Narrogin

Narrogin is a large town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, 192km southeast of Perth on the Great Southern Highway between Pingelly and Wagin. In the age of steam engines, Narrogin was one of the largest railway operation hubs in the southern part of Western Australia.HistoryNarrogin is an Aboriginal name, having been first recorded as "Narroging" for a pool in this area in 1869. The meaning of the name is uncertain, various sources recording it as "bat camp", "plenty of everything" or derived from "gnargagin" which means "place of water".The first Europeans into the Narrogin area were Alfred Hillman and his party who surveyed the track between Perth and Albany in 1835. They passed only 10 km west of the present site of Narrogin. In time they were followed by the occasional shepherd who drove his sheep into the area seeking good pastures.The area was first settled in the 1860s and 1870s when pastoralists moved and settled in isolated outposts. The population was so scattered that there was no incentive to establish a town.Narrogin was officially declared a town in June 1897 and it was gazetted as a municipality on 13 April 1906. The early years of settlement were hard with farmers relying on sandalwood cutting and the bark from mallee trees (it was used as a tanning agent) to compensate for poor returns from wheat and sheep.By early 1898 the population of the town was 60, 35 males and 25 females. The local Agricultural Hall was opened the same year by Frederick Piesse.