Cunderdin, Western Australia

Cunderdin is a town located in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia 156 km east of Perth, along the Great Eastern Highway. Due to it being on the route of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme it is also on the Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail. It is a rural community consisting of a district high school and an agricultural college.HistoryThe Shire of Cunderdin reported the first European visitor to the area was Charles Cooke Hunt, who explored the area in 1864 and recorded the name Cunderdin, from the Njungyar Aboriginal name of a nearby hill. The meaning of the name is thought to mean either "place of the bandicoot" or "place of flowers" .Like many small towns in the area, Cunderdin developed as a stop-off town during the gold rush in the WA Goldfields . Significantly in 1894 the railway arrived signalling the earliest settlement in the town . In 1901 the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, designed by C. Y. O'Connor, led to a renewed increase in population of the town . The townsite was gazetted in 1906.In 1932 the Wheat Pool of Western Australia announced that the town would have two grain elevators, each fitted with an engine, installed at the railway siding. An elevator was duly erected the following year next to the Westralian Farmers grain-shed.