About Rosebridge House
Nestled on the edge of Gooseberry Hill National Park and within walking distance of Kalamunda, a charming country village and only 10-15 minutes’ drive from Perth Airport, you will find Rosebridge House Bed & Breakfast.
This charming 1920s colonial home offers six romantically furnished guest suites with brass beds, luxurious bed linen, and ensuite bathrooms for the perfect adult retreat.
Each guest suite has been furnished carefully to reflect its own identity, has reverse-cycle air-conditioning, and individual access via French doors to the outdoor areas.
Rosebridge House boasts a comfortable guest lounge with a cosy open fire for the winter months, a large DVD library and board games.
The adjacent dining room affords guests a perfect way to start their day with complimentary fresh fruit, cereal and a cooked breakfast.
Fresh coffee and a selection of teas are the perfect complement.
We are in the top 10% of hotels worldwide.
The Travellers’ Choice Award celebrates hotels that consistently deliver fantastic experiences to travellers around the globe. We are happy to announce we have won this award consecutively for the past 16 years, having stood out by providing great service and experiences to our guests.
Your Hosts
Pete and Julia, both from Kenya with hospitality/tourism backgrounds, moved to Australia in early 1980, welcome you to Rosebridge House.
They invite you to share their home and hospitality and hope you enjoy your stay, leaving relaxed and refreshed.
History
The township of Kalamunda was founded 1881 when Frederick and Elizabeth Stirk took up 10 acres of land and built themselves a wattle and daub cottage. Their dwelling was the first to be built in the future township of Kalamunda.
Stirk Cottage still stands on Kalamunda Road just north of the town centre. It is a simple, three-room house which, when it was first built, was roofed with jarrah shingles. These shingles have been replaced with corrugated iron.
Twenty years after the arrival of the Stirks (1901), the town site of Kalamunda was approved. It was reputedly named after the local Aboriginal words ‘cala’ meaning ‘home’ and ‘munnda’ meaning ‘forest’ – ‘a home in the forest’.
In 1891, the timber potential of the area attracted the Canning Jarrah Timber Company that took up a 100,000-acre timber lease and built a zig zag railway between its mill and the main railway connection at Midland. So steep was the climb the engine had to alternate between pulling and pushing its load.
The government operated the railway line from 1903 until 1949. Today there is little left of the village that grew up around the timber company, however the old zig zag railway remains and offers superb views over Perth and the broad coastal plain.
In the 1920s, Kalamunda, like so many cool mountain retreats around the capital cities, became a popular health resort destination to which people of Perth could escape, prompting the construction of large beautiful guesthouses with magnificent gardens, some of which remain.
At its peak, Kalamunda was home to 38 guesthouses, however by the 1960s they had all but disappeared as the South West of Western Australia was developed as a tourist destination and the population became more mobile.
Rosebridge House has continued the tradition of providing superb accommodation in a colonial homestead nestled on the edge of the Gooseberry Hill National Park and just one kilometre from the heart of Kalamunda township.
Until 1996, it was a private dwelling when the owners (Rosemary and Peter Bridgeman) converted it to a bed and breakfast.
First, the original Summer House was renovated and later a period style addition was built which includes the Rose Room, the Green Room and the Courtyard Room.
The original residential cottage comprising the Spring and Autumn rooms has also been restored in the past few years.
The Kalamunda Hotel (the second in the area) was built in the 1920s and was famed as a resort until World War II. It is now one of two local pubs in Kalamunda.