Narembeen is a town in the Wheatbelt 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 ...

. It is 286 km, almost due east, from

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 ...

, the capital of WA. It is the major settlement in the

Shire of Narembeen The Shire of Narembeen is a local government area in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, about east of the state capital, Perth, and between the shires of Merredin to the north, and Kondinin to the south. The Shire has a la ...

, in which the major industries are growing cereal crops and raising cattle and sheep. The surrounding areas produce

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

and other

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. The town is a receival site for

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 ...

. Narembeen means ''place of female

emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

s'' in the local Aboriginal language.

History

The area was initially surveyed in 1836 by the 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 ...

. After camping on a rocky outcrop and seeing a group of

s he named the area Emu Hill. By the 1850s, European settlers arrived in the area looking for pastoral land for

and grazing.

Sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for us ...

cutters also frequented the area during this time. In 1901 the rabbit proof fence was constructed just to the east of Narembeen, and can still be seen today. A settler named Charles Smith bought a property he called Narimbeen. By the 1900s more farmers moved to the area as land was opened up, and by 1918 the town-site of Emu Hill was gazetted. In 1920, the town-site of Narembeen only existed as a minor siding to the railway line that had only just been built to Emu Hill. By the 1920s Emu Hill was the largest community in the region but the local populace opposed the building of a hotel in the town. As a result of this a Perth lawyer, Henry Dale and a publican, Paddy Conlon, purchased of land at the railway siding of Narembeen to build a hotel. The town of Narembeen was established in 1922 about 5 km from the Emu Hill town-site. The location of Narembeen was not the best choice as it is prone to flooding. In 1924, there were rumours that

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

had been discovered close to the rabbit proof fence and the town of Holleton was established about 50 km from Narembeen, but Narembeen prospered as it was the closest train station to Holleton and offered a motor transport service to the miners. Narembeen had a population of 2,100 by 1925 and Emu Hill was no more. 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. In 1968 the town of Narembeen was officially declared.

Climate

References

External links

{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Wheatbelt (Western Australia) Grain receival points of Western Australia