Maddington History - Gone but not forgotten

Maddington - A Very Historic Place

Maddington today is considered an unassuming small working class suburb, 16 kilometres south east of Perth, Western Australia. But this was not always the case. Maddington was one of the earliest areas settled by Europeans. The first person to settle in Maddington was John Randall Phillips. His first accommodation was a tent, which he had pitched in August 1830 to do location duties for the absentee landowner, Augustus Hearn Gilbert, who was in England. Phillips named the property Maddington, which was Canning Location 13.

The name Maddington is a corruption of Maiden Place, which was a Nunnery that existed on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England. The area around Maddington England had been occupied since prehistoric times. Romans coins, artefacts and masonry have been found at Maddington, England. It has been continuously occupied since the Saxon time. The small village of Maddington is a couple of miles from Stonehenge.

Stoke Farm, was also named by Phillips and also forms part of modern Maddington in W.A.. Stoke Farm was Canning Location 14A. There is a Stoke Farm in England not far from Maddington Farm, which is part of the old Parish of Maddington. Stokely creek, which bisects the modern suburb of Maddington Western Australia, was named after Stoke Farm and like its counterpart in Maddington England (which also bisects the village of Maddington) is an intermittent stream.

Maddington was important to the Swan River Colony in the early years with two very successful farms operating there. These were Maddington Park and Stoke Farm. One of the earliest stone and brick-built buildings in W.A. was constructed in Maddington in 1836. This was the Maddington Park Homestead, built by Major William Nairn between 1836 and 1841. This extremely important historic homestead was deliberately set on fire in 2004 by two teenage boys from Thornlie. To make matters worse it was burning for a while and the people living opposite did nothing. A passing truck driver reported the fire, but by then significant damage had been done.

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