The Darling escarpment has been exploited for stone
quarries,
forestry and
bauxite mining. Extensive
timber railways and timber mills and the supporting communities existed along the escarpment because of the high quality
jarrah forests.
Dams In the early twentieth century, most of the main rivers flowing off the escarpment had mainly been used for dams for water supply for metropolitan Perth. The dams on the scarp include: •
Mundaring Weir (on the
Helena River) •
Serpentine Dam and Pipehead (Serpentine River) • Wungong Dam •
Churchman Brook Dam •
North Dandalup Dam •
South Dandalup Dam (on the two Dandalup branches) •
Canning Dam (on the
Canning River) The only free flowing water from the Darling Range in the Peel Region is the Dirk Brook in
Keysbrook and the
Murray River. The scarp also defines the easternmost limit of the various
aquifers present in the Perth Basin sediments, most notably the Southwest
Yarragadee Aquifer. The scarp forms a divide between the hypersaline groundwaters typical of the Yilgarn craton basement from the fresh ground waters of the Perth Basin. Some dams along the scarp are contaminated by seepage of saline water from the granite into the base of the dam's water column and must be periodically flushed to preserve water quality.
Rock quarries Also in the early to mid-twentieth century numerous rock quarries existed on the edge of the escarpment - visible and affecting both the aesthetics and the environment of the escarpment. In the area where the
Helena River emerges from its valley to the
sandplain, there are still four quarries evident, despite being unused as quarries for fifty years or more. Mountain and Stathams quarries are now managed as rock climbing locations. •
Bluestone quarry (1850s name), later known as
Greenmount Quarry (1850s to 1920s), at
Greenmount Hill on the west side of
Greenmount National Park. •
Mountain Quarry (now usually signed as
Boya Quarry), south of Greenmount Hill, which ceased operation in 1963. •
Byford brickworks (State Brickworks), shale scar visible from early 20th century to WW2 quarrying. •
Fremantle Harbour Works Quarry (sometimes, ''
C. Y. O'Connor's Mole Reconstruction Quarry
, and later known as the Public Works Quarry
), now Hudman Road Amphitheatre'' at edge of
Darlington -
Boya localities border, operated from the 1900s to the 1930s. •
Statham's Quarry at
Gooseberry Hill at northern edge of the
Kalamunda Zig Zag formation. •
Armadale brickworks (State Brickworks), Bedfordale Hill, shale scar visible from 20th century quarrying, with an underground rail bypassing the
South Western Highway to transport the ore. There have also been visible quarries on the scarp in the
Gosnells and
Herne Hill areas. Legislative restrictions upon such developments were initiated in the late twentieth century to prevent further visible scars on the western face of the scarp.
Bauxite mining In the late twentieth century, the proving of bauxite deposits correlating to the extensive
jarrah forests saw wide-ranging protests against the proposals to mine the forests.
Campaign to Save Native Forests was one group to oppose the activity. The lengthy process of protest forced the government and miners to check their original proposals, and wide-ranging processes to guard segments of the jarrah forests from mining ensued. The current mining activity in the region is extensive - the main mines being Huntly and Willowdale.
Railways The building and developing of rail access across the scarp developed three separate main routes over eighty years. • The
Eastern Railway first traversed the Darling Scarp in the 1880s along its
first route through Greenmount (where three of the above quarries were later able to use the railway). • By the 1890s, the
second route passed through
Swan View Tunnel and
John Forrest National Park. • In the 1960s, the
third route used easier grades through the
Avon Valley • The
Kalamunda Zig Zag or
Upper Darling Range railway ran up the southern steep side of the Helena Valley entrance until 1949. • The
Millars timber lines operating south to Yarloop, north through Jarrahdale up to Jarrahglen east of Byford and the Chandler mill.
Perth suburbs on the scarp The localities or suburbs on the "edge" of the scarp are those that sit at its western edge, and in most cases command excellent views of the
Swan Coastal Plain: The suburbs near Midland and Kalamunda are often referred to as the
Perth Hills.
Television transmission towers The suburbs to the south of Kalamunda are the locations of the main Perth Metropolitan television station transmission towers. There is also another site at Mount Lennard near
Collie that Services the Southwest areas including
Bunbury. ==Conservation==