DESCRIPTION
Wooroloo and Wundowie are now really just suburbs in the hills north east of Perth.
The straddle the Great Eastern Highway and at one time were small townships in their own right.
There is a local hall, general store, post office and primary school.
Accomodation in the area insludes El Caballo Resort.
Perhaps the best known attraction near Wooroloo is Lake Leschenaultia.
HISTORY
A timber mill was developed in the area shortly after World War I and a small village grew up around it. It wasn't until after the Second World War that the town really came
into existence.
Wundowie developed from 1943 and a plant for the production of pig iron opened in 1948. The name Wundowing was first suggested and then Wundowi. In 1947 the town
site was gazetted as Wundowie. The name comes from Woondowing Spring and the original meaning is not known. (One source says the name originally came from the
Aboriginal word ngwundow, meaning place to lie down.)
The nearby town of Wooroloo was home to author Elizabeth Jolley. The area surrounding the town was used as a setting for much of her writing.
"So you've bought this place well let me tell you straight away your soil's no good all salt even a hundred and sixty feet down and up on the slopes is outcrops of granite
and dead stumps of dead wood nothing'll grow there we know we've tried what the crows don't take the rabbits and bandicoots will have..."
'The Orchard' Elizabeth Jolley
Wooroloo Brook was discovered by Ensign Dale and Captain Irwin in 1830. A few years later it was found that this brook joined the Avon River to form the Swan River.
A nearby well site was called Wooriloo or Keaginine Well. The current name dates from the 1890s and it was officially adopted in 1903 (although another source says 1913).
The same source states that a town site was surveyed in 1841 but was never developed and that the current site was surveyed in the early 1900s. The name Goodwich was
suggested for the town but the local Aboriginal name (meaning deep gully) was taken up instead.
James Byfield was the first to take up land in the area and Byfield's Mill became a stopping point on the rail line. In 1897 the station became known as Wooroloo.
A consumptive sanatorium opened in 1912 (another source says 1915). Many of the original patients were miners with 'dusted lung' (silicosis). Reports say the
sanatorium was a cheerful enough place but sadly few patients ever recovered. There was no hope of a cure for T.B. until the late 1940s.
In 1960 the sanatorium was converted to a general hospital and in 1970 was converted again to a minimum security prison. There are now two major prisons in the area.
Ray Williams started the first Andalusian stud in Australia in 1071 and this was to become part of El Caballo.
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OTHER INFORMATION
ATTRACTIONS
Lake Leschenaultia
BUILDINGS OF NOTE
School, Anglican Church, Old Post office, Hall, Station Masters House.
ELECTORAL ZONES
State : Swan Hills
Federal : Pearce
OTHER INFO.
Postcode : 6558
Local Government : Shire of Mundaring
PHOTOS
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