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Blackwall Reach
Blackwall Reach (Jenalup in Noongar) is a section of the Swan River in Western Australia.
Blackwall Reach was named after an area of the River Thames near Greenwich UK in 1896 by Commander L.S. Dawson RN, Admiralty Surveyor. The name originally referred to that part of the river, rather than either side, but this changed in the twentieth century when the riverside land on the eastern bank just south of Point Walter was specifically called Blackwall Reach. It contains limestone cliffs and remnant vegetation adjacent to the river's edge.
The location is a popular spot for cliff jumping and for rock climbing. However, since the creation and management of the clifftop reserve, signage advises against jumping. Non-adherence to this signage has resulted in fatalities.
Prior to European settlement, the area was known to the Noongar indigenous people as Jenalup, a sacred place linked to the Dreaming stories.
References and Links
J. Gentilli and V.N. Serventy, 1949, 'The Blackwall Reach cliffs, Swan River', in The Western Australian Naturalist, vol. 2, no. 2, Sept 16: 34–38.
Vanessa Smith, 1986, Blackwall Reach Reserve draft management plan, City of Melville.
Nicolas Perpitch 2017, 'Man dies after cliff jumping at Blackwall Reach into Perth's Swan River', ABC News.
Wikipedia page for the WA place.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 29 March, 2020 and hosted at freotopia.org/places/blackwallreach.html (it was last updated on 15 April, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.