EARLY MERREDIN PART 1 OF 2

CARAVAN TRIP 2008 DON PUGH WA WESTERN AUSTRALIA Merredin (including Burracoppin) 'The Garden Town in the Heart of the Wheat-belt'. Located on the Great Eastern Highway 259 km east of Perth and 314 m above sea level, Merredin is the most substantial settlement of the Central Wheat Belt. It is strategically located and, as the town promotion says, it likes to think of itself as 'The Garden Town in the Heart of the Wheat-belt'. Merredin Railway Water Tower The railway water tower, which still advertises the now defunct Kalgoorlie Bitter (one can only imagine what a beer made in a goldmining town must have been like), was built in 1893 and still stands as a sentinel for people arriving at Merredin. Merredin Railway Museum It stands beside the Merredin Railway Museum which must be one of the finest railway museums in Australia. The railway line arrived in Merredin in 1893 and the station was built in 1895. It consisted of one shed on a ramp. The foundations of the original shed are still under the railway ramp today. By 1904 Merredin was the locomotive depot for the line and there were a number of small branch lines reaching out into the wheat-belt to service the surrounding farmers. In 1968, when a new station was built, the Merredin Historical Society took over the old station. It now is a near-perfect re-creation of the old station with just about every piece of railway memorabilia possible. It has a working windmill, a beautifully preserved 1897 G117 steam engine, and the station still has the old scales and cream cans. Historic Buildings The township of Merredin has a number of interesting and unusual buildings. The Post Office (1913), on the corner of Bates and Barrack Streets, is a handsome building at the entrance to the main part of the town and the Town Hall (1925) in Mitchell Street has a clock tower (made by the same company who built 'Big Ben' in London) which is a memorial for the local soldiers who died during World War I. But the most interesting building by far is the Cummins Theatre in Bates Street which was built in 1928 from remnants of some demolished Coolgardie pubs and the old Coolgardie Tivoli Theatre. Local legend has it that the bricks still have small deposits of gold in them.. DON PUGH CARAVAN TRIP 2008

Category:

Education

Tags:

• EARLY
• SETTLEMENT
• RAILEAY
• WATER
• PIPELINE
• FARMING
• WHEAT