Lake+Claremont+200+years+ago

The Lake Claremont Area 200 Years Ago This is a photo of our field trip to lake Claremont where we learnt some things about how the Noongar people of Western Australia used to use the Lake Claremont area. In the 19th century the lake was a swamp containing very little water and big areas of paper bark that grew very well. Paper bark trees grow well around swamps. It was believed that the lake flooded at certain times, but the water spread very thinly over the large area.  In 1850 military pensioners coming from England were granted areas of land and the swamp. An amount of 18 grants, each of 3.8 hectares were made. Only a few of the original pensioners remained on land and the development was slow until the completion of Perth Guildford Railway line in 1881. Before the European settlement the Noongar tribe used the land as a source of water and paper bark. The aboriginal used to cook fish in paper bark. Paper bark trees are very important to aborigines. They used it a lot for cooking and many other things.