by 1834, a road had been surveyed from perth to kelmscott and within a few years roads to albany and bunbury were also marked out enabling the establishment of overland mail services. however, it was not until 1851 that work began to properly form the road between perth and kelmscott. the work was assisted by the arrival of convict labour in 1852, and during the next few years the roads from kelmscott to albany and from kelmscott to pinjarra were formed. it was at the junction of the roads to albany and pinjarra that the township of armadale was born when an enterprising settler saw opportunity to establish a wayside inn there, some time around 1853. the property was sold to thomas saw in 1856, and together with his father-in-law, henry gibbs, in 1856 he applied for a wayside licence to sell liquor. their wayside inn was named the neerigin inn after the brook that flowed out of the darling range at this point. for many years the district was known as neerigin or narrogin, and a hotel bearing this name still stands on the site of the original wayside inn.