WARail & telegraph
Armadale
A wayside inn at a road fork, named by the railway.
1893Armadale railway station opens
WHAT STARTED IT
Armadale grew at the fork where the roads to Albany and Pinjarra divided, south of Kelmscott. In 1856 Thomas Saw took out a wayside licence for an inn there, the Narrogin Inn, named after the district, then called Narrogin after the Neerigen Brook.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The South Western Railway opened through the district in 1893, and its station was named Armadale, perhaps to avoid confusion with Narrogin on the Great Southern line. The houses and shops that grew around the station took the name, and the Armadale townsite was gazetted in 1909.
TURNING POINTS
1856Thomas Saw obtains a wayside licence for the Narrogin Inn at the junction of the Albany and Murray roads.
1893The South Western Railway opens from Perth to Pinjarra in May, with a station named Armadale.
1909The Armadale townsite is gazetted on 26 February.
1910The Kelmscott Roads Board becomes the Armadale-Kelmscott Roads Board.
1961The Armadale-Kelmscott Shire Council is formed.
1985The City of Armadale is proclaimed.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
The centre of the City of Armadale on Perth’s south-eastern edge, at the junction of the South Western and Albany highways. It was long the terminus of the Armadale railway line.