Boosted by the train

When the Eastern Railway went through, Smith’s Mill became profitable, and a siding, and later a railway station, were established to transport the timber down the hill. By the end of the 1890s, all the good stands of timber near the mill had been cut and the mill closed. However, the railway’s presence had encouraged the establishment of other industries, as well as settlers, in the area which continued to be known as Smith’s Mill.

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Orchards, nurseries and vineyards

Attracted by the ironstone-gravel slopes, Richard Hardey established a vineyard, the earliest in the hills. At first he railed grapes down to his press and fermenting vats on Peninsula Farm, Maylands. Later he built a cellar at Smith’s Mill. An early attempt at a tea plantation failed, but nurseries and other vineyards thrived and the area became renowned among WA orchardists for fruit trees.

 

Gravelpits, claypits, and brickyards

William and George Burkinshaw bought the failed tea plantation block, and pioneered the gravel industry in the hills. They could boast supplying Government House and Kings Park.  Others went into competition with them. The owners of one such company were so impressed by the quality of a large bed of clay beneath their gravel pits that they registered a new company, Statham Fire Brick Works, which operated until the late 1960s.

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New name for new townsite

The government sub-divided Greenmount Suburban Lots 144 and 145 into 47 one-acre lots in 1902, and the village needed a name. The name Smiths Mill was duplicated in Queensland and a suggested alternate name ‘Amherst’ was found to exist in Victoria so, due to the wishes of the residents, the name was not changed. Twelve years later though, tiring of men coming to look for work at a non-existent mill, residents lobbied for the town to be renamed and they chose Glen Forrest, a valley to honour former Premier John Forrest.

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State Registered Places:

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Glen Forrest Octagonal Hall