The first recorded visit by Europeans to the Cottesloe district occurred much earlier with the arrival in January 1697 of three Dutch ships under the command of Captain Willem de Vlamingh.
It was a further 132 years before any settlement was made. The first of a group of British settlers (under the command of Captain James Stirling) to settle in Cottesloe was John Butler on 250 acres with river frontage (now Peppermint Grove). Butler built a house for his family beside the rough track between Perth and Fremantle. The house soon gained a reputation for the excellent hospitality provided to travellers of the track and became known as the 'Bush Inn' or 'Halfway House'.
Convicts, transported from the United Kingdom, were put to work on the Perth to Fremantle track and in 1858 the road was completed. In 1872 the road was declared a public highway. The Perth to Fremantle railway line was completed in 1881 and a siding was constructed, which became known as 'Bullen's Siding'.
Cottesloe was declared a suburban area at the time it was officially named, but it was nearly two years later before the first 4-acre lots were sold. In the mid-1890s there was a rush to take up land and a number of houses were erected. The first permanent residence to be built near Cottesloe Beach was 'The Summit' in Avonmore Terrace for Mr and Mrs J.C.G. Foulkes. By 1898 the population of Cottesloe was 1,000.
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