Lake King is a town in the eastern 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 ...

, from

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 ...

along State Route 40 between Ravensthorpe and Newdegate. As of 2016, the town had a population of 95. The 2011 census recorded both the population of the town and the surrounding area for a population of 332. Lake King is named after a nearby lake which in turn was named after the Surveyor General of Western Australia, Henry Sandford King, by Marshall Fox, District Surveyor (Narrogin). In 1926, following completion of an initial land classification survey of the Lake King district that defined 230,000 acres as suitable for settlement, a large official inspection party was led by Surveyor General John Percy Camm, Sydney Stubbs ( MLA Wagin), Edwin Wilkie Corboy (MLA Yilgan), and James Cornell ( MLC South Province). The area was surveyed and access roads built during 1927, and land released in 1928 at prices from 4/6 to 16/- per acre. The town struggled through the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

but thrived in the

postwar A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...

years on the back of high

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

and

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 ...

prices. The Lake King Progress Association lobbied the government to declare a townsite in 1935 and the town was gazetted in 1936. The surrounding areas produce wheat 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 ...

References

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