Story: Kalamunda History Village
Episode: 18
Presenter: Carmen Braidwood
Air Date: 21 June 2026

Carmen takes a trip into the past and explores the historic corner of Kalamunda.

• It is Western Australia’s largest folk museum, showcasing the history, industries, and everyday life of the Perth Hills region.
• The village stands on the site of the former Upper Darling Range Railway Station, built in the 1890s to serve the famous Zig Zag railway that transported timber from local mills to Midland Junction.
• Two original railway station buildings and the historic platform remain on-site, and they are listed on the National Trust List of Heritage Places.
• The museum features more than a dozen heritage displays and buildings, including a schoolhouse, post offices, settler’s cottage, blacksmith shop, orchard shed, carriage shed, sawpit, and boarding house.
• Visitors can see Locomotive G118, a restored “G” Class steam locomotive that once operated on the Kalamunda railway line and Zig Zag route.
• Several buildings were relocated from around the Perth Hills and carefully restored, allowing visitors to walk through authentic examples of early community life from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• The village highlights the industries that built the region, including timber cutting, orcharding, quarrying, transport services, and rural settlement life.
• The attraction is managed largely by volunteers from the Kalamunda and Districts Historical Society, who maintain the collections and preserve local heritage for future generations.