Gingin is a town in

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 ...

, located on the

Brand Highway Brand Highway is a main highway linking the northern outskirts of Perth to Geraldton in Western Australia. Together with North West Coastal Highway, it forms part of the Western Australian coastal link to the Northern Territory. The highw ...

north of the

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 ...

city centre. It is the council seat for the

Shire of Gingin The Shire of Gingin is a local government area in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, just beyond the northern fringe of the Perth metropolitan area. The Shire covers an area of and its seat of government is the town of Gingin. Hist ...

local government area. Gingin had a population of 852 at the . The town's economy is mostly based on its agriculture, although there has been an increasing focus on science with the establishment of the Australian International Gravitational Observatory and

Gravity Discovery Centre The Gravity Discovery Centre and Observatory is a "hands-on" science education, astronomy, Aboriginal culture and tourist centre, situated on the site of the Gravity Precinct in bushland near Gingin, north of Perth, Western Australia. It is ...

. There is also a small military airfield,

RAAF Gingin RAAF Gingin , sometimes also RAAF Base Gingin or RAAF Base Gin Gin, is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) small military airfield located at Gingin, in Western Australia. History Constructed during the 1960s, the airfield is set on ; predom ...

, located nearby.

History

The first

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an to visit the area was the explorer

George Fletcher Moore George Fletcher Moore (10 December 1798 – 30 December 1886) was a prominent early settler in colonial Western Australia, and "one fthe key figures in early Western Australia's ruling elite" (Cameron, 2000). He conducted a number of exploring ...

; he arrived in 1836 and recorded the Aboriginal name "Jinjin" on his charts. The first property to be established in the area by

William Locke Brockman William Locke Brockman (1802 – 28 November 1872) was an early settler in Western Australia, who became a leading pastoralist and stock breeder, and a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council. Biography Born in Kent, England in 18 ...

in 1841 was named Gingin station. The meaning of the word Gingin is uncertain but is thought to mean "footprint" or "place of many streams". A townsite, Granville, was established close by in 1839 but once Gingin was gazetted in 1871 Granville was never developed. By 1853 an area along Gingin Brook was fenced for horses to rest on the way from

Geraldton Geraldton ( Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...

and a police station was built nearby. Construction of the

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

line between Gingin and Perth was completed in 1886, and the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

line was completed in 1891. Gingin was declared a town in 1883.

Economy

The town is well suited for

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

with a mild climate and available water sources. The area supports many forms of farming including beef

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

cereal A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...

crops,

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

s and

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree ''Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South a ...

es. In 2003, plans were unveiled to construct the

near Gingin adjacent to the existing Australian International Gravitational Observatory. A.I.G.O. is part of a worldwide array of observatories, completing the southern arm of the array to obtain three-dimensional measurements of

gravitational wave Gravitational waves are waves of the intensity of gravity generated by the accelerated masses of an orbital binary system that propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. They were first proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1 ...

s. The public arm of A.I.G.O. – The Gravity Discovery Centre includes a 45 m tower that leans at an angle of 15 degrees that allows students to complete

free fall In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on ...

experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into Causality, cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome oc ...

s. In 2006 the Zadko telescope, a robotic optical telescope, was installed into the 'Zadko Dome' near the Gravitational Observatory. The Zadko telescope is used for research on a worldwide scale, scanning the sky for potentially hazardous asteroids, and can be accessed remotely via the internet. It is a joint resource for the

International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) is an international "centre of excellence" in astronomical science and technology based in Perth, Western Australia, launched in August 2009 as a joint venture between Curtin Univers ...

. It is an equatorial fork-mounted Cassegrain reflector telescope with a primary mirror aperture of 1.007 m and a focal length of 4.0386 m. The telescope's optical design is a hybrid Ritchey–Chrétien. Gingin is host to the annual British Car Day, held on the third Sunday of May. Gingin's

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

club plays in the

Mortlock Football League The Mortlock Football League is an Australian rules football competition based around 8 clubs in the south-west region of Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western perce ...

Transport

Gingin is served by

Transwa Transwa is Western Australia's regional public transport provider, linking 240 destinations, from Kalbarri in the north to Augusta in the south west to Esperance in the south east. The Transwa system provides transport to the major regional ...

coaches.

History

Economy

Transport

See also

References

Further reading