The townsite of Tambellup is located in the Great Southern 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 ...

, 317 km south-east 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 i ...

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 pa ...

where it crosses the

Gordon River The Gordon River is a major perennial river located in the central highlands, south-west, and western regions of Tasmania, Australia. Course and features The Gordon River rises below Mount Hobhouse in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers Nationa ...

. It is 23 km south of Broomehill. The area around Tambellup was first settled by pastoralists in the late 1840s, and in 1849 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 ...

, when passing through the area, referred to Morrison's south west station at "Tambul-yillup". The area was later settled by the Norrish family, and the spelling commonly used for the place then was "Tambellelup". When the Great Southern Railway was opened in 1889 a station was established at Tambellup, and it appears that the shortened version of the name was created by the railway, as the timetable in 1889 uses the "Tambellup" spelling. Tambellup was gazetted a townsite in 1899. The meaning of this Aboriginal name is not known, although one source gives it as "place of thunder" (from Toombellanup). Another explanation is that Tambellup means "the place of many Tammars", Tammar being the

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

word for a small marsupial that used to frequent the area. Tambellup's main street is Norrish Street, named after its first European settler, Josiah Norrish (1841-1884), who in 1872 was attracted to the area by its large stands of ''

Santalum spicatum ''Santalum spicatum'', the Australian sandalwood, also Waang and other names (Noongar) and Dutjahn ( Martu), is a tree native to semi-arid areas at the edge of Southwest Australia, in the state of Western Australia. It is also found in South A ...

'' (commonly known as sandalwood). Today, the main industry in Tambellup is sheep farming, while sandalwood continues as a distant second. Much of the sandalwood is exported, and used in the manufacture of

joss stick Incense is aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremony. It may also be ...

s. The Gordon River has flooded several times since Tambellup was established. The first recorded flood was in 1913, then again in 1937, then a major flood in 1955 when the river rose resulting in some parts of the town being underwater. In January 1982, a decaying

tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depen ...

passed over the catchment area feeding the Gordon River causing it to flood the town. Much of the town, including the main street, was covered to a depth of about . 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 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 ...

Notes

External links

''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 8 February 2004

Hidden Treasures of the Great Southern

Albany Gateway

External links

Shire of Broomehill-Tambellup
{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Shire of Broomehill-Tambellup Grain receival points of Western Australia