Ongerup, Western Australia
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Ongerup Western Australia |
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Eldridge Street, Ongerup
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 Ongerup
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| Coordinates | 33°57′58″S 118°29′10″E / 33.966°S 118.486°ECoordinates: 33°57′58″S 118°29′10″E / 33.966°S 118.486°E | ||||||||
| Population | 119 (2006 census) | ||||||||
| Established | 1912 | ||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 6336 | ||||||||
| Location |
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| LGA(s) | Shire of Gnowangerup | ||||||||
| Region | Great Southern | ||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Wagin | ||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | O'Connor | ||||||||
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Ongerup is a town 410 kilometres (250 mi) south-east of Perth and 54 kilometres (34 mi) east of Gnowangerup in the Great Southern region of Western Australia.
The name Ongerup means "place of the male kangaroo" in the local Noongar language.
The area around Ongerup was first explored by Surveyor General John Septimus Roe who passed through in 1848. In the 1870s the Moir family moved to the area and began grazing sheep along the Warperup Creek. In 1910 the land was surveyed into 1,000-acre (4 km2) blocks priced at 10 shillings per acre before the townsite was gazetted in 1912.
A 94-kilometre (58 mi) branch line to Ongerup from Tambellup on the Great Southern Railway main line between Perth and Albany was opened on 6 January 1913 to serve the growing agriculture industry; it closed on 13 October 1957. A timetable from 1937 shows two trains per week leaving Ongerup on Tuesdays at 06:55 and Fridays at 04:00. Lengthy connections of around 12 hours were available at Katanning for Perth, arriving approximately 30 hours after leaving Ongerup. In 1918 a barracks was constructed on Eldridge Street for railway workers based in Ongerup. The building survived the closure of the railway and now houses the Ongerup/Needilup District Museum that was opened in 1978.
A local newspaper, The Gnowangerup Star and Tambellup-Ongerup Gazette, was launched on 21 August 1915 with the final edition being printed in 2003.
The first Ongerup Public Hall was built in 1927 but was replaced by the current building in 1953.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, kangaroo hunters and mallee bark strippers came to the area. The bark was sent to Germany for use in tanning.
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Wikipedia