History

Indigenous Noongar people were the first inhabitants of the area. The first permanent European settlers were the family of Frederick and Elizabeth Stirk, who arrived in 1881 and established a property called Headingly Hill at what is now Stirk Park; their house, Stirk Cottage, is now a museum. More settlers moved in during the 1890s, aided by the advent of the Kalamunda Zig Zag railway. At this time the Kalamunda area was known as "Gooseberry Hill". The name Kalamunda was declared on 13 December 1901 after a request from thirty-two residents to form a townsite. They requested the name "Calamunnda", derived from two words in the indigenous Noongar language, as recorded in a book by Bishop Rosendo Salvado: cala meaning "fire", "home", "district", or "settlement" and mun-da meaning "forest" or "bush". Surveyor-General Harry Johnston respelt the name as "Kalamunnda" and it was changed to "Kalamunda" by 1901. The City's unofficial motto is "A home in the forest".








Environment

Geography

At 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level, Kalamunda and the surrounding areas experience colder night temperatures than the bulk of the Perth Metropolitan area to the west. Deep clay soils in the valleys in this area provide ideal growing conditions for stone fruits, apples and pears,wine production and for a small commercial rose growing industry.

The suburb of Gooseberry Hill is located to the north of Kalamunda where the terrain drops away sharply to the Helena Valley effectively isolating Kalamunda from other Darling Scarp population centres to the north. To the south and east the urban area transitions into the semi-rural and orchard growing areas of Bickley, Carmel and Pickering Brook, which in turn give way to extensive jarrah and marri forests.

Located nearby is the Kalamunda National Park and the northern terminus of the Bibbulmun Track, a 963 km recreational walking trail.
Important Bird Area

The town lies within the Mundaring-Kalamunda Important Bird Area, so identified by BirdLife International because of its importance as a non-breeding season roost site and foraging base for Long-billed Black Cockatoos.