Wagin is a town and

shire Shire () is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries. It is generally synonymous with county (such as Cheshire and Worcestershire). British counties are among the oldes ...

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 ...

, approximately south-east of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

on the

Great Southern Highway Great Southern Highway is a highway in the southern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, starting from Great Eastern Highway at The Lakes, from Perth, and ending at Albany Highway near Cranbrook. It is the primary thoroughfare for this ...

between

Narrogin Narrogin is a town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, southeast of Perth, Western Australia, Perth on the Great Southern Highway between Pingelly, Western Australia, Pingelly and Wagin, Western Australia, Wagin. In the age of st ...

and Katanning. It is also on State Route 107. The main industries are

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 ...

and

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal 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 d ...

farming.

History

The name of the town is derived from Wagin Lake, a usually dry salt lake south of the town. The lake's name is of

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the South West, Western Australia, south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton, Western Aus ...

origin, and was first recorded by a surveyor in 1869–72. It means "place of emus", or "site of the foot tracks from when the emu sat down". The first European explorer through the area was

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 ...

, the Surveyor General of Western Australia, in 1835 en route to Albany from

. Between 1835 and 1889 a few settlers eked a simple living by cutting

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. Sanda ...

and shepherding small flocks of sheep. Land was granted to pastoralists in the Wagin area from the late 1870s. The town itself came into existence after the construction of the Great Southern Railway, which was completed in 1889, with the town originally called ''Wagin Lake''. The first

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

and

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 ...

building, designed by

George Temple-Poole George Thomas Temple-Poole (born George Thomas Temple, 29 May 1856 – 27 February 1934) was a British architect and public servant, primarily known for his work in Western Australia from 1885. As Superintendent of Public Works, and then Pri ...

, was completed in 1893. The building was replaced by the current building in 1912. The building was designed by

Hillson Beasley Hillson Beasley (30 April 1855 – 7 October 1936) was an English-trained architect who relocated to Australia, executing his major buildings in Melbourne (1886–96) and Perth (1896–1917). In his later career he was the Principal Architect ...

and built at a cost of £2,596; the old building was converted to living quarters. The local Agricultural Hall was built by 1896 and opened 1 December the same year. In 1898 Wagin was proclaimed a town with the word ''Lake'' dropped. A further railway connection with the

Collie Collies form a distinctive type of herding dogs, including many related landraces and standardized breeds. The type originated in Scotland and Northern England. Collies are medium-sized, fairly lightly-built dogs, with pointed snouts. Many type ...

line at Bowelling, the

Wagin to Bowelling railway line The Wagin to Bowelling railway line was a state government-owned and WAGR-operated railway line in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, connecting Wagin via Bokal to Bowelling. The line was long. At Wagin, the railway line connected ...

, was made on 10 December 1918. In early 1898 the population of the town was 175: 125 men and 50 women. Saint George's Anglican church, a stone

Federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

Gothic style stone building with a tower, was constructed in 1900 on land donated by Frederick Piesse. The Palace Hotel was built in 1905. The two-storey Federation Filigree style building with large verandahs in located on Trudhoe Street. The original owner was Paddy. B. Durack, who also owned a sizeable property east of Wagin known as ''Behn Ord''. Significant extensions were added to the building in 1911. The Wagin Road Boards building was built in 1912 at a cost of £400. The building housed the town library for many years before it moved to the former Town Hall in 2023. Planning for the construction of the current town hall commenced in 1928 with tenders being called for. The estimated cost for the building was £6000. The

foundation stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

was laid in May of the same year by Sydney Stubbs. The building included a main hall to seat 600 people, a lesser hall to seat 250, library, council chambers, stage, kitchen and dressing rooms, and was completed early in 1929 at a cost of £6500. In 1934 the town was extensively flooded after the area experienced of rainfall in a short period of time, the heaviest for 20 years. Water over deep flowed through the Town Hall and along business premises and dwellings along Tudor Street. The railway yards were flooded and the railway dam burst under the water pressure. The Big Ram or Giant Ram, a tourist attraction, was erected in Wetlands Park in 1985. The sculptor was Andrew Hickson, who constructed the ram from

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...

over a steel frame. The ram stands tall, long and wide, and weighs . Thousands of tourists visit the park each year to view the ram. The sculpture is the second largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. Wagin was the closest major town to the Arthur River

earthquake swarm In seismology, an earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in a local area within a relatively short period. The time span used to define a swarm varies, but may be days, months, or years. Such an energy release is different fr ...

recorded during January 2022. The peak of the swarm occurred on 25 January 2022 with a

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

4.7/4.8 earthquake, which caused minor damage such as wall cracks to properties in the area.

Present day

Wagin is one of the largest towns in the southern Wheatbelt, and annually hosts the Wagin Woolorama, one of Western Australia's largest

agricultural show An agricultural show is a public event exhibiting the equipment, animals, sports and recreation associated with agriculture and animal husbandry. The largest comprise a livestock show (a judged event or display in which selective breeding, bree ...

s. The event held in March each year regularly attracts over 30,000 visitors.

Notable residents

Two sets of three well-known brothers played league football after leaving Wagin:

Murray Murray may refer to: Businesses * Murray (bicycle company), an American bicycle manufacturer * Murray Motor Car Company, an American car manufacturer * Murrays, an Australian bus company * Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trus ...

Harry Harry may refer to: Television * ''Harry'' (American TV series), 1987 comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (New Zealand TV series), 2013 crime drama starring Oscar K ...

and Phil Riseborough; and

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

Phil Phil may refer to: * Phil (given name), a shortened version of masculine and feminine names * Phill, a given name also spelled "Phil" * Phil, Kentucky, United States * Phil (film), ''Phil'' (film), a 2019 film * -phil-, a lexical fragment, used as ...

and Wally Matera.

Climate

References

External links

Shire of WaginWoolorama websiteClimate of Wagin (Bureau of Meteorology)
{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Wheatbelt (Western Australia) Grain receival points of Western Australia Noongar place names