Map - City of Gosnells (Gosnells)

City of Gosnells (Gosnells)
The City of Gosnells is a local government area in the southeastern suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth, located northwest of Armadale and about 20 km southeast of Perth's central business district. The City covers an area of 128 km2, a portion of which is state forest rising into the Darling Scarp to the east, and had a population of approximately 118,000 at the 2016 Census. The largest activity centre in the City is the Central Maddington shopping centre. District centres exist in the Gosnells town centre, Thornlie and Canning Vale.

The name Gosnells dates back to 1862 when Charles Gosnell who was the owner of London cosmetic company John Gosnell & Co., bought Canning location 16 from the Davis family who were the original grantees in 1829. While the purchase of the land was a personal investment by Charles Gosnell, when the land was sold to developers in 1903 the developers used the association to the well known cosmetic company, claiming it had bought the land because of its fertile soil to grow flowers for the manufacture of its perfume range. The abundance of the Arum Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica) in the area and the marketing by the developers contributed to the myth about the Gosnell company, being so successful that the Gosnells railway station was constructed on the Armadale line in 1903.

The Gosnells Road District was created out of the abolished Canning Road District on 1 July 1907. Industry in the form of brickworks were introduced to Beckenham in the early 1990s. Between 1912 and 1915 fruit fly wiped out nearly all of the stone fruit crops in the region and many farmers turned to dairying and market gardening. Irrigation was vital due to sandy, infertile soils of Canning Vale. In 1923, the City received land from Jandakot Road District when that entity was abolished. Significant development did not occur until the post-war years. The population grew from 7,400 in 1954 to about 11,000 in 1966, and then to 21,000 in 1970. On 1 July 1961, Gosnells Road District became the Shire of Gosnells following enactment of the Local Government Act 1960. On 1 July 1973 it gained town status as the Town of Gosnells and assumed its current name when it attained City status on 1 July 1977.

A large industrial estate was first established in Maddington in the 1970s, expanding over the subsequent decades. Commercial and industrial development has also occurred in a linear pattern along Albany Highway between Beckenham and Gosnells.

 
Map - City of Gosnells (Gosnells)
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Country - Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7617930 km2, Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy.
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