![Quairading hotel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Quairading_hotel.jpg)
Quairading 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
Wheatbelt region. It is the seat of government for the
Shire of Quairading
The Shire of Quairading is a local government area in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, about east of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of , and its seat of government is the town of Quairading.
History
Quairading ...
.
History
The town was named for Quairading Spring, derived from a local
Aboriginal word recorded in 1872 by surveyor
Alexander Forrest
Alexander Forrest Order of St Michael and St George, CMG (22 September 1849 – 20 June 1901) was an explorer and surveying, surveyor of Western Australia, and later also a member of parliament.
As a government surveyor, Forrest explored many ...
.
The first European
settler
A settler is a person who has human migration, migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area.
A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a ...
in the area is believed to be Stephen Parker, who settled in nearby
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
.
[ From 1859 to 1863, his son Edward Parker cleared land east of York towards Dangin, before Edward's son Jonah took over Dangin and the surrounding area. Jonah Parker subdivided his property and made Dangin a private townsite, surrounded by his land. A ]Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
, Jonah Parker banned alcohol
Alcohol most commonly refers to:
* Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom
* Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks
Alcohol may also refer to:
Chemicals
* Ethanol, one of sev ...
in the town and these factors led to residents leaving Dangin.[ The Government made available new land in nearby Quairading, and gave settlers a block for free if they cleared the land and lived there for seven years.] Many settlers took up the offer and moved into the area between 1903 and 1908.[
The Greenhills Road Board, established in 1892, decided to build a ]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 ...
from Greenhills (near York) to Quairading and gazette the townsite at the Quairading terminus
Terminus may refer to:
* Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end destination
* Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination
Geography
*Terminus, the unofficial original name of Atlanta, Georgia, United ...
.[ The townsite was gazetted on 7 August 1907 and the railway completed in 1908.][ By 1909, the town had a ]hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
, general store, blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
, baker
A baker is a tradesperson who bakes and sometimes sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery.
History
Ancient history
Since grains ha ...
, carpenter
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...
and two bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
s, and by 1950, most of the land was cleared and being used for farming
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 ...
.[
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 area was rocked by an earthquake in April 2009; the epicentre
The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates.
Surface damage
Before the instrumental pe ...
was located approximately 20 km northwest of the town. The earthquake that measured 3.2 on the Richter Scale
The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 ...
happened at 4.50am local time caused no damage.
Railway
:''See also York–Bruce Rock railway line''
The railway through Quairading began as the York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
to Greenhills line (about a sixth the length of the whole line), and this was later extended to Quairading and onward to Bruce Rock
Bruce Rock is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, approximately east of Perth and southwest of Merredin. It is the main town in the Shire of Bruce Rock.
History
Originally known as Nunagin or Noonegin, the name of ...
. Construction began in 1897. Due to various operational changes the line between Quairading and Bruce Rock was closed in the 1970s, and the line from York was closed in October 2013, the operator Brookfield Rail
Arc Infrastructure (previously known as Brookfield Rail and WestNet Rail) is a transport infrastructure owner and access provider in Western Australia with a long-term lease on the network from the Government of Western Australia. It operates ...
citing safety as the primary reason. The decision to close this half of the line was politically contentious, with Brookfield Rail taking pains to point out that it was not politics that forced the closure, and community groups (such as the Wheatbelt Rail Retention Alliance) campaigning against it.
Demographics
In the , Quairading had 596 residents, with 18.1% Indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
residents, compared with 2.3% Indigenous persons Australia-wide. The median age of residents was 49 years, compared to the national median age of 37.[ The ]religious
Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...
affiliation of residents was Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
31.4%, Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
19.3%, no religion 16.1%, Uniting Church
The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union ...
12.9% and Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement 1.8%.[ The percentage of people identifying themselves as Anglican (31.4%) was significantly higher than the Australia-wide average of 18.7%.][ 90.4% of residents were Australian citizens, with English the language spoken at home by 95.6% persons, compared to the national average of 78.5%.][ The most common occupations were ]labourers
A laborer (or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor types in the construction industry workforce. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries e ...
18.4%, managers
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
17.0%, technicians
A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skill and technique, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles.
Specialisation
The term technician covers many different speciali ...
and trades workers 15.7%, machinery
A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecule ...
operators and drivers 10.8%, and sales workers 10.3%.[ The major industries were farming of ]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 ...
, beef cattle
Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production (as distinguished from dairy cattle, used for milk production). The meat of mature or almost mature cattle is mostly known as beef.
In beef production there are three main stages: cow-calf operat ...
and grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
14.8%, local government administration 10.3%, school education 8.5%, wholesaling of specialised industrial machinery and equipment 4.9%, and retailing of fuel
A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...
4.9%.[ The median household weekly ]income
Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For ...
was $637, compared to $1,027 nationally.[
]
Amenities and facilities
The Pink Lake of Quairading which lies 11 km east of Quairading on the Bruce Rock Road at Badjaling, with the road traversing it. It is regarded as a phenomenon, as certain times in the year one side has a distinctive pink colour whilst the other side remains its natural blue.
A local tourist attraction is the Quairading Nature Reserve, of native bushland west of the town along the railway line to York. The reserve contains York gum
''Eucalyptus loxophleba'', commonly known as York gum, daarwet, goatta, twotta or yandee, is a species of tree or mallee that is endemic to Western Australia. It has rough bark on the trunk, smooth olive to brownish bark above, lance-shaped adul ...
, salmon gum
''Eucalyptus salmonophloia'', commonly known as salmon gum, wurak or weerluk or woonert or marrlinja. is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to Western Australia. It has smooth bark, narrow lance-shaped to curved adult leave ...
, wandoo Wandoo is the common name for a number of Western Australian ''Eucalyptus'' species, all of which have smooth white bark.
The original "wandoo" is ''Eucalyptus wandoo''. Additional species have been given this name because of a perceived likeness w ...
and casuarina
''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in the fami ...
trees, and wildlife including the eastern wallaroo
The common wallaroo (''Osphranter robustus''), also known as the euro, hill wallaroo, or simply wallaroo, is a species of macropod. The word ''euro'' is particularly applied to one subspecies (''O. r. erubescens'').WE Poole and JC Merchant (198 ...
, western grey kangaroo
The western grey kangaroo (''Macropus fuliginosus''), also referred to as a western grey giant kangaroo, black-faced kangaroo, mallee kangaroo, sooty kangaroo and (when referring to the Kangaroo Island subspecies) Kangaroo Island grey kangaroo, is ...
, echidnas
Echidnas (), sometimes known as spiny anteaters, are quill-covered monotremes (egg-laying mammals) belonging to the family Tachyglossidae . The four extant species of echidnas and the platypus are the only living mammals that lay eggs and the ...
, reptiles and birds. Nookaminnie Rock, which is a large granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
rock, provides a view over the town and surrounding areas.
The townsite can also be viewed from Mount Stirling
Mount Stirling is a mountain in the Victorian Alps of the Great Dividing Range, located in the Hume region of Victoria, Australia. The mountain has an elevation of above sea level.
Mount Stirling is also an abbreviation of the Mount Stirling ...
, northeast of Quairading.[ The Home of Natural Wood Sculpture is another visitor attraction, originally located northeast of the town.][ Founded by local artist Ian Wills, it displays his wood sculptures, which have been exhibited in ]Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
and 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 wood sculptures are now on display in the Old Railway Station Info Centre and is open every weekday morning by volunteers. Toapin Weir, northwest of the town, was constructed in 1912 to collect rainwater runoff and irrigate
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been develop ...
the nearby farms; it has barbeque
Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke t ...
, picnic and camping facilities.[ Cubbine is a homestead north of Quairading originally owned by Alexander Forrest.][
Quairading has an ]airstrip
An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...
, located east of the town on the York to Merredin Road. The town has a library, located at Quairading Bookpost, a very popular Community Resource Centre and a number of small parks, including a memorial
A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...
rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
garden, and a public swimming pool. The Greater Sports Ground is home to football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
, hockey
Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
, cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
and netball
Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
.
See also
* ''The Avon Gazette and York Times
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
''
References
External links
Shire of Quairading
{{authority control
Towns in Western Australia
Grain receival points of Western Australia
Shire of Quairading