Carnamah is a town in the

Mid West The Mid West region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is a sparsely populated region extending from the west coast of Western Australia, about north and south of its administrative centre of Geraldton and inland to east of W ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, about north of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

along the Midlands Road. At the 2021 census, the population of the town was 407. The town was gazetted in 1913, and is named after "Carnamah", a pastoral property established by Duncan Macpherson in this location in the late 1860s. A telegraph station was established here in 1873, and is referred to in 1876 by the explorer

Ernest Giles William Ernest Powell Giles (20 July 1835 – 13 November 1897), best known as Ernest Giles, was an Australian explorer. He led five major expeditions to parts of South Australia and Western Australia. Early life Ernest Giles was born in Bris ...

. Giles spells it "Cornamah" in his book, but "Carnamah" on his map. Macpherson's property "Carnamah" derives its name from Carnamah Spring. The name is probably Aboriginal of unknown meaning, or possibly is a

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

word meaning "cairn of the cattle" or "cattle rocks". The

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

line was constructed through the area in 1894, and a siding was built close to the Macpherson's homestead. This in turn led to further settlement of the area. The Carnamah Progress Association was formed in 1912, and the Carnamah State School was established, and in 1913 the townsite was declared. In 1932 the Wheat Pool of Western Australia announced that the town would have two

grain elevators A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

, each fitted with an engine, installed at the railway siding. The main industry in town is

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

farming, with the town being a

Cooperative Bulk Handling The CBH Group (commonly known as CBH, an acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled ...

receival site. Carnamah is home to a 5:1 scale replica of a Chamberlain 40K. Unveiled in October 2024, it is the largest tractor sculpture in the world.

Climate

Carnamah possesses a

hot semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...

( Köppen: BSh) with hot, dry

summers Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

and mild, somewhat rainy winters. Average maxima vary from in January to in July, while average minima fluctuate between in February and in August. Annual

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

is rather low, (averaging ), and is spread across 75.7 precipitation days. The town is sunny, experiencing 139.7 clear days and 61.6 cloudy days annually. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 23 January 1980 to on 2 July 1948.

References

External links

Shire of CarnamahCarnamah Historical SocietyEarly History of CarnamahVirtual Museum: to be known and distinguished as CarnamahWinchester Cemetery, CarnamahBiographical Dictionary of Coorow, Carnamah and Three Springs
{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Mid West (Western Australia) Grain receival points of Western Australia

Climate

See also

References

External links