Wongan Hills, Western Australia
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Wongan Hills is a town in the Shire of Wongan-Ballidu, in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. It is located at . It is approximately 182 km north of the State capital Perth, and is at an altitude of 286 metres.
Following a request from local settlers, land in this area was first set aside for a townsite in 1907, although this was located near Lake Hinds about 16 km west north west of the present townsite. In 1910 a further request from settlers sought a townsite at the terminus of the proposed railway from Goomalling. The proposed townsite was referred to as Wongan Hills by the settlers. Following the survey of lots the townsite was gazetted in 1911, the year the railway line opened.
Wongan Hills derives its name from a nearby range of hills, first recorded by Surveyor General J S Roe in 1836. Wongan is an Aboriginal name, the name being variously recorded as "wangan-katta", "wankan" and "woongan". The meaning of the name may be derived from "Kwongan", an Aboriginal word meaning sand plain, although one source describes wongan as meaning "wispering", and wongan katta would then mean "wispering hills" (katta is a word for hill).
Surveyor General John Septimus Roe discovered the district in 1836, seven years after the founding of the Swan River colony. The Wongan Hills name originates from the Aboriginal name ‘Wongan Catta', which translates to ‘Talking Hills', referring to the wind whispering through the hills. The first settlers arrived in 1905. In 1909 the first store was opened in Wongan Hills, although it wasn’t until 1911 that the townsite was officially proclaimed. In 1911 the railway line was opened to traffic. Two years later the first school in town commenced.
