Quinns Rocks Townsite

Statement of Significance

The site of the 1962 “declared” townsite is of historical significance that evidences the beginnings and subsequent development of the Quinns Rocks suburb.

History

The suburb of Quinns Rocks likely named from the offshore reef first noted during a coastline survey by Surveyor James Cowle in 1867. Although spelt with a double 'n', the rocks are thought to have been named after Robert Quin who emigrated to Western Australia in 1863, and was appointed as an Assistant Surveyor on his arrival. Quin died in July 1886. The general area of the coast opposite the rocks was referred to as Quinns Rocks by the Wanneroo Road Board when they requested the survey of a road to that place in November 1925. Later the place also came to be called 'Wanneroo Beach'. Quinns Rocks was declared a townsite in 1962. Professional and amateur fishermen erected shacks along the coast in the Quinns Rocks area, the land was leased by the Mindarie Pastoral Company. An employee of the company lived in a permanent shack close to the beach and prevented public access to the beach by various means that ended in him being jailed in 1949 for two months. In 1939, one of the first shacks was constructed from the packing cases of German pianos, as many of the shacks thereafter were too. Barlow’s shack (1940) was of some mention. In 1948 Clarkson, the lease holder (Mindarie Pastoral Company) requested that the shacks be removed. He fenced the boundaries of the lease area to prevent access and requested that the shacks be moved. In 1949 the Minister for Local Government disallowed further huts and permitted camping on a year to year basis and the sheds and huts already erected were approved. The local MLA requested that Premier Hawke remove the huts. In 1959 when the first subdivision for redevelopment took place, the shack owners who had to move were given first right of refusal for blocks on the ocean front for 400 pound. Newspaper article shows shacks being burned and demolished to meet the deadline of 30 June 1959. By 1965 there were 700 residential lots (not all built on) in Quinns Rocks with no reticulated water supply, using individual water tanks and bore water supplies. The Public Works Department constructed a system in 1967/68, that was less than satisfactory with electric pumps and gravity fed supply from a 40 ft tank stand for the high places. Quinns Rocks was declared a townsite under the Local Government Act on 27 July 1962. Further extensions took place in 1964 and 1972. The locality encompassing this local government townsite, gazetted as "Quinns" in 1974 for future postal services, was changed to Quinns Rocks in 1977, so as to coincide with the townsite name.

Uses

Historic Themes

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