Dalwallinu, Western Australia

Dalwallinu is a town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, located 248 km from Perth via the Great Northern Highway. Agriculture and supporting industries are the town's primary economic activities. The town is also the first town on The Wildflower Way, a world-famous Western Australian tourist route which stretches north to Mullewa. The town has an elevation of. At the 2006 census, Dalwallinu had a population of 593.The name of the town comes from the Aboriginal word that means "place to wait a while" or possible "goodlands". The first inhabitants of the area were Aboriginal people who used the area for hunting and gathering. The Badimaya people lived in the northern areas of the shire and the Karlamaya peoples inhabited the southern areas.The site of the town was originally a station on the train line between Wongan Hills and Mullewa and was later officially gazetted in 1914.The first Europeans to arrive were Benedictine monks who came from New Norcia to graze their sheep on the pastoral leases that they had taken up. The first settlers arrived, hoping to develop the lands for wheat, in 1907. The region was surveyed in 1909 and then opened for selection in 1910 with crops being planted shortly afterward.