Narembeen 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 ...

. It is 286 km, almost due east, 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 ...

, the capital of WA. It is the major settlement in the

Shire of Narembeen The Shire of Narembeen is a local government area in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, about east of the state capital, Perth, and between the shires of Merredin to the north, and Kondinin to the south. The Shire has a lan ...

, in which the major industries are growing cereal crops and raising cattle and sheep. 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 ...

. Narembeen means ''place of female

emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...

s'' in the local Aboriginal language.

History

The area was initially surveyed in 1836 by 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 ...

. After camping on a rocky outcrop and seeing a group of

s he named the area Emu Hill. By the 1850s, European settlers arrived in the area looking for pastoral land for

and grazing.

Sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods. Sanda ...

cutters also frequented the area during this time. In 1901 the rabbit proof fence was constructed just to the east of Narembeen, and can still be seen today. A settler named Charles Smith bought a property he called Narimbeen. By the 1900s more farmers moved to the area as land was opened up, and by 1918 the town-site of Emu Hill was gazetted. In 1920, the town-site of Narembeen only existed as a minor siding to the

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

that had only just been built to Emu Hill. By the 1920s Emu Hill was the largest community in the region but the local populace opposed the building of a hotel in the town. As a result of this a Perth lawyer, Henry Dale and a publican, Paddy Conlon, purchased of land at the railway siding of Narembeen to build a hotel. The town of Narembeen was established in 1922 about 5 km from the Emu Hill town-site. The location of Narembeen was not the best choice as it is prone to flooding. In 1924, there were rumours that

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

had been discovered close to the rabbit proof fence and the town of Holleton was established about 50 km from Narembeen, but Narembeen prospered as it was the closest train station to Holleton and offered a motor transport service to the miners. Narembeen had a population of 2,100 by 1925 and Emu Hill was no more. In 1932 the Wheat Pool of Western Australia announced that the town would have two

grain elevators A grain elevator or grain terminal 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 lowe ...

, each fitted with an engine, installed at the railway siding. In 1968 the town of Narembeen was officially declared.

Climate

References

External links

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