Yokine

The name Yokine was derived from the Aboriginal word meaning 'native dog'. The name was chosen because the area is close to [Native] Dog Swamp.  Yokine Hill, also known as Mount Yokine, was originally used as a survey point and is a significant landscape feature. Yokine Hill is 79 metres above sea level.

Most of Yokine was originally part of the grant given to T.R.C. Walters in 1830, though a section of this later suburb was also included in the Location Ab grant to George Williams in the same year.  This first grant to George Williams was never surveyed, marked, or conveyed.  Williams made no attempt to develop his grant and the land passed into the hands of William Tanner in 1837. Tanner had the skills, resources, and energy to help him succeed in developing his land grant. 

Thomas Richard Carey Walters and his wife Caroline arrived in the Swan River Colony with a good selection of machinery, ironmongery, seeds, plants, and provisions which entitled them to a grant of 2,330 hectares.  When his allocation was increased, the new selection took the border of Walters’ land to the edge of Careniup Swamp.  By 1838, Walters had improved his land sufficiently with a house and other buildings, cleared fields, roads, drains, wells, fences, extensive orchards and market gardens, and owned livestock valued at 1,500 pounds ($3,000).  Walters’ land grant went from Dog Swamp to Herdsman Lake to Careniup Swamp and over to Balcatta.  He developed the areas around the lakes and swamps first as there was more reliable water supply.  As well as successfully farming his land, Walters worked as a merchant in the Colony.

Wanneroo Road passed along the side of Dog Swamp and was one of the major roads which required work.  In the winter, the soft road regularly flooded and became churned up, making it difficult to cross.  By the mid 1890s, macadamised road surfaces of broken stone were in use as the best compromise in this sandy area.  Wanneroo Road was the preferred road for market gardeners further north in Osborne Park or Wanneroo to take their produce into Perth. Pig, poultry, and markets gardens were established in the early 1900s, though sales of land slowed down after World War I.  Speculative purchases of land then began to occur, resulting in places like the Tennyson Park Estate between Spencer and Wordsworth Avenues which remained virtually uninhabited even in 1956, when the returning soldiers and the influx of migrants created a demand for land. 

 Western Australian Golf Limited was the owner of Yokine from at least 1927, and the group subdivided a small portion of land near the golf course for housing.  Prior to World War II the only house in the area was at the eastern end of Royal Street.  A housing boom began in Yokine after the war and much of the area around the golf course was developed by the early 1950s. The southern section experienced rapid growth in the 1960s and by the late 1970s Yokine was almost completely developed.  

The Dog Swamp and Flinders Square shopping centres combine to form a major retail focus in the south of Yokine. These centres provide for local shopping needs and contain a range of specialty stores. Yokine also hosts several smaller centres to cater for daily shopping.  Many parks are situated within Yokine the largest being Yokine Reserve. The site was formerly a landfill site and is used as public open space. Dog Swamp Shopping Centre retail centre was established in 1967 and provides a vital service to the local community.  Flinders Square Shopping Centre has been added and faces Flinders Street, as the name suggests.

The West Australian Golf Club is also a well-known Yokine landmark. The course is located on the north-eastern boundary of Yokine and was developed in the 1920s as the Mount Yokine Golf Course. In 1960 the golf course was under threat of redevelopment for housing, and the Council suggested rezoning the land as open-space golf club. The Council decided not to rezone from the then current residential zoning, so the land was transferred to the State Government as an A-class reserve to be used as a golf course.  The Bill to effect this change was read in Parliament during November 1960.