Our History

Our School has always been a very important part of the local community over the last 100 years. The School opened on 5 November 1906 with two students due to the parents of the day not being advised of this official opening. However, by the end of November 1906, 34 students attended the Infants School called Buckland Hill. The playground was thick black sand, which made it difficult for the children to stay clean. At first there was no fence and horses, goats and poultry roamed at will around the grounds.

Local residents frequently took a 'short cut' through the school yard on their way to or from Cottesloe Beach Station. In 1919, Mosman Park Primary School formed the first Parents & Citizens' Association in the metropolitan area, which was the second in Western Australia. In the same year, the School was connected to electricity for the first time.

In 1950 the School had a student population of 550 and peaked in the following year at 562 students. Throughout its history, and like other schools in the district, Mosman Park Primary School has benefited greatly from the efforts of many dedicated teachers and a caring and supportive parent group.

Mosman Park Primary School House Names

Buckland

Buckland Hill is an early name for what is now the town of Mosman Park. Buckland Hill was named by Capt James Stirling after William Buckland, and it is also the name of the last remaining intact peak of seven prominent hills around Mosman Park between the Swan River and the Indian Ocean. It is one of the highest points in the Perth metropolitan area. Buckland Hill was quarried for limestone in the early days of the colony. It is thought that Willem de Vlaming, the early Dutch navigator, climbed the hill in 1697 to see what lay beyond it and found the Swan River which he named.

William Buckland was born on 12^th March, 1784. He read Geology at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and excavated many caverns and discovered fossils of extinct animals which once roamed Britain. He was a geologist, palaeontologist and theologian who became Dean of Westminster (England) in 1845. Buckland House at Mosman Park Primary School was therefore named after the early colonial history of the area.

Baldwin

Margaret Baldwin was a student of the primary school from 1947-1953.  She was then called Margaret Leach, but she changed her name when she married Ivan Baldwin.  She has remained a resident of Mosman Park and has volunteered at the school – particularly in the area of sports such as netball, cricket, swimming, athletics and softball- for over 55 years. Marg has coached many students over her long association with the school – some of whom are now parents of current students and even some current staff were taught by her. The Margret Baldwin Centre for sport bears her name; she was awarded the Mayoral Trophy in 1980 and the Director General of Education’s Award of Merit in 1985. Marg holds an Order of Australia (2005), has been Citizen of the Year (1966) and Senior Citizen of the Year (2018) for the Town of Mosman Park.  Baldwin House bears her name with pride as she has dedicated her life to this community.

Balbuk

Balbuk was previously called Stirling House but was changed in 2021 in response to community concerns about the role that Captain James Stirling played in the massacre of Noongar people in Pinjarra in the 1800s. After the Student Council investigated a number of alternative names, the staff and student body voted to replace Stirling with the name Balbuk.  Fanny Balbuk was a prominent Whadjuk Noongar woman who lived in Perth during the early years of the Swan River Colony.  She was born on Heirisson Island in 1840 (dying in 1907 – buried in the grounds of the St George’s Cathedral). She is a descendant of Yellagonga, a Mooro Whadjuk leader at the time of the settlement. She was known for her commitment to maintaining the land rights of her people in defiance of the city going up around her country.  She would walk the path between her birthplace and the railway station regardless of anything that got in her way. We believe that the addition of Balbuk as a Mosman Park Primary School House provides the school with a more complete representation of the history of Perth.