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Wongan Hills Western Australia
View of Fenton Place, Wongan Hills, 2016
Wongan Hills
Coordinates	30°54′00″S 116°43′00″E / 30.90000°S 116.71667°E / -30.90000; 116.71667
Population	725 (UCL 2021)
Established	1911
Postcode(s)	6603
Elevation	286 m (938 ft)
Area	236.2 km (91.2 sq mi)
Location	182 km (113 mi) NNE of Perth
LGA(s)	Shire of Wongan-Ballidu
State electorate(s)	Moore
Federal division(s)	Durack
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall 24.9 °C 77 °F 11.5 °C 53 °F 361.8 mm 14.2 in

Wongan Hills is a town in the Shire of Wongan-Ballidu, in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The town is approximately 182 km north of the state capital Perth, at an altitude of 286 metres.

The town is named for a nearby range of hills that are found to the north-west of the town, also named Wongan Hills, which was first recorded in 1836 by Surveyor General of Western Australia John Septimus Roe.

History

The area was settled by the 1900s, and in 1911 the town was gazetted and named after the range. "Wongan" is derived from the Indigenous Australian name "wangan-katta", "wanka" and "woongan". "Katta" is known to mean "hill", but the meaning of "wongan" is uncertain. It may be related to "kwongan", an indigenous word for sandplain, or "whispering", in which case "wongan katta" would mean "whispering hills" (katta is a word for hill).

In the early 1900s, poet Lilian Wooster Greaves lived with her family at Wongan Hills. Her book of poetry includes a number of prose and poetry items relating to living there at the time of World War I.

Wongan Hills became the terminus of the railway line from Goomalling, which opened in 1911. The line was extended from the town to Mullewa railway line in 1915.

In 1925, an agricultural research station was established about 5 km north of the town, which assisted in the diversification of and improvements in farm practices through the state. The area is a prosperous agricultural region with activities focused on sheep, grain and pig-farming.

Construction of a grain silo commenced in 1933 as part of the bulk handling scheme that had been introduced by the government and managed by Cooperative Bulk Handling.

As part of Easter celebrations in 2009, a 1.8-by-1.1-kilometre (1.1 by 0.7 mi) cross was laid out in a bare paddock using 460 half-tonne hay bales with the aid of GPS receivers. The cross was set alight on Good Friday night and was the end of a pilgrimage conducted on Easter Saturday.

Climate

Wongan Hills historically had a Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa) however drying associated with widening of the Hadley cell has shifted the area in recent times to a hot semi-arid climate (BSh). The climate is similar to Northern Hemisphere areas on the southern Mediterranean Sea, such as Tripoli or Gaza City, though Wongan Hills' inland location produces hotter, less arid summers and cooler winters than those localities. Summers are hot to sweltering and generally arid, though occasionally tropical cyclones from the Indian Ocean will affect the region after moving inland, whilst winters are comfortable with cold nights and occasional showers.

References

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Wongan Hills (urban centre and locality)". Australian Census 2021. 
2. "Wongan Hills". Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government.
3. "History of country town names – W". Western Australian Land Information Authority. Archived from the original on 14 March 2022. Retrieved 25 May 2007.
4. Greaves, Lilian Wooster (1927), Wongan way, , retrieved 11 October 2012
5. "Railway map of Western Australia, 1952". Trove. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
6. Gunzburg, Adrian; Austin, Jeff; Rail Heritage WA; Gunzburg, Adrian (2008), Rails through the bush : timber and firewood tramways and railway contractors of Western Australia (2nd ed.), Rail Heritage WA, ISBN 978-0-9803922-2-7
7. "Arc Map Network" (PDF). www.arcinfra.com. Arc Infrastructure. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
8. "Australia's Golden Outback – Wongan Hills". 2006. Archived from the original on 3 August 2008. Retrieved 26 August 2008.
9. "Country news". The West Australian. Perth: National Library of Australia. 6 September 1933. p. 6. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
10. "Farmers construct huge straw cross for Easter service". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2009. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
11. Seidel, Diane J., Qiang Fu, Randell, William J. and Reichler, Thomas J.; 'Widening of the tropical belt in a changing climate', Nature, (2008), volume 1, pp. 21–24
12. "Climate statistics for Wongan Hills". Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved 13 July 2014.

External links

Media related to Wongan Hills, Western Australia at Wikimedia Commons

• Shire of Wongan-Ballidu

• Towns in Western Australia
• Wheatbelt (Western Australia)
• Grain receival points of Western Australia