About Clarkson, WA

Clarkson is an outer northern suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located 34 kilometres north of Perth's central business district in the City of Wanneroo. While mostly a residential area, it also functions as a town centre, serving many surrounding areas with a vast amount of amenities and facilities. The suburb has a railway station on the Joondalup railway line and also is a major public transport hub for surrounding suburbs. == Geography == Clarkson is bounded to the west by Mindarie (Marmion Avenue) and to the north by Merriwa and Ridgewood (Hester Avenue). The Joondalup railway line divides Clarkson from the Neerabup National Park in the east. South of Clarkson is Tamala Park, which is uninhabited.It is approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) away from the Indian Ocean and the coastlines of Claytons Beach and Quinns Beach. == History == === Name === The suburb's name refers to the Clarksons, a family of sheep farmers who had held leases of land in the area since the 19th century. Clarkson was originally gazetted as "Mindarie" by the Shire of Wanneroo in 1979, but the two names were transposed in 1985 at the request of Smith Corporation, who went on to develop the Mindarie Keys Marina three years later. === Early use === The first permanent settler with European ancestry in the area was the Barnard Drummond Clarkson, a sheep-farmer who also held land in Toodyay. Clarkson first acquired a pastoral lease in 1888 of 13,000 acres in the areas comprising modern-day Mindarie, Clarkson, Quinns Rocks and Merriwa.