Dowerin, Western Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Population: 352 (2006 Census) [1]
Dowerin is a town and shire located 156 kilometres (97 mi) north-east of Perth in the central Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Field Day
3 Theo's run
4 Dowerin District High School
5 Notable People from Dowerin
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
[edit] History
In 1906 the government extended the railway from Goomalling to the developing Dowerin Agricultural Area and decided to develop a townsite at the terminus. The Aboriginal name of the site chosen was "Wuguni", but "Dowerin", also an Aboriginal name, was already in local use for the place, and was the name gazetted in 1907. The name is derived from nearby Lake Dowerin, first recorded on maps around 1879. One source suggests Dowerin is the Aboriginal word for the twenty eight parrot (Dow-arn), and another suggests it means "place of the throwing stick" (dower).[2]
[edit] Field Day
Dowerin is home to the Dowerin GWN Field Days, currently a two day annual event (held in the last week of August) showcasing agricultural and associated equipment, as well as providing information and services to people from rural areas. The Field Days attracts on average in excess of 600 exhibitors as well as over 15,000 local and national visitors each day.[3]
The event was first held as the Dowerin Machinery Field Day on 3 September 1965, and was the result of meetings by the Dowerin Progress Association the previous year which looked at ideas to prevent the town of Dowerin from becoming a ghost town. Some twenty exhibitors and two thousand visitors attended the first field day, with funds raised from the first event going towards funding the construction of a dam and a grassed tennis court.[3] The event continues to be run and managed by the local community, with three full time staff and 400 volunteers involved in the event's running each year.
Wyalkatchem, Western Australia
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Wyalkatchem
Western Australia
Population: 369
Established: 1910s
Postcode: 6485
Location: 192 km (119 mi) NE of Perth
35 km (22 mi) E of Dowerin
LGA: Shire of Wyalkatchem
State District: Central Wheatbelt
Federal Division: O'Connor
Coordinates: 31°10′37″S 117°22′59″E / 31.177°S 117.383°E / -31.177; 117.383
Wyalkatchem townsite is located in the central agricultural region, 192 kilometres (119 mi) east north east of Perth and 35 kilometres (22 mi) east of Dowerin. When the extension of the railway east from Dowerin was planned in 1908 land was set aside for a future townsite in the area of Wyalcatchem Tank. The route of the railway and site for a station was not fixed until 1910, and action followed to then fix the position of the townsite and survey town lots. Following the survey of the lots the townsite was gazetted spelt Wyalkatchem in 1911.
When the railway from Dowerin opened in February 1911, Wyalkatchem was a minor siding only, but its importance grew when it was selected as the turnout point for a branch line leading north and then east to the Mount Marshall district. Thus a small village quickly blossomed on the town site. The branch line to Bencubbin opened on 1 February, 1915 and the line from Dowerin was extended to Merredin in August, 1911[1].
Wyalkatchem is an Aboriginal name first recorded for a waterhole spelt Walkatching in the 1870s. The spelling Walcatching was used in 1881 when the Toodyay Road Board referred to a tank to be built there, and when the road from Northam to the Yilgarn Goldfield was surveyed in 1892 the spelling Wyalcatchem was used for the tank. The Walkatching spelling is probably the most accurate, as Aboriginal names in this region rarely end in em. The change of spelling from Wyalcatchem to Wyalkatchem in 1911 was done by the Department of Lands & Surveys according to rules the Department had adopted for spelling Aboriginal names. The meaning of the name is not known.[2]
DON PUGH CARAVAN TRIP 2008
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PIONEERS' PATHWAY PART III GOOMALLING AND TOODYAYby DON434324 views
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