Dalwallinu ( or ), colloquially called Dally, is a town in the Wheatbelt 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 ...

, located 248 km from Perth via the

Great Northern Highway Great Northern Highway is an Australian highway that links Western Australia's capital city Perth with its northernmost port, Wyndham. With a length of almost , it is the longest highway in Australia, with the majority included as part of the ...

Agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and supporting industries are the town's primary economic activities. The town is the first town on the Wildflower Way, a tourist route that stretches north to Mullewa. The town has an elevation of . At the 2016 census, Dalwallinu had a population of 699. The name of the town comes from a now unknown Aboriginal word that means "place to wait a while" or possibly "good lands". Traditionally, the Badimaya people lived in the northern areas of the shire and the Karlamaya people inhabited the southern areas. Originally called South Nugadong, the town was officially gazetted in 1914. The first Europeans to arrive were

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monks who came from

New Norcia New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

to graze their sheep on the pastoral leases that they had taken up. The first

settler A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

s arrived, hoping to develop the lands for

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 ...

, in 1907. The region was surveyed in 1909 and then opened for

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in 1910 with crops being planted shortly afterward. Two brothers, Albert and Frederick Ellison, built a

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

on the southern end of the township in 1909. The well acted as a permanent source of water to the settlers. The well, named Billum Billum well, was built from locally occurring timber such as gimlet and salmon gum. 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. Dalwallinu is on the

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

that used to be utilised for Northam to Mullewa rail services, such as '' The Mullewa''. They no longer operate, with the line inoperational between Dalwallinu and Perenjori South.https://www.arcinfra.com/ARCInfrastructure/media/documents/Network%20Specifications/Arc-Infrastructure-Network-Control-Boundaries.pdf

Climate

References

External links

Towns in Western Australia Wheatbelt (Western Australia) {{WesternAustralia-geo-stub