Road Names – Dardanup townsite & sub-divisions

by Jenny Golding
Updated: 14 September 2026

PADBURY FIELDS

“Padbury Fields,” important as a sub-division close to Dardanup in Western Australia, was named for the Padbury family, the name appearing on early area maps. Thomas Padbury was assigned 438 hectares in the area of Dardanup on 29 April 1830. This acreage adjoined the northern boundary of land set aside as the Dardanup Commonage.

Information from an article by Cara Cammilleri appearing in the Australian Dictionary of Biography Volume 5, 1974: Walter Padbury (1820-1907) pastoralist, merchant and philanthropist, was born on 22 December 1820 at Stonefield, Oxfordshire, England, second son of Thomas, a farmer and his wife, Ruth.

With little schooling he sailed to Western Australia on the Protector, arriving in Fremantle on 25 February 1830 with his father who intended to send for his wife and other children. Unfortunately, Thomas died in July, leaving his son in the care of a couple who absconded.  Very young Walter worked on farms, saved his money and prospered, becoming highly respected in Western Australia and a generous philanthropist.

The two roads below were named for the following reasons:

  • PADBURY ROAD: in the sub-division is named for the Padbury family
  • STONESFIELD CRESCENT:   named for the village of Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, England, the village from which the Padbury family came.

Other roads were named for families emigrating from the United Kingdom and settling in Dardanup and for the ships on which they came:

  • MARY-ANN CRESCENT:  Mary-Ann and Mary-Anne (and Mary or Ann/e) were popular names in the Dardanup District when the area was first settled. The name Mary-Ann Crescent was used as a mark of respect to include many pioneer families.
  • KENTUCKY AVENUE: Kentucky is the name of the Garvey family farm in Dardanup, part of which is included in the Padbury Field’s sub-division.
  • CLARA AVENUE: named for the Clara on which William and Mary Garvey and their children came to the Colony in 1853, settling in Dardanup almost immediately. Mrs Garvey became a district midwife.  
  • COONAN AVENUE: named for the Coonan family. Irish Catholics, Thomas and Mary Coonan and their family (including baby Thomas born on the ship sailing to Fremantle) arrived in the Colony on 13 January 1853. They proceeded to Dardanup and took up a ten-acre block, not far from where Thomas Little owned land. The ten-acre block was eventually part of a farm named Killarney owned by the Garvey family.
  • MAQUIRE AVENUE:  The Catholic Maguire family played a leading role in the development of the Dardanup district, settling on land just east of Dardanup town site. John and his wife Katherine, John’s mother and John’s twelve-year-old brother James arrived in Australind on the ship Trusty in 1842.
  • O’NEILL CRESCENT: O’Neill Crescent was named for “Granny” O’Neill, much loved in the Dardanup area for many years as a school teacher and later a trusted midwife and nurse. Her Christian name was Mary-Jane and she was the daughter of James and Elizabeth (nee Carberry) Maquire.  Mary-Jane married William O’Neill, born in County Clare, Ireland, in the original Catholic Church in Dardanup, now the Thomas Little Hall.