Claremont, Western Australia

Claremont is a western suburb of Perth, Western Australia on the north bank of the Swan River.HistoryPrior to European settlement, the Noongar people used the area as a source of water, for fishing and for catching waterfowl.In 1830, John Butler, a settler, set up an inn at Freshwater Bay (in modern-day Peppermint Grove) to attract travellers on the road from Perth to Fremantle. A wetland became known as Butler's Swamp (later Lake Claremont). After the arrival of convicts in the colony in 1850, work began on constructing the Fremantle Road. The government allocated land on the foreshore and at Butler's Swamp to 19 pensioner guards and their families, and a permanent convict depot operated at Freshwater Bay (until 1875).A state school (1862) and church were built, and a community grew around what is now Victoria Avenue. A settler named James Morrison acquired a property at Swan Location 702, and named it Claremont Estate, after his wife, Clara (née de Burgh). During the 1870s, a number of prominent families, including the Triggs, Sandovers and Stirlings, acquired land in the district, around the later site of Christ Church Grammar School; some of their homes were later bought and used by the school.