Peninsula Farm pioneers.

Gus Liebe, designer, builder, and owner of the Peninsula Hotel.

Maylands cinemas: Lyric Theatre | Roxy Gardens.

Maylands Primary School, 1903.

Wikipedia page for Maylands.

Maylands Hall, 1920.

Some random Maylands images.

Maylands Historical and Peninsula Association on the internet:
Website: [https://maylandshistorical.com.au https://maylandshistorical.com.au
]Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaylandsHistorical/
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/maylandshs/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6_4CAgpVlq7IHaj7I1xiKA/videos

Website of Cr Elli Petersen-Pik, City of Bayswater councillor for South Ward.

History

What follows is a long excerpt from the Heritage Council page for Maylands Primary School, footnotes omitted. See the original document for the full version.

The suburb now known as Maylands is located on part of the original ribbon grant, Swan Location Y, and also incorporates the original grants, Swan Location Aa and the Peninsula. These lots were created in the first years of the Swan River Colony to give settlers fertile alluvial land and river access. Swan Location Y, a grant of 806 acres, extended north to what is now North Street, Inglewood; east to East Street, Maylands; west to between First Avenue and Dundas Road; and to the Swan River on the south. Swan Location Aa, comprised an area of 194 acres, and was sited to the north east of the Peninsula. This latter grant, an area of 471 acres, was divided into 11 farms for occupation by a group of Yorkshire Methodist farmers known as the ‘Tranby Folk’.
In the early years of settlement at the Swan River, the new colonists suffered many hardships, with shortages of food and labour, and stock losses common. Many early settlers were forced to relinquish grants or relocate to more desirable holdings. Sandy, infertile soils, and the decline in importance of the Old Guildford Road as a major transport route, resulted in sparse settlement of Maylands along the north bank of the Swan River between Perth and Guildford. Moreover, the vicissitudes the settlers experienced discouraged others from establishing themselves in the district. By the end of the 1840s then, much of the land in the district was held by absentee landowners, which continued to be the pattern through to the late nineteenth century.
During the 1850s, convict transportation to the Colony ushered in a period of economic growth and relative prosperity. However, the economic stimulus that resulted in the growth of public works and facilities in many communities had little impact in Maylands and other settlements on the north bank of the Swan River. Public works programmes, including improvements to the New Perth Road on the south side of the Swan River, the bridging of the Helena River at Guildford and the Swan at Caversham, all served to consolidate development in existing centres and the importance of the New Guildford Road as a transport link to the hinterlands.
With the advent of Representative Government in Western Australia in 1867, the Colony was divided into six districts, with the Maylands area falling within the Perth boundaries. The elected government now had the power to raise loans for public works and, by 1875, the prospect of establishing a railway between Perth and Guildford and the hinterlands was seen as a necessary development. After considering alternative routes, the Government decided to build the railway along the north side of the River, a move with implications for the future of Maylands. In March 1881, the Fremantle to Guildford line of the Eastern Railway opened to traffic. Its route traversed the original 'ribbon grants’, which fronted the Swan River in Maylands.
In the mid-1880s, optimism about the extent of gold discoveries in the Kimberley and an increase in the funds available for public works, led to an upsurge of activity in the real estate market in Perth, and a number of sub-divisions were planned. By 1888, a railway siding had been erected at Bayswater, and Henry Walkenden had established the W. A. Brick Co. at Location T, on land leased from the Whatley family. In 1892, when gold was discovered at Coolgardie, the Western Australian gold boom began, and general speculation in land increased. Subsequently, further development took place in Maylands around the turn of the century, with the first significant institution - the Victoria Institute for the Blind - established in the area in 1893.
The Western Australian Year Book 1898-1899 made note of the construction of a new railway station building in the district, where previously there was no station between East Perth and Bayswater. A siding, near the site of the present Caledonian Avenue crossing, was constructed for the benefit of Mr Mephan Ferguson, who had been awarded a contract to manufacture and supply seamless pipes for use in the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme. Ferguson bought land alongside the railway line and named the area Falkirk, in honour of his birthplace in Scotland. Tenders for the Falkirk Railway Station were invited in August 1899 and a notice in the Railway Weekly in September 1899, stated that the station to be erected at Falkirk would be named 'Maylands'. (According to DOLA, the origins of this name are unknown.) The establishment of Ferguson's factory and construction of the railway station further encouraged people to settle in Maylands, and the suburb rapidly expanded.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, Maylands was still only sparsely populated. In 1901, there were only 22 addresses recorded in the Post Office Directory. Within two years, however, there were 70 addresses listed, including 8 businesses and one pig and poultry farm. Due to a rapidly rising local population, in 1903, the Maylands School opened with a single classroom on a site bounded on the west by (Old) Guildford Road, on the south by Peninsula Road, and on the north by Sixth Avenue. That same year, plans were drawn by the Public Works Department for an addition comprising two more classrooms and an extended verandah on the north of the building. With the construction of these additions by 1904, further plans were drawn in the same year for an infants class room adjoining the north- east of the existing structure, and for the existing verandah on the north of the existing classrooms to be enclosed for a corridor.
The design of the Maylands school was typical for its time, generally following a standard plan, that when fully realized, consisted of a central hall around which class rooms were built. This type of design is one for which the Assistant, and later, Chief Architect, Hillson Beasley is particularly noted. This model allowed for new classrooms to be added as the need arose. The Maylands School was typical in that the hall was not part of the original construction, but rather was added in 1909, a few years after the provision of the initial classrooms in 1903. This would indicate that there was a rapidly growing school age population in the Maylands area that required almost a continuous building of educational facilities.
In 1905, further additions to the school were built comprising a two classroom wing adjoining the north west of the existing building with a corridor to the east of these rooms connecting to the existing corridor. There were also additions to the east and west of the existing building for a hat and cloak room and washing facilities. A site plan produced later in 1905 also shows shelter sheds to the south of the school building and combined boys and girls latrines further south, near the boundary with Peninsula Road. The plan also shows a division of the grounds into a boys’ playground to the west of the site and a girls’ playground to the east of the site. There is also teachers’ quarter shown immediately south of the girls’ playground. Another plan of the same year shows a further classroom addition and a corridor extension to the north and the west, respectively, of the existing infants classroom.
In 1909, provision was made for the construction of a new main hall to be built between the east and west wings of the existing classrooms, and which involved the removal of the existing corridors to the east and west of those rooms. A site plan of the same year also shows an additional two class rooms to the north of the proposed new hall and two additional rooms adjoining the north east of the existing building, although these rooms were not built at this time. In 1910, additions were planned for the School Quarters, comprising another room, with a new verandah adjacent also housing a new bathroom and pantry, to the south of the existing house. New additions indicated on the site plan of 1909 were detailed in two 1912 plans, and comprised three new classrooms and a new hat room and washing facilities. Before the construction of the Infants’ School on the opposite side of Sixth Avenue, across the road from the original school, Infant classes were also held in the Methodist Church Hall and in the Presbyterian Church Hall, both nearby the School.
In the second decade of the twentieth century, the Maylands area was still largely undeveloped as a residential suburb, although the population was growing steadily. By 1913, there were 600 residential and 60 business addresses listed in the Post Office Directory. Also during this period, a number of civic and public buildings were constructed, including the Church of Christ (1903), the Anglican Church (1906), the first Catholic Church (1907), the Catholic School (1908), and the Maylands Fire Station (1908).

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 10 August, 2021 and hosted at freotopia.org/maylands/index.html (it was last updated on 1 April, 2024). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.