Walgoolan is a small town located in the eastern 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 situated between Merredin and Bodallin along the

Great Eastern Highway Great Eastern Highway is a road that links the Western Australian capital of Perth with the city of Kalgoorlie. A key route for road vehicles accessing the eastern Wheatbelt and the Goldfields, it is the western portion of the main road link ...

. Originating as a railway siding on the main eastern railway, Walgoolan was established between 1895 and 1899. Land was set aside for a townsite in 1913 and lots were surveyed in 1922. The townsite was gazetted in 1923. The name of the town is Aboriginal in origin and means ''place where the short bushes grow''. Following World War I, nearly 100

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 ...

s took up land in the area, which were cleared and planted with

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, mostly

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 ...

. The town was a thriving community with five schools, tennis courts, a cricket club,

Country Women's Association The Country Women's Association (CWA) is the largest regional and rural advocacy group in Australia. It comprises seven independent State and Territory Associations, who are passionate advocates for country women and their families, working ...

and Wheat Growers Union. Tenders for the construction of a brick and cement hall in the town were called for in 1926. The hall was opened and being used for recitals and other community events the following year. The Westonia Road board held a referendum among the ratepayers to decide whether £500 of funding should be used to purchase the hall. The proposal was carried by a large majority. 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 1932, 30,000 emus migrated to the farm land around Walgoolan nearby, which would go on to start the

Emu War The Emu War, also known as the Great Emu War, was a nuisance wildlife management military operation undertaken in Australia over the later part of 1932 to address public concern over the number of emus said to be running amok and destroying c ...

, which changed the face of Australian farming, ravaging crops and destroying fences. The

Australian military The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Commonwealth of Australia and its national interests. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Forc ...

was deployed to fight these emus at the request of the farmers, in an unsuccessful attempt to lower the population of emus with machine guns. The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and a succession of

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

s took their toll on the area; by 1940 only one shop was left and the townsite was abandoned soon after. By 2010 only 10 families remain in the district. A gazebo was erected in the town in 2010 to commemorate the early settlers and launch the book ''East of the Fence''; the gazebo contains historic photographs and a list of the names of the pioneers.

References

{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Shire of Westonia