Editing Darling Scarp (section)

== History ==
[[Image:STS097-712-37.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Southwest Western Australia from space. The dark green is dense vegetation on and above the scarp, which has been retained for forest reserve and water catchment purposes. The sharp vegetation boundary on the coastal side coincides with the edge of the scarp.]]

The feature was first recorded as General Darling Range by [[Charles Fraser (botanist)|Charles Fraser]], Government Botanist with Captain [[James Stirling (Australian governor)|James Stirling]] aboard {{HMS|Success|1825|6}} in March 1827.

Maps from the 1830s show the scarp labelled ''[[Ralph Darling|General Darlings]] Range''; this later became ''Darling Range'', a name by which the formation was still commonly known in the late 20th century despite common understanding of it being an escarpment. There is also a tendency to identify the locations on or to the east of the scarp as being in the ''[[Perth Hills]]'' (or simply ''The Hills''), despite extending over hundreds of kilometers.

The earliest traverses by [[United Kingdom|British]] [[settler]]s in the [[Swan River Colony]] occurred in the 1830s. The best known of these is the expedition of [[Robert Dale (explorer)|Ensign Robert Dale]], who appears to have gone from a point near [[Guildford, Western Australia|Guildford]], to the south side of [[Greenmount, Western Australia|Greenmount]] Hill and up through the [[Helena Valley]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia |last=Cross |first=Joseph |author-link= Joseph Cross (author)|year=1833 |chapter= Journal of the Proceedings of a party of Officers and men, for the purpose of crossing the Darling Range of Mountains, under the orders of Lieutenant Preston, R.N.|publisher=J. Cross |location=London |pages=6–14 |url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Journals_of_Several_Expeditions_Made_in_Western_Australia,_During_the_Years_1829,_1830,_1831,_and_1832 |access-date=28 February 2009}}</ref>