Statham's Quarry (also known as Darling Range Quarry, and then Perth City Council's Darling Range Quarry after 1920) is the site of a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

on the

Darling Scarp The Darling Scarp (), also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to ...

on the southern side of the entrance of the

Helena River The Helena River is a tributary of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in Western Australia. The river rises in country east of Mount Dale and flows north-west to Mundaring Weir, Western Australia, Mundaring Weir, where it is dammed. ...

valley on to the

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia. It is located in Gooseberry Hill and is within the bounds of the Gooseberry Hill National Park.

History

Established by Thomas Statham and William Burton in 1894, Statham's Quarry is considered a rare example of a stone quarry which has retained physical evidence of its operations and is associated with the development of the quarry industry in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. The

Perth City Council The City of Perth is a local government area and body, within the Perth metropolitan area, which is the capital of Western Australia. The local government is commonly known as Perth City Council. The City covers the Perth city centre and sur ...

operated the quarry following Statham's death and material from the quarry was used as street paving in Perth during the early 1900s. The rocks for the groyne at City Beach also came from the quarry. There was also a clay quarry operation known as Statham's in Glen Forrest which was a brickworks. The quarry is the claimed location of one of the most extensive

dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...

dikes Dyke or dike may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), formations of magma or sediment that cut through and across the layering of adjacent rocks * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess ...

on the Darling Scarp. The quarry was serviced by the

Kalamunda Zig Zag The Kalamunda Zig Zag was a Zig zag (railway), zig zag rail line that was part of the Upper Darling Range railway line in Western Australia, opening in July 1891 and closing in July 1949. Most of it was converted to a public road in 1952, part o ...

section of the Upper Darling Range railway during the time of its operation (which closed in 1949), and was finally put out of operation by a bushfire in 1957. The location has been susceptible to bushfires, the most recent being in the early 2000s.

Current usage

The main current usage of the quarry is

rock climbing Rock climbing is a climbing sports discipline that involves ascending climbing routes, routes consisting of natural rock in an outdoor environment, or on artificial resin climbing walls in a mostly indoor environment. Routes are documented in c ...

and

abseiling Abseiling ( ; ), also known as rappelling ( ; ), is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling, the person descending controls their own movement down a static or fixed rope, in cont ...

, with the

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and en ...

providing facilities and maintaining the site. Dangerous areas are signed and fenced off. The quarry's importance as a safe easily accessible and well maintained climbing and abseiling location close to the metropolitan area of Perth can be found in the climbing records.

Map

* Allen, M. W.(1928) Darling Range Quarry artographic material City of Perth. Perth, W.A. Scale 1:792 in. = 1 chain(

Battye Library The J S Battye Library (more properly known as the J. S. Battye Library of West Australian History) is an arm of the State Library of Western Australia. It stores much of the state's historical records and original publications including books, ...

catalogue description: Map of Perth City Council's Darling Range Quarry (Statham's Quarry) showing the quarry face with contours, railway and sidings, buildings, fences, telephone lines, pipes, formation of Canning Jarrah Timber Company's old line, Ridge Hill and Stathams (old) sidings, watercourses, heights above sea level, boundary of Perth City Council reserve. Battye accession number 009255.

History

Current usage

Map

Notes

Further reading