A 24-year-old man has been charged with five counts of murder after two-year-old twin girls, their three-year-old sister, mother and grandmother were found dead in a Perth home.

The bodies of Mara Quinn, aged 41, her three-year-old daughter Charlotte, twins Alice and Beatrix, and their grandmother Beverley Quinn, 73, were found at a Bedford home, in Perth’s east, on Sunday.

The bodies were discovered at the home on Sunday after a man surrendered himself to Pannawonica police station, about 1500 kilometres north of Perth in the Pilbara region.

Anthony Robert Harvey appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Monday via video link from Karratha courthouse accused of killing his partner and children on September 3 – six days before their bodies were discovered.

He then allegedly killed Ms Quinn the next day when she arrived at the house.

WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said several weapons were used, including a blunt instrument and knives, but no guns.

He said the women were allegedly attacked in the kitchen, while the children were killed elsewhere in the house.

Police also allege Harvey remained at the house for some days, then travelled north.

Police outside the Perth house where the five bodies were found on Sunday. Photo: AAP

“It is a tragic thing when incidents like this occur. It does send a ripple through the community of Western Australia,” Assistant Commissioner Metropolitan Region Paul Steel said.

The shocking discovery comes after the shooting deaths of three adults and four children in Osmington in regional WA in May and the deaths of a mother and her daughter, 15, and son, eight, at Ellenbrook in Perth’s north-east in July.

Homicide detectives and specialist forensic police spent Monday examining the Coode Street home for evidence and clues to what happened.

Distraught neighbours told News Corp about the family and how they hadn’t been seen in recent days.

Nearby neighbour Doug Roberston said he often heard the girls playing.

“Who would want to hurt little children?” Mr Robertson said. “I just don’t understand it.

“I didn’t see the kids but I could hear them playing. I just can’t believe this has happened.”

Richard Fairbrother, who lives next door to the Coode Street house, told the ABC he last saw the family more than a week ago.

“We’ve just been on a holiday and come back yesterday [Saturday] to silence in the street,” he said.

“We noticed that the house next door was pretty quiet, which was unusual, being that they had the young kids.

“We had some friends staying here who have also mentioned that they didn’t see or hear anybody next door for the week that we were away.”

-with agencies