History of the quarries
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- This topic has 4 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 6 months ago by
Blake.
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Phillip
Hi folks,
I got a query from DEC about the naming of the quarries…
To me, the three main climbing quarries (in the Midland area) are Mountain Quarry off Coulston Road, Boya Quarry off Hudsman Road, and Statham’s Quarry off Ridge Hill Road/The Zig Zag.
Despite Mountain Quarry having a sign that says ‘Mountain Quarry’, it is sometimes refered to as ‘Boya Quarry’ and Boya as the ‘Hudsman Road Quarry’ or the ‘Amphitheatre Quarry’.
To confuse matters even more, there is also another ‘Statham’s Quarry’ closer to Mundaring, although this was used for kaolin clay and silica, not rocks.
As far as I know, Boya/Hudsman/Amphi was used for rock for the railway line that runs past it; while Statham’s was first used for the Zig Zag railway and then by Statham’s Brickworks for bricks and aggregate.
Does anyone know where the name ‘Mountain Quarry’ came from?
If anyone knows anything about the history or naming of the quarries, I would be interested to hear about it.
Ross
I agree with Phillip.
Where Mt Q is and depending from which direction you look from, it does look like the side of a mountain. But who fomalised this feast of extreme perception???
Conrad S.
I’m in agreement with Phillip and Ross.
But no, I’m not sure of the origin of the name Mountain Quarry (aside from the fact that it was once half a hillside. Perhaps some of the oldies climbers can shed light on the answer?
I know that some abseiling groups have been incorrectly referring to some of the the quarry names for at least 20 years (unless the very first CAWA WA rockclimbing was wrong). I should also point out that many of the instructors for these groups were enlightened of the error but continued on anyway! How is that for perpetuating confusion?
Mattk
I’m curious as to where the rocks from the beach groynes (City Beach, Cottesloe, etc) came from. Could it been one of those quarries?
Blake
From the boya Wikipedia pages.
It was crucial as a site of quarries. The Mountain Quarry and the Government Quarry were both important blue stone quarries in their time.[2]
The harbour and moles at Fremantle were built using stone from the Government quarry.
The Government Quarry (on the south eastern part of the locality) was variously named during its time of operation as Mr O’Connor’s quarry, the Fremantle Harbour Works Darlington Quarry,[3] the Public Works Quarry, the Government Quarry, and, currently, as Hudman Road Quarry.
About two summers ago someone put up a home made information board around where finger lickin awful was put up which detailed the quarries history but I have a feeling rain might not have been so kind to it. I’ll dig around and see if I can find some photos of it.
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