Coorow is a town in the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

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 ...

, north of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

History

The townsite of Coorow was gazetted in 1893. Its name is derived from the Aboriginal name of a nearby

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season) Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...

, first recorded in 1872. The meaning of the name may be from the word "Curro", which is the Aboriginal word for a variety of ''

Portulaca ''Portulaca'' (, is the type genus of the flowering plant family Portulacaceae, with over 100 species, found in the tropics and warm temperate regions. They are known as the purslanes. Common purslane (''Portulaca oleracea'') is widely consume ...

''; another source gives it as "many mists". The town experienced some flooding in 1918 following a deluge of of rain overnight. The

Moore River Moore River is a river in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. Geography The headwaters of the Moore River lie in the Perenjori, Carnamah and Dalwallinu Shires. The river then drains southwards through Moora, flows westerly before j ...

broke its banks and caused much more severe flooding downstream at Moora. Coorow Hotel, Coorow, 2013

After rapid growth through the early 1920s local settlers began to seek obtaining a hotel licence for the town in 1927. The licence was granted in 1929 to Alexander Gloster who put forward a tender of £1,750, and submitted his plans for approval. The hotel was erected at a cost of £13,000 and constructed of

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

blocks and brick. The two storey building held fifteen rooms for accommodation on the top floor and more accommodation along with a kitchen, bar, commercial room, saloon and laundry on the ground floor. The building was sewered, with hot and cold water to all rooms, and had an

electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

plant installed. In 1932 the

Wheat Pool of Western Australia Cooperative Wheat Pool of Western Australia, commonly known as the Wheat Pool of Western Australia, is a cooperative of wheat growers in Western Australia. The cooperative was formed in 1922 and one of the inaugural trustees was Charles Walter Harp ...

announced that the town would have two

grain elevators A grain elevator 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 lower level and deposi ...

, each fitted with an engine, installed at the railway siding. The town was flooded in 1932 following torrential rains in the area. The town was left under water for at least a day but the water flowed rapidly away down the

. It was feared at one point that the town

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

would burst from the pressure. Roads were cut from

washaways A washaway is a particular kind of landslide that can affect man-made structures such as cuttings, embankments and bridges. They are thus a hazard to railways and road traffic. Overview The biggest danger with washaways is that they may be ...

and the streets and flooded buildings were left deep in mud with some stock losses, mostly

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

, being reported.

References

External links

Shire of Coorow

Biographical Dictionary of Coorow, Carnamah and Three Springs
{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Shire of Coorow