Bassendean: A Social History by Jennie Carter

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges. Minor marks on foredges. Light foxing on top foredge. Fading to spine. Interior and binding are still very good.

The history of Bassendean is intimately tied up in the history of European settlement in Western Australia. The tiny suburb began life as part of the Guildford township in 1829. Still, it remained a sparsely populated village settlement surrounded by country estates for the gentry until the latter part of the 19th century when it became home to a small community of Pensioner Guards and their families.

In 1901, it broke away from Guildford and promised to develop into a genteel middle-class suburb to rival Claremont or Peppermint Grove. The establishment of the railway workshops in Midland, however, brought a large number of railway workers to the district. This, in turn, attracted other industries, and Bassendean began its long identification as a dynamic working-class area.

Although along established district, not much had previously been written about Bassendean, and the story has had to be pieced together from widely scattered sources. The most valuable resource was the taped memories of over sixty people - old residents, migrants and Indigenous Australians whose stories and life experiences are woven into Bassendean's history. (back cover)