Creator Surveyor General's Department WA

Date 1838

John Septimus Roe’s masterful plan of Perth, aligned to the ridge and shore line, fits beautifully in the landscape and continues to serves Perth well. Town hall, civic square and church steeple form the core of the town, surrounded by a grid of elegant streets in the Georgian neo-classical manner, running down to water..⁣⁣⁣⁣.What is very evident on this plan is the number of lakes and tea tree wetlands of the original site. Rich in biodiversity, the area were part of the hunting grounds and spiritual places of the aboriginal Noongar people who have lived on the Swan River for 35,000 years. These ‘swamps’ were soon filled in by suburban expansion.⁣⁣..Today's residents can be thankful that Septimus Roe, as WA’s first Surveyor General, fought to preserve the land around Mt Eliza as a forest recreation reserve, which today is Kings Park, one the nation’s great parks.

Source: State Records Office of Western