Virtual Visit #40 - Mount Eliza Rifle Range - Perth Volunteers

Human use of Kings Park dates back thousands of years. Aboriginal people called the highest point of Kings Park Kaarta Gar-up and the fresh water spring at the base, Goonininup. Today they are known as Mount Eliza and Kennedy Fountain. These areas were important ceremonial places and sources of food and shelter for the Noongar people.
Today, Kings Park is one of Western Australia’s bucket list icons. Offering panoramic views of the Swan River and Darling Range, it is home to over 324 native plant varieties, 215 known indigenous fungi species and 80 bird species. It overlooks the city as well as Perth Water and Melville Water on the Swan River. Its 4.06-square-kilometre (1,003-acre) make it the largest inner-city park in the world. Today the Park is a mixture of grassed promenades, botanical gardens and natural bushland on Mount Eliza with two-thirds of the grounds conserved as native bushland.
Few of today’s visitors, either local, inter-state or international would realise that for 33 years, from 1862 to 1895, a convict-built rifle range occupied the crest of Mount Eliza overlooking the city, Used by volunteers from the Perth and Fremantle Volunteer Rifles, the range roughly followed the alignment of Fraser Avenue with the butts in the vicinity of the present day Western Australian State War Memorial.