Jerramungup is a

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 ...

n town located in the Great Southern agricultural region, southeast 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 ...

and west of the

Gairdner River Gairdner River is a river located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The river was first recorded by Surveyor General John Septimus Roe in 1848, when carrying out exploration of the area, noting that natives referred to it an ...

. The area was settled by Europeans prior to 1848, with the first homestead being built by

John Hassell John Hassell (c. 1767 – 1825) was an English watercolour landscape painter, engraver, illustrator, writer, publisher and drawing-master. He wrote a biography of fellow artist George Morland. Hassell first appeared as an exhibitor at the ...

in 1848. The property was known as ''Jarramongup Station'' and was inherited by his son,

Albert Young Hassell Albert Young Hassell (15 November 184120 September 1918) was a prominent Australian pastoralist and politician. Born in Albany, on 15 November 1841, Albert was the second son of pastoralist John Hassell who had pioneered the area around Ken ...

, who took up residence there with his wife

Ethel Ethel (also '' æthel'') is an Old English word meaning "noble", today often used as a feminine given name. Etymology and historic usage The word means ''æthel'' "noble". It is frequently attested as the first element in Anglo-Saxon names, b ...

after his father's death in 1885.Izett, EK 2014,
Breaking new ground: early Australian ethnography in colonial women's writing
, Doctor of Philosophy. The station was put up for sale by Edney Hassell and remained on the market for some time until it was acquired by the state government in 1950. The town of Jerramongup was established in 1953 to support a war service land settlement project that was initiated in 1949. The townsite was gazetted as Jerramungup on 12 August 1957, although the name Jerramongup remained in use until the 1960s. The local school was renamed Jerramungup in 1968. The town hall and the school were both built in 1958 along with two houses. Construction of the

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 ...

wheat bin was completed in 1961. The first powerhouse was completed in 1963. ''Jerramungup'' (''Yarra-mo-up'') is an

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

word said to mean "place of the tall yate trees". The yate tree ''(

Eucalyptus cornuta ''Eucalyptus cornuta'', commonly known as yate, is a tree species, sometimes a mallee and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It has rough, fibrous bark on all or most of its trunk, smooth bark above, mostly lance-shaped adult le ...

)'' is an evergreen tree that grows to a height of 20 m with a diameter of one metre. It has orange bud caps and greenish yellow flowers, and is common in the southwest of WA. The name was first recorded by Surveyor General

John Septimus Roe John Septimus Roe (8 May 1797 – 28 May 1878) was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, a member of Western Australia's legislative and executive councils for nearly 40 years, but also a participant in t ...

in 1848, when carrying out exploration of the area, noting that natives referred to the area and river as "Jeer-A-Mung-Up". Roe later named the river, at its mouth in

Gordon Inlet Gordon Inlet is an estuarine inlet, located in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia. The inlet is at the south west corner of the Fitzgerald River National Park and approximately north west of the town of Bremer Bay. The estuar ...

, the

. The town hall was opened in April 1958 and is known colloquially as the "Root Pickers Hall" as it was paid for by volunteers picking mallee roots. 200 tonnes of Laguna Verde or Laguna Green

monzonite Monzonite is an igneous intrusive rock, formed by slow cooling of underground magma that has a moderate silica content and is enriched in alkali metal oxides. Monzonite is composed mostly of plagioclase and alkali feldspar. Syenodiorite is an o ...

from Jerramungup were used to make the Australian War Memorial in London, which was opened in

Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...

in 2003. The quarry is situated 21 km south of the town, at Wirrup Hill.

References

External links

{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Great Southern (Western Australia)