Gnowangerup is a town located south-east of Katanning in the Great Southern 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 ...

Etymology

Gnowangerup is named as the place of the mallee fowl in the Aboriginal

Noongar language Noongar (), also Nyungar (), is an Australian Aboriginal languages, Australian Aboriginal language or dialect continuum, spoken by some members of the Noongar community and others. It is taught actively in Australia, including at schools, uni ...

, being derived from nearby Gnowangerup Creek and Spring, both names being first recorded in 1878. The name means "place where the mallee hen (gnow) nests". The town was first gazetted under the spelling of Ngowangerupp. Local dissatisfaction with this spelling led to it being altered to Gnowangerup in 1913.

History

The

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

of the area are the Goreng people of the

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 ...

nation, who lived on the plains in the area for thousands of years prior to the arrival of European settlers. The townsite was first gazetted in 1908. Following a severe

drought A drought is a period of 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, ...

the town was

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

ed in 1940 after a torrential downpour. The bridge was covered by water, parts of the railway line, the local tennis courts and pavilion were washed away.

Education

Gnowangerup State School was opened in November 1908 on a site on the northern edge of town. It is now known as Gnowangerup District High School and caters for students from Kindergarten to Year 10.

Facilities

The local Agricultural Hall was opened on 20 July 1910 by Arnold Piesse, MLA for the Katanning electorate. The Ongerup branch railway from Tambellup was open for service to Gnowangerup on 1 July 1912. It was extended to Ongerup on 6 January 1913. Train services east of Gnowangerup ceased on 13 October 1957. The War Memorial Hall was opened in 1923, the same year that electric light was being installed. The population of the town in the same year was 1,350 people. A United Aborigines Mission, Gnowangerup Mission, was established on Muir Hill in 1935 on a site to replace the mission run on the Government reserve that ran from 1926 until 1935. The mission ceased operations in 1954 and then reopened as the Agricultural High School for Indigenous Australian boys. In 1972 the Gnowangerup Noongar Centre was established by the New Era Aboriginal Fellowship operating out of a 1913 former bishop's residence that was also the headquarters of the Gnowangerup Noongar Corporation until 1989. The building was placed on the State Heritage Register. in 2012

Industry

The area was being used for cereal cropping and grazing livestock, particularly

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 ...

. The areas around the town were running a flock of around 204,296 sheep in 1917. The town also consists of a small industrial area where there are many different businesses to support the district's farms. The surrounding areas produce

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 other

cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...

crops. The town is a receival site for

Cooperative Bulk Handling The CBH Group (commonly known as CBH, an acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled ...

Media

The '' Gnowangerup Star'' (1942–2003), also published as the ''Gnowangerup Star and Tambellup Ongerup Gazette'' (1915–1942), was a weekly English language newspaper published in Gnowangerup.

References

{{authority control Towns in Western Australia Shire of Gnowangerup Grain receival points of Western Australia