Yanchep

Yanchep is renowned for its natural beauty and is home to pristine beaches and nature reserves. Select MORE for information on the suburb, its neighbourhood and rich history.

Yanchep is an outer coastal suburb of Perth, Western Australia, 56 kilometres north of the Perth CBD.

Yanchep Lagoon, is a popular beach for swimming, fishing and snorkelling with calm waters and an easily accessible reef. Yanchep is also well-known known for its nature reserves.

The iconic Yanchep National Park is a popular tourist attraction and wildlife reserve. The park contains the famous Yanchep Caves, heritage listed buildings - including the Yanchep Inn and Gloucester Lodge - as well as lakes and native animal enclosures.

Yanchep caters well for families with three primary schools and one high school, and handy shopping and dining options at Yanchep Central. Residents can enjoy many amenities in the region including the Mary Lindsay Homestead (an art and cultural space), the new Splendid Park Sporting complex, and Two Rocks library which is just 5 minutes away.

Yanchep is part of the City of Wanneroo local government area, with a convenient City office operating from the Yanchep Two Rocks Access Centre (YTRAC). Yanchep sits within the City’s Transitional Coastal Place Management Area – See Yanchep Two Rocks Local Area Plan - which guides how these unique places will be developed, managed and activated now and in the future.

More than 11,000 people currently live in Yanchep and the population is forecast to grow to over 47,200 over the next 20 years. Find out more about your neighbourhood.

The future development of the train line into Yanchep is expected to fuel further growth in the region.

The word Yanchep is derived from Yanjidi, which is the Aboriginal name for the edible root of the native narrow leaf flax, Typha anggustipholia or bulrush reed, found fringing the lakes in the area now known as the Yanchep National Park.

For thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Yanchep area was inhabited by Aboriginal peoples, and was a noted hunting site.

Explorer and surveyor John Butler first visited and recorded the lakes in 1834. Four years later, Lieutenant George Gray explored Yanchep and learned much of his knowledge on bush tucker from the local Aboriginal people from Yanchep and Wanneroo.

After European occupation, the land now occupied by Yanchep was being used as a sheep station.

The Yanchep National Park was established in 1930. Its bushland and wetland are home to western gray kangaroos and rich birdlife. One of many caves in the park, Crystal Cave is an underground limestone cavern with stalactites and stalagmites. The Spudshed supermarket chain started as a farm in the area in 1965. In 1970.

Alan Bond bought approximately 8,100 hectares (20,000 acres) of land at Yanchep and Bond Corporation developed designs for "Yanchep Sun City" - a future satellite city of over 200,000 residents.

The first houses in the area were built in 1972, and the marina at nearby Two Rocks was built as part of the same project two years later. It was to be the first step in turning the area into a “premier leisure recreation region”.

Unfortunately, the marina did not prove to be the money-maker its creators had hoped and, after the Bond Corporation began experiencing financial difficulties, Bond’s land was bought out by Tokyu Corporation in 1977. The marina was closed down in 1990.

In the Western Australian State Government's "Directions 2031" urban expansion plan, Yanchep was once again highlighted as a future satellite city and major metropolitan centre.

(Historic information courtesy of Wanneroo Community History Centre)

Area: 218.521 km2 Elevation: 74 m Population: 11,548 (2021 estimate from 2016 Census) Local Government Area: City of Wanneroo Phone: 08 9405 5000 Email: enquiries@wanneroo.wa.gov.au