Heritage Buildings and Museums

The City of Kwinana is proudly home to a unique assortment of heritage sites, buildings, landmarks and a museum which captures the rich history of the region. Listed below are just a handful of the historically significant places within the City. Further information on historically significant places within the City can also be found in the City’s adopted Local Heritage Survey and Heritage List.

Smirk's Cottage Heritage Sites

Situated off Beacham Crescent in Medina, Smirk’s Cottage Heritage Site is rich in history and stories. The site includes a number of unique historical buildings, the most significant being Smirk’s Cottage, Settlement House and the Museum, which are all cared for by the Kwinana Heritage Group.

Smirk’s Cottage is a modest two-room cottage built in the 1900s at this site and is an excellent example of the type of accommodation for a working family at this time. This charming cottage has displays which replicate the layout and décor of a bygone era.

Built in 1922, Settlement House is a timber home which demonstrates the type of cottage provided to soldiers during settlement in the area. Originally located on Lyons Road, this building was moved to the Smirks site to ensure its future as a historically significant house.

The Museum displays the historical collection, a fascinating array of objects, memorabilia and stories of settlement, development and history of the area. Smaller buildings on the site exhibit other interesting artefacts including a tractor, tools and vintage machinery.

Kwinana Heritage Group has been restoring and caring for the Cottages since the late 1980s and operate from the Museum building. The group's volunteers meet every Monday and Wednesday morning. The public are welcome to visit or enquire about membership. An open day is held on the first Sunday of every Month from 10am to 3pm and special arrangements can be made for group bookings.

Location2 Beacham Crescent, Medina 6167
Open to the public on the first Sunday of every month from 10am to 3pm. Special arrangements can be made for group bookings.
CostA gold coin donation for entry is appreciated
Contact

Kwinana Heritage Group
Email: kwinanaheritagegroup2@gmail.com​
Ph: 08 9548 7210​

The Spectacles 

Part of the Beeliar Regional Park, The Spectacles is 360 hectares of natural bush and wetlands situated within the City of Kwinana. The wetlands are home to a diverse range of bird species and native animals and have one of the largest stands of Paper-bark woodlands in the metropolitan area. The area is a significant Aboriginal site, a traditional land for the Wadjuk Nyoongar people as a ceremonial, camping and food gathering site.

The two walk trails at The Spectacles provide great opportunities for bird watching, discovering Aboriginal Heritage stories and learning about  its ecological significance through the interpretive signage found along the trail.

LocationMcLaughlan Road, Spectacles
InformationParks and Wildlife website

The Friends of The Spectacles (FotS) is a volunteer group that protect the Spectacles wetlands through various bush care activities. FotS also seeks to increase its knowledge of the land by learning from the local Nyoongar people. The group meets at The Spectacles every third Sunday of the month between 9am and 12noon.

LocationMcLaughlan Road Carpark, follow path to meet at the Amphitheatre area
Contact

Friends of The Spectacles

 Email: fotsmail@gmail.com

 Tel: 0419 983 956

Kwinana Loop Trail

The Kwinana Loop Trail has been developed by the City of Kwinana with funding from Lotterywest. The trail provides a 21km circuit around the perimeter of the city. It offers a unique opportunity to take in some of Kwinana’s best views, while experiencing the beauty of the City’s natural coastal bushland. The hills and twists of the Loop Trail make for an exciting mountain bike ride or a peaceful leisurely walk and is the perfect route for cross country training.

The trail weaves through Nyoongar Country and includes a number of significant Aboriginal Heritage sites including Thomas Oval. Interpretive signage along the trail provides information relating to Kwinana’s Aboriginal Heritage and other culturally significant sites. 

More details on how to explore the trail can be found on our fun parks and playgrounds page.

Medina Townsite 

The Medina Townsite was classified by the National Trust WA as a Historic Townsite on 14 May 2007. This recognises the significant heritage values - social, natural and built – of Medina, and advocates for the conservation and promotion of these values. Medina is recognised as an ancient camping ground for Aboriginals, and is significant in more recent Aboriginal History. The place is also the largest purpose built, planned town to service industry in Western Australia, providing for the workers and their families of the BP Refinery in the 1950s.

To discover more about the history of Medina, The Medina Residents Association provide an annual Heritage Walk held in May, contact the group for more details or check What’s On for event information.

Contact

Medina Residents Association 

Email: medinaresidents@hotmail.com

Tel: 08 9419 3201

Website: Medina Residents Group Facebook page.

Mead Homestead

Also known as Lealholm, this place was home to the Mead family, who were pioneers in the State and owned the property for over 130 years. The farming property includes an early homestead, remnants of working buildings and an orchard in a setting of cleared pasture.

HorsePower Peel Group are the current residents of the property and they have already undertaken substantial works to reinstate the lands. The future vision for restoration of Homestead, which was built in 1895, includes a community space and tea rooms.

This place is of significant cultural value for its role in settlement within the Rockingham Kwinana region and is on the State Register of Heritage Places. The site is not yet accessible to the general public, but more information on its history and value can be found on the Heritage Council website

Kwinana Signal Box 

The Kwinana Signal Box is one of the few surviving railway signal cabins in Western Australia and played an important role during the development of the Kwinana Marshalling Yard, which was established in the late 1960s. Although the site is not accessible to the public, it can be seen from the bridge over Rockingham Road in Kwinana Beach.

This site is of exceptional significance and is on the State Register of Heritage Place. For more information on its history and value see the Heritage Council website.

Site History

History of Smirks Cottage

Thomas Smirk arrived in the Swan River Colony in 1851 as a convict aboard the Mermaid. Within a few months he had received a ticket-of-leave, and a pardon in 1853. Smirk worked at John Hardy’s vineyard on the Swan River at Maylands until his marriage to Eliza Hymus in 1855. Eliza’s family had arrived in Western Australia in 1842 and were early settlers in the Rockingham area. 

Thomas and Eliza rented Wheatfield Cottage, near the current Kwinana Golf Club, and ran a dairy and market gardening farm. They acquired several plots of land in the district and built a home near the current Smirk’s cottage site in or around 1865. Thomas was a member of the Fremantle District Roads Board and taught Sunday School for many years. While Thomas and Eliza moved to Jarrahdale in the 1880s, their eighth child, William, remained at Wheatfield Cottage until his marriage to Johanna Kavanagh in 1902.

William and Johanna began building what would become known as Smirk Cottage around 1902. The first stage of the cottage comprised two rooms, the date of subsequent additions is unknown.  William and his brother Thomas ran a market garden business supplying Fremantle retailers from 1898 until 1912. William was also elected to the Rockingham Roads Board in 1910. He was active in the community, including winning prizes for his onions and potatoes at annual fairs. William and Johanna’s son Richard Robert served in World War Two.

In the late 1930s the property was taken over by George Frederick Charles, a storekeeper from Fremantle. With the development of the new town of Kwinana in 1953, the Smirk’s original holding was partly resumed, with the cottage surviving. It was used as a residence by a council works foreman until 1985, when the Kwinana Town Council announced it was to be demolished. This decision was overturned following considerable community campaigning. The building was restored in 1991 by the Kwinana Heritage Group, who continue to maintain it as a museum.

History of Sloan’s Cottage

On 22nd April, 1880, George Samuel Sloan married Emma Eliza Smirk. They took up 40 acres at Cockburn Sound Location 279 vol. 27 folio 386, in 1889. Their first residence was built on a site west of the present cottage, "Woodlands Farm". This was included in land resumed for the Kwinana New Town in 1953.

The 22.66 ha. property was made a reserve in 1958 and local organisations grew vegetables on the flat ground with the bush area being leased for stock grazing. George Sloan farmed the land supplying vegetables and fruit to the Fremantle Markets.

In 1911 George built the present cottage on Sloan Reserve. In 1969 the old cottage, in remarkable good condition for its age, was brought to the attention of the National Trust, the W.A. Conservation Council and the Town Planning Department who agreed that the reserve and cottage showed real potential as an interesting old building and rural retreat, however lack of finance prevented any attempt to exploit the possibilities.

By 1973 the cottage was badly vandalised and was little more than a heap of dangerous rubble. The council decided to bulldoze it down, but acceded to Cr. Walter Prockter's appeal to rebuild.

Sloan's Cottage is a fine example of what one man's painstaking efforts can achieve. In 1975 a commonwealth Grant of $311,000 was used for electricity and water supply, a toilet block, water tank, fencing, access road and car park.

History of Settlement House

A former soldiers settlement house built in 1922, the timber for this home was carted to the site in Lyons Road from the Jandakot siding and was the home of Harold Willis and Families.

The house is an example of the Soldiers Settlement and Group Settlement period of our history which helped develop the market gardens and dairy industries of Baldivis and Mandogalup. It was once thought the building was the old Mandogalup Post Office, however advice from local residents and the Kwinana Heritage Group has indicated the building is part of an old house from the original Soldier Settlement Scheme and was previously located on Lyons Road.

During the 1970s the need for a Guide Hall was evident and the house was moved to Lot 2 Mandogalup Road for this purpose. Members of the Mandogalup committee, which included the De San Miguel and Willis Families, and Alf Lydon moved the house.

According to the Kwinana Heritage Group there is very little evidence of remnants of this period and they believed that it would be an excellent opportunity to preserve the building. The group requested the building be transported to the location of Smirk’s Cottage as an addition to a future museum to complete a journey through history.

The Settlers Cottage has at last been set to rest on the grounds of the Kwinana Heritage Group Inc, where it has been so lovingly restored by the dedicated group of helpers within.

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