Sheridans memorial gardens Broomehill WA

Broomehill is a town on the

Great Southern Highway Great Southern Highway is a highway in the southern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, starting from Great Eastern Highway at The Lakes, from Perth, and ending at Albany Highway near Cranbrook. It is the primary thoroughfare for this pa ...

between Katanning and Albany, in the Great Southern region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. Its

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

is the

Shire of Broomehill-Tambellup Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...

History

The town of Broomehill owes its creation to the Great Southern Railway, which was completed in 1889. The railway runs from

Beverley Beverley is a market town, market and minster (church), minster town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre ...

to Albany. Broomehill is named after Sir Frederick Napier Broome (1842–96) who was then the Governor of Western Australia. Gold bearing

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

was discovered by the station master around Broomehill in 1889. In the same year Patrick Garrity purchased two lots facing Jasper Street and built a galvanised iron hotel. By 1905 the hotel had been rebuilt in brick with more extensions added in 1908. Known as the Broomehill Hotel and later as the Imperial Hotel, the two storey tuck pointed building is now heritage listed. The townsite was gazetted by the

Western Australian Land Company Australind is a town in Western Australia, located 12 km north-east of Bunbury's central business district. Its local government area is the Shire of Harvey. At the 2016 census, Australind had a population of 14,539. History Prior to E ...

in 1890, which was recognised by the state government in 1897. A group of settlers from the now extinct town of Eticup moved to the present site of Broomehill to help establish a township after the construction of the railway was completed. These settlers included the Withams, the Walshes, and the Curnows. These three families worked hard to establish the early structures. A Victorian named Hamilton acquired of land around the townsite in 1890; T. W. Powell also acquired near the town from the Western Australian Land Company. A branch of the

Commercial Bank of Australia The Commercial Bank of Australia Limited (CBA) was an Australian and New Zealand retail bank which operated from 1866 until being amalgamated with the Bank of New South Wales, that was established in 1817, to form the Westpac Banking Corporati ...

was opened in the town-site in 1891. In 1892, a police station and post office were also established. The Imperial Hotel was operating in the town by late 1892. The Broomehill Agricultural Hall was opened by T. Norris, a settler of the area, in 1898. The population of the town was 72 (37 males and 35 females) in 1898. A local Progress association was formed in 1905 with C.J. Darcy taking the position of Chairman. Broomehill Football Club had been established in or before 1907, playing games against surrounding towns such as Katanning. A cooperative was discussed in 1920 with insufficient capital being raised, in 1921 the cooperative commenced operations after having taken over the premises of Messrs E. Garrity and Company. The official spelling of Broomehill was changed from two words to one in 1959.

Economy

The main industry in town is

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

farming with the town being a

Cooperative Bulk Handling The CBH Group (commonly known as CBH, an acronym for Co-operative Bulk Handling), is a grain growers' cooperative that handles, markets and processes grain from the wheatbelt of Western Australia. History CBH was formed on 5 April 1933, at a ...

receival site. There is also some sheep farming, while more recently farmers have diversified into

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

and aquaculture (in the form of

barramundi The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer'') or Asian sea bass, is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Perciformes. The species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific, spanning the waters of the Middle East, South ...

farming).

Features

The Holland Track, a well known walking and 4WD track, begins in Broomehill and ends in Coolgardie. The track was established in 1893 by the pioneer John Holland through the bush via Newdegate to the goldfields at Coolgardie.

References

External links

{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Shire of Broomehill-Tambellup Grain receival points of Western Australia