The suburb was named after the Greater London Suburb in England. Wembley was a part of the 100-acre original Crown grant Ah Lakes Perthshire, which was granted to Thomas Hunt in 1842. In its early days of settlement, the area was known as Herdsman Lake and Lake Monger area, due to the area being located between the two lakes.
The name Wembley was approved and gazetted in July 1924. The area around Herdsman Lake was mostly used for market gardens. During the 1960s and 1970s, market garden owners were asked to give up part of their lots to the crown so that the land could be used as a Regional Open Space.
A great potion of the suburb of Wembley is within the Town of Cambridge. Herdsman Lake is a significant landmark within the area. The Aboriginal name for the lake is Njookenbooroo or Ngoogenbor. Areas around the Lake have been registered as Aboriginal Heritage Sites.
The Settlers’ Cottage is on the last remaining lot from a subdivision of 40 houses in the 1930s which divided Herdsman Lake into smallholdings for market gardening. The cottage is representative of the accommodation of settlers in what was then a rural area and a good example of low-cost workers’ housing from the pre-Second World War period in Western Australia.
The cottage was bought by Frederick Hatcher, an ex-soldier and carpenter, in May 1933, where he lived until his death in 1960. It was purchased by brothers Giovanni and Angelo Gava, who had been able to establish market gardens elsewhere on the lake, and who did not live at the property. It remained in the Gava family until 1991, when it was purchased by the state government. In 1995 the cottage was moved 75 metres east, and restoration work was undertaken by the National Trust, who were then entrusted with the care of the cottage in 1997.
Herdsman Lake is an important wetland, part of a group which at the advent of European settlement occupied much of the land immediately north of present day Perth Water. These lakes were linked through subterranean percolation. Herdsman Lake was the largest of the lakes and, along with several others, quickly succumbed to 19th century drainage and reclamation. Today, Herdsman Lake and Lake Monger are the only surviving examples of a previously extensive system.
