Protests in the City of Cockburn

Protests in the City of Cockburn have been an irregular occurance since the arrive of the European settlers to area. Disputes with the traditional land owners the Whadjuk Noongar people and settlers were common place. The townsite of Clarence was founded in 1829 by Thomas Peel though not his original grant area selected before his departed United Kingdom for the Swan River Colony. Peel was denied his original grant by James Stirling and given the area that stretched Cockburn Sound south to the Murray river. This grant brought his Peel Estate into to direct conflict with the Beeliar people lead by Midgegooroo clashed with the new arrivals over clearing of land and the killing of sheep. As result of these clashes Midgegooroo was executed in 1833 without being tried.^[1]

By 890's the area had increased land clearing and was growing in the number of farms in an area known as Jandakot which supplied most of the fresh produce to Fremanlte. The Jandakot Rail League was formed to petition for a rail line the connected it to Fremantle.^[2] After many years of protests and petitions to the government a line was eventually built between Fremantle and Armadale through the area. The Spearwood–Armadale railway line included sidings and stations in Spearwood, Bibra Lake, Jandakot opened in 1906, it would be another year before the line connected to Banjup and beyond.^[3][1]

During 1984 violent protests sought to prevent the building of Farrington road through the northern areas of the Beeliar wetlands. This was a sign of things to come when the WA Government under pressure from the Federal Government sort to extend Roe highway through the Beeliar wetlands. The protests to save the Beeliar Wetlands not only succeeded in removing that section of road from future plans, it also was a major cause of the Liberal Government in the 2017 State Election with the worst defeat of a sitting government.^[1]

A popular and now icon of Western Australia Tony Galati had market gardens in the area. Galati took a fight with the Potato Marketing Board also based within the City over quotas and trade restrictions on potatoes sold in Western Australia. The Potato Marketing Board had absolute control of all potato crops from planting to their sale as well as distribution of the potatoes within Western Australia. Tony and family led the charge to break this monopoly in a 20-year battle.^[4] During this time Tony would be forced by the bureaucracy to dump his produce as they would purchase what he had grown, instead Tony opted to give his potatoes away for free.^[1]