The 341ton sailing ship “Atwick” was under the command of Captain Hugh McKay when she left London with passengers and general cargo bound for Western Australia. She carried two guns and had a crew of 20 men. She arrived in the Swan River Colony on October 19th, 1829.

Forty-eight-year-old agriculturalist Capt. Edward Picking (aka Pickering) from Gainsborough, was a passenger on board. His servant William Hyde (aka Hide) was also on board. He applied for a land grant the same day as he stepped from the boat. He farmed in several places in Western Australia. In 1834 he was assigned 3000 acres, but this was lost due to non-payment of location fees. Was Postmaster in Perth in 1841. In 1844 he became Clerk of the Roads Trust and called tenders for Canning Bridge in 1846. It appears that he made several exploratory journeys along the Helena River. In the Hand Book of Western Australia, there is a map dated 1835 which shows the Helena River and a tributary, “Picking Creek” flowing north into it. All other maps show the tributary as “Pickering Brook” and one can only conclude that it has, over the years, been corrupted into “Pickering”. About 4 miles west of the creek or brook is the settlement of Pickering Brook. It seems that when the Canning Jarrah Timber Company Ltd. owned the Upper Darling Range Railway, a logline running in an easterly direction was built from a point on the mainline somewhere below Monument Hill. That point was, of course, a junction and before the railway was taken over by the Government, was known as Pickering Junction. Later it was called Pickering Brook, presumably because the Government did not acquire the logline.

The place-name of Pickering Brook was used. Because of its proximity to the water catchment country, the settlement was not encouraged, and a named townsite was not formed. A townsite was formed about 2 miles east on 22nd January 1922 and it was known as “Beamulla”, an aboriginal word meaning “Black Cockatoo”. At a meeting of the Pickering Brook Progress Association, a request was made to the Under Secretary of Land, requesting a change of name. The reply dated 26th December 1923, presented three names for consideration. The name Carilla, on the recommendation of the Surveyor-General, was gazetted on the 17th February 1926, replacing Beamulla. 

Carilla is the Aboriginal name for “running water”. In 1952 the location of Carilla was canceled and Pickering Brook formally encompassed the whole area. The townsite of Pickering Brook was gazetted on 12th January