Darling Scarp, Perth, and Swan Coastal Plain. Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA

Darling Scarp, Perth, taken from Kelmscott.

The Darling Scarp (previously known as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges) is a low escarpment running North-South to the East of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. ImageMetadata File history File links STS097-712-37. ... ImageMetadata File history File links STS097-712-37. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (864x648, 119 KB) Darling range taken from Kelmscott. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (864x648, 119 KB) Darling range taken from Kelmscott. ... In geology, an escarpment is a transition zone between different physiogeographic provinces that involves an elevation differential, often involving high cliffs. ... Swan Coastal Plain Swan Coast Plain from Darling Scarp The geographic feature that lies directly west of the Darling Scarp, and which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. ... Location of Perth within Australia This article is about the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia. ... Slogan or Nickname: Wildflower State or the Golden State Other Australian states and territories Capital Perth Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Ken Michael Premier Alan Carpenter (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 15  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2005-06)  - Product ($m)  $107,910 (4th)  - Product per capita  $53,134/person...

History

Maps from the 1830s show the scarp labelled "General Darlings Range"; this later became Darling Range, a name by which the formation was still commonly known in the late 20th century, despite common understanding of it being an escarpment. There is also a tendency to identify the locations on or behind the scarp as being in the "Perth Hills" (or simply "The Hills"). General Sir Ralph Darling, Governor NSW (1825–1831). ... Perth Hills, Western Australia A term used to identify for primarily marketing purposes, that part of the Darling Scarp and hinterland east of the scarp, that lies within the Mundaring and Kalamunda local government areas, and as part of the constituent bodies belonging to the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council. ...

The earliest traverses by British settlers in the Swan River Colony occurred in the 1830s. The best known of these is the expedition of Ensign Robert Dale, who appears to have gone from a point near Guildford, to the south side of Greenmount Hill and up through the Helena Valley. A family of Russian settlers in the Caucasus region, ca. ... Swan River Colony was a British settlement established at the Swan River on the west coast of Australia in 1829. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Guildford, Western Australia Guildford was established in 1829 on the Swan River, being sited near a permiment fresh water supply. ... Greenmount, Western Australia Can refer to - Greenmount Hill, Greenmount a Locality in Mundaring, Western Australia Shire, and also to Greenmount National Park. ... Helena Valley is the name of a river valley, and a locality in the foothills of the Darling Scarp in Perth, Western Australia. ...

Geology

The Darling Scarp is the local expression, in the Perth area, of the extensive Darling Fault, a major and ancient geological discontinuity separating the Archaean Yilgarn Craton in the east from the younger Pinjarra Orogen and overlying Phanerozoic Perth Basin to the west. The Darling Fault is exposed for over 1 000 km, from the area east of Shark Bay, to the southern coast of Western Australia east of Albany. The Darling Fault is one of the longest and most significant faults in Australia, exposed for over 1 000 km in a north–south orientation near the west coast of southern Western Australia. ... The Archean is a geologic eon; it is a somewhat antiquated term for the time span between 2500 million years before the present and 3800 million years before the present. ... // The Yilgarn Craton is a huge craton which constitutes the bulk of the Western Australian land mass. ... During the Phanerozoic the biodiversity shows a steady but not monotonic increase from near zero to several thousands of genera. ... The Perth Basin is a thick sedimentary basin developed offshore of the Yilgarn Craton in several stages beginning in the Late Permian. ... DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Italic text ... Albany, (IPA: }, is the largest regional city in WA situated on the south coast of Western Australia south-southeast of Perth. ...

The Archaean granites and gneisses of the Yilgarn Craton form the high ground of the Perth Hills and can be observed in road cuts, with good examples in the Mundaring Weir area. The only exposed sediments of the Perth Basin, west of the fault, are of Cenozoic age, and comprise the material such as sandy limestone, travertine and dune sand on which the city of Perth is built, including sand dunes of Pleistocene age formed during the last Ice Age. For other uses, see granite (disambiguation). ... Gneiss Gneiss (IPA: ) is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from preexisting formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks, which most commonly forms on ancient seabeds. ... Mundaring Weir is a dam across the Helena River, in Western Australia. ... The Cenozoic Era (pronounced ); sometimes Caenozoic Era or Cainozoic Era (in the United Kingdom), meaning new life (Greek (kainos), new, and (zoe), life), is the most recent of the three classic geological eras. ... For other uses, see Limestone (disambiguation). ... Travertine Travertine terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park A carving in travertine Travertine is a sedimentary rock. ... The Pleistocene epoch (IPA: ) on the geologic timescale is the period from 1,808,000 to 11,550 years BP. The Pleistocene epoch had been intended to cover the worlds recent period of repeated glaciations. ...

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 319 pixelsFull resolution‎ (4,853 × 1,936 pixels, file size: 6. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 319 pixelsFull resolution‎ (4,853 × 1,936 pixels, file size: 6. ...

Climate effects

Often the Bureau of Meteorology identify different weather for 'the hills' in comparison to that of the Swan Coastal Plain The Bureau of Meteorology is an Australian government organisation responsible for providing weather services to Australia and surrounding areas. ... Swan Coastal Plain Swan Coast Plain from Darling Scarp The geographic feature that lies directly west of the Darling Scarp, and which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. ...

Also, in traditionally hot summers, strong easterly winds travelling across the scarp have presented serious issues for planes using the Perth Airport due to the alignment of the runways. A documented accident in 1999 involving wind shear from the scarp is at the Perth Airport article. Perth Airport (IATA: PER, ICAO: YPPH) is an Australian domestic and international airport located south of Guildford, Western Australia, and is the major commercial airport servicing Western Australias capital city, Perth. ...

Landuse conflict

The Darling escarpment has had over the last hundred years been exploited for stone quarries, Forestry and Bauxite Mining. Extensive timber railways and timber mills and the supporting communities existed along the escarpment due to the high quality jarrah forests. Chuquicamata, the second largest open pit copper mine in the world, Chile. ... A decidous beech forest in Slovenia. ... Timber in storage for later processing at a sawmill Timber is a term used to describe wood, either standing or that has been processed for use—from the time trees are felled, to its end product as a material suitable for industrial use—as structural material for construction or wood... Binomial name Eucalyptus marginata Donn ex Sm. ...

Water supply

In the early twentieth century, most of the main rivers flowing off the escarpment had mainly been utilised for dams for water supply.

The dams that exist on the scarp, or slightly inland include: Mundaring Weir (on the Helena River), and the Canning Dam (on the Canning River). Mundaring Weir is a dam across the Helena River, in Western Australia. ... The Helena River is a tributary of the Swan River, Western Australia Location It rises in country east of Mount Dale and moves to the north west to Mundaring Weir, where it is dammed. ... Canning Dam is a major water source for the city of Perth, Western Australia. ... Canning River is a very good river. ...

The scarp also defines the easternmost limit of the various aquifers present in the Perth Basin sediments, most notably the Southwest Yarragadee Aquifer. The scarp forms a divide between the hypersaline groundwaters typical of the Yilgarn Craton basement from the fresh ground waters of the Perth Basin. Some dams along the scarp are contaminated by seepage of saline water from the granite into the base of the dam's water column and must be periodically flushed to preserve water quality. An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, silt, or clay) from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. ...

the darling ranges ecosystem is sclerophyl forrest this is a dry land

Rock quarries

Also in the early to mid-twentieth century numbers of rock quarries existed on the edge of the escarpment - visible and affecting both the aesthetics and the environment of the escarpment.

In the area where the Helena River emerges from its valley to the sandplain, there are still four quarries evident, despite being unused for fifty years or more. The Helena River is a tributary of the Swan River, Western Australia Location It rises in country east of Mount Dale and moves to the north west to Mundaring Weir, where it is dammed. ... Swan Coastal Plain Swan Coast Plain from Darling Scarp The geographic feature that lies directly west of the Darling Scarp, and which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. ...

• Bluestone (1850s name), later known as Greenmount Quarry (1850s to 1920s), at Greenmount Hill west side of Greenmount National Park.
• Mountain Quarry (now usually signed as Boya Quarry), south of Greenmount Hill, which ceased operation in 1963.
• Fremantle Harbour Works Quarry (sometimes, C. Y. O'Connor's Mole Reconstruction Quarry, and later known as the Public Works Quarry), now Hudman Road Amphitheatre at edge of Darlington - Boya localities border, operated from the 1900s to the 1930s.
• Statham Quarry at Gooseberry Hill at northern edge of the Kalamunda Zig Zag formation.

There have also been visible quarries on the scarp in the Gosnells and Herne Hill areas. Greenmount is a national park in Western Australia (Australia), 22 km east of Perth. ... “Fremantle” redirects here. ... C. Y. OConnor (11 January 1843 – 10 March 1902), full name Charles Yelverton OConnor, was an Irish engineer who is best-known for his work in Australia, especially the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme. ... Darlington, Western Australia is a locality in the Shire of Mundaring, on the Darling Scarp, dissected by Nyaania Creek and north of the Helena River. ... Boya, Western Australia is a locality on the Darling Scarp, in the shire of Mundaring, Western Australia. ... Gooseberry Hill is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the Shire of Kalamunda. ... Completed in 1891, the Kalamunda Zig Zag line was built by the Canning Jarrah Timber Company to supply railway sleepers to Perths growing railway system. ... Gosnells is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Gosnells. ... Herne Hill is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located in the City of Swan local government area. ...

Legislative restrictions upon such developments were initiated in the late twentieth century to prevent further visible scars on the western face of the scarp.

Railways

• The Eastern Railway first traversed the Darling Scarp in the 1880s along its first route through Greenmount (where three of the above quarries later were able to utilise the railway).
• By the 1890s the second route passed through Swan View Tunnel and John Forrest National Park.
• In the 1960s the third route utilised easier grades through the Avon Valley

• The Kalamunda Zig Zag or Upper Darling Range Railway ran up the southern steep side of the Helena Valley entrance until 1949.

The following railroads have been known as Eastern Railroad or Eastern Railway: Eastern Railway (Alabama) Eastern Railway (Western Australia) Austrian Eastern Railway Eastern Railway (India) Eastern Railroad (Maine), a competitor and later subsidiary of the Boston and Maine Railroad from Boston, Massachusetts through New Hampshire into Maine Eastern Railway (Minnesota... The Swan View Tunnel is located at Swan View, Western Australia on the edge of the Darling Scarp, and at the southern side of the Jane Brook valley. ... John Forrest is a national park in Western Australia (Australia), 24 km east of Perth. ... Avon Valley usually refers to the fertile land in the catchment of the Avon River in Western Australia. ... Completed in 1891, the Kalamunda Zig Zag line was built by the Canning Jarrah Timber Company to supply railway sleepers to Perths growing railway system. ... The Upper Darling Range Railway was a branch railway from Midland Junction, Western Australia, to Karragullen. ...

Bauxite mining

In the late twentieth century, the proving of bauxite deposits correlating to the extensive Jarrah Forests saw wide ranging protests against the proposals to mine the forests. Binomial name Eucalyptus marginata Donn ex Sm. ...

The lengthy process of protest forced the government and miners to check their original proposals, and wide ranging processes to guard segments of the Jarrah Forests from mining ensued.

Dieback and fire

Also in the late twentieth century, dieback effecting Jarrah timber in particular infected large tracts of the forest. Currently only the restriction of vehicle access has proved effective in slowing the spread of this disease. This gained greater acceptance and publicity through the decision to allow Rally Australia to operate along services roads provided that the vehicles had a thorough wash including the under carriage at the end of each stage. Binomial name Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands Phytophthora cinnamomi is a soil-borne water mould that produces an infection which causes a condition in plants called root rot or dieback. infects the roots by zoospores entering the root behind the root tip. ...

In late 2004, the largest bushfire in the Northern Jarrah Forest for at least 100 years has created significant issues for the forest as well. As a result of this fire intensity the Government increase the volume of controlled burns along the entire escarpment to reduce the build up of flammable materials.

In the early 2000's Greenmount National Park, and John Forrest National Park have been repeatedly burnt by bushfires - in most cases through suspected arson. Greenmount is a national park in Western Australia (Australia), 22 km east of Perth. ... John Forrest is a national park in Western Australia (Australia), 24 km east of Perth. ...

Current activity

The escarpment is currently the site of a number of approved mines of bauxite (or Aluminium ore), which are mined by the company Alcoa along with others. The bauxite mines (and rehabilitated areas after mining) have erased all the evidence of the networks of the timber railways. This article is about the ore. ... This article is about the company. ...

Suburbs on the Scarp

The localities or suburbs on the 'edge' of the scarp are those that sit at the western edge of the scarp, and in most cases command excellent views of the Swan Coastal Plain: Swan Coastal Plain Swan Coast Plain from Darling Scarp The geographic feature that lies directly west of the Darling Scarp, and which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. ...

The suburbs near Midland and Kalamunda are often referred to as Perth Hills Perth Hills, Western Australia A term used to identify for primarily marketing purposes, that part of the Darling Scarp and hinterland east of the scarp, that lies within the Mundaring and Kalamunda local government areas, and as part of the constituent bodies belonging to the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council. ...

Near Midland, Western Australia: Midland ( ) is both a suburb and a township in the Perth, Western Australia metropolitan area, and is the regional centre for the City of Swan local government area that covers the Swan Valley and parts of the Darling Scarp to the east. ...

• Stratton
• Swan View
• Greenmount
• Darlington
• Boya
• Helena Valley

Near Kalamunda, Western Australia: Stratton is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Swan. ... Swan View is a locality in the City of Swan local government area in the Perth, Western Australia metropolitan area, on the edge of the Darling Scarp. ... Greenmount, Western Australia Can refer to - Greenmount Hill, Greenmount a Locality in Mundaring, Western Australia Shire, and also to Greenmount National Park. ... Darlington, Western Australia is a locality in the Shire of Mundaring, on the Darling Scarp, dissected by Nyaania Creek and north of the Helena River. ... Boya, Western Australia is a locality on the Darling Scarp, in the shire of Mundaring, Western Australia. ... Helena Valley is the name of a river valley, and a locality. ... Kalamunda is both a town and Shire in Western Australia, located overlooking the city from the hills at the eastern limits of the Perth metropolitan area. ...

• Gooseberry Hill
• Lesmurdie
• Walliston
• Bickley
• Carmel

Near Armadale, Western Australia: Gooseberry Hill is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the Shire of Kalamunda. ... Lesmurdie is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the Shire of Kalamunda. ... Walliston is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the Shire of Kalamunda. ... Bickley is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the Shire of Kalamunda. ... Carmel is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the Shire of Kalamunda. ... The City of Armadale is a Local Government Area of Western Australia. ...

• Martin
• Roleystone
• Karragullen
• Bedfordale

Martin is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Gosnells. ... Araluen Botanic Park. ... Karragullen is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Armadale. ... Bedfordale is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Armadale. ...

Television trasmission towers

The suburbs to the south of Kalamunda are the locations of the main Perth Metropolitan television staion transmission towers.

The future

The potential for further landuse conflict exists in the presence of unrelinquished mining leases over large tracts of the escarpment; plans by Governmental operations in Forest reserves; water authority sensitivity towards access to its water catchment areas; bushfire control measures; and demands for further intensification of urbanization on the escarpment.

Darling Range Regional Park

A network of reserves of crown lands on the escarpment have been connected into a regional park to maintain and conserve parts of the escarpment.

In most cases the reserves or parks had individual names prior to being incorporated into the larger park, for example the Serpentine National Park, John Forrest National Park and the Greenmount National Park, or were simply known as State Forests (eg State Forest No.42). Serpentine is a national park in Western Australia (Australia), 52 km southeast of Perth. ... John Forrest is a national park in Western Australia (Australia), 24 km east of Perth. ... Greenmount is a national park in Western Australia (Australia), 22 km east of Perth. ...

References

• Bean, Alison. A brief history of the Darling Range : for the Department of Planning and Urban Development. Perth, W.A. : The Dept., 1993. Darling Range Regional Park supplementary report ; no. 4. ISBN 0730953041
• Blainey, Geoffrey. White gold : the story of Alcoa of Australia St. Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 1997. ISBN 1864483555
• The Darling Scarp : a natural entity: proceedings of symposium held at the Geography Department of the University of Western Australia, November 1969 Perth, W.A.: Nature Conservation Council of Western Australia, 1970
• Department of Planning and Urban Development, Western Australia. The Natural resources of the Darling Ranges Perth, W.A. : The Dept., 1993. Darling Range Regional Park supplementary report ; no. 2. ISBN 0730953025
• Murphy, Mike. ( Coles, Helena - editor) Jarrahdalians : the story of the Jarrahdale Mine Booragoon, W.A. : Alcoa of Australia, 1998. ISBN 064636670X
• Myers JS (1992) Pinjarra Orogen, in Geology and Mineral Resources of Western Australia: Western Australia Geological Survey, Memoir 3, 77-119.
• Schur, Basil. Jarrah forest or bauxite dollars? : a critique of bauxite mine rehabilitation in the jarrah forests of southwestern Australia Perth, W.A. : Campaign to Save Native Forests (W.A.), 1985. ISBN 0959744975 (pbk.)
• Watson, Lindsay The Railway History Of Midland Junction : Commemorating The Centenary Of Midland Junction, 1895-1995 Swan View, W.A : L & S Drafting in association with the Shire of Swan and the Western Australian Light Railway Preservation Association, [1995]

External links

• Engineering Geology of the Precambrian Rocks of the Darling Scarp
• Hydrology of the Perth Basin
• Serpentine National Park
• Darling Scarp Walk, bushwalk