Plumbers Bedford

Bedford is a suburb 6 kilometres (4 mi) north-east of the central business district (CBD) of Perth, the capital of Western Australia. Named after Frederick Bedford, the Governor of Western Australia from 1903 to 1909, the suburb is within the City of Bayswater local government area. It is predominantly a low density residential suburb consisting of single-family detached homes, with clusters of commercial buildings along Beaufort Street, Grand Promenade and Walter Road.

Before European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Mooro group of the Whadjuk Noongar people. The first major developments for the suburb occurred in the 1920s, when the extension of Beaufort Street and its associated tram service into the area triggered housing construction. Bedford Park was gazetted as a townsite in 1937, and major growth occurred following World War II, due to developments by the State Housing Commission. Today, Bedford is fully suburbanised.

Major roads that travel through or along the edge of the suburb are Beaufort Street, Coode Street, Grand Promenade and Walter Road. Major parks include Beaufort Park, RA Cook Reserve and Grand Promenade Reserve, which are used for various sports including Australian rules football, cricket and soccer.

Before European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Mooro group of the Whadjuk Noongar people. The Mooro group were led by Yellagonga, and inhabited the area north of the Swan River, as far east as Ellen Brook and north to Moore River. The Swan River provided fresh water and food, as well as being a place for trade.

When Europeans founded the Swan River Colony in 1829, they did not recognise the indigenous ownership of the land. Land along the Swan River was surveyed by John Septimus Roe, the colony’s Surveyor General. The survey resulted in the land being divided into long, narrow rectangular strips extending from the river. As the river was the only method of transportation in the early years of the colony, each piece of land had to have river frontage. The long, narrow strips were called “ribbon grants”, however the term “grant” was misleading, as the grantees had a requirement that they make improvements to the land granted to them within 10 years, or be forced to forfeit the land. In 1830, the colonists travelled up the river to the land allotted to them. The colonists were disappointed to discover that most of the area inland was unsuitable for European agriculture, being sand dunes interspersed with swampland. Most of these colonists either died or left the area soon after, and none of them settled in the present day Bedford, far away from the Swan River.