Darkan is a town 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 ...

, between

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 ...

and the

Albany Highway Albany Highway links Western Australia's capital city Perth with its oldest settlement, Albany, Western Australia, Albany, on the state's South coast of Western Australia, south coast. The highway travels through the southern Wheatbelt (Weste ...

on the

Coalfields Highway Coalfields Road, is a Western Australian highway linking Roelands (near Bunbury) on the South Western Highway with Arthur River on the Albany Highway. It is signed as State Route 107 and is about long. Route description Coalfields Road is ...

. It is also the seat of the

Shire of West Arthur The Shire of West Arthur is a Local government areas of Western Australia, local government area in the Wheatbelt (Western Australia), Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, generally to the west of Albany Highway about south-east of Perth, th ...

. At the 2016 census, Darkan had a population of 403.

History

The area was originally settled by William John Gibbs and his family in the 1860s. Gibbs established a property called "Darkan", using a local Aboriginal name which means Black Rock. The townsite developed when the Collie to Narrogin railway line was built, and in 1906, the townsite was gazetted. The town grew quickly thereafter, with a Road Board being established and numerous shops and services being established in the following years. The railway closed in the early 1990s, but the surrounding productive wool growing and mixed farming area along with tourism have ensured the town's survival. In 1928 a 12-year-old girl Ivy Lewis was murdered by John Milner, who was later hanged for his crime.

Present day

Darkan is the social and political centre in the Shire of West Arthur. The town has a roadhouse, supermarket,

telecentre A telecentre is a public place where people can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies that enable them to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others while they develop essential digital skills. Telecent ...

, golf course, shire hall, hotel, synthetic tennis courts, basketball courts, primary school and a

skatepark A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, Freestyle scootering, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairw ...

. A more recent addition is "The Shed", a workshop mainly for the town's retirees that consists of a woodworking and a metal working area for the construction of numerous personal projects. A heritage trail (the Road Board Office, Shire Office and Pioneer Hall (1911)) has been established in the town. The town is surrounded by a fertile (lateritic/alluvial soils), high rainfall (approx 650mm per year) wheat/sheep area that makes use of a small range of services in the town and the

CBH Group 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 ...

grain storage bin about 3 km to the east. 10 km to the west is Six Mile Cottage, a very small two-room slab house built by a sleeper cutter for the railway in the early 1900s, and

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with rough, fibro ...

, flood gum and wandoo bushland reserves, filled with

wildflower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, rather than being intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is any different from the native plant, eve ...

s in spring, are a short drive away.

References

External links

Shire of West Arthur

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