Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Bunbury, Western Australia
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==History== ===Pre-European history=== The original inhabitants of Greater Bunbury are the [[Aboriginal Australian]] [[Noongar]] people. The people hunted and fished throughout the sub-region prior to the first [[Ethnic groups in Europe|European]] settlement in the 1830s.<ref name="bunburyonline" >{{cite web |title=Bunbury History |url=http://www.bunburyonline.com/bunbury-western-australia-history.php|access-date=12 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602162109/http://www.bunburyonline.com/bunbury-western-australia-history.php|archive-date=2018-06-02}}</ref> The area was originally known as "Goomburrup" before the arrival of Lt. Bunbury.<ref name="aboriginalname">{{Cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article253245093 |title=Name For New Housing Area |date=1950-11-16 |work=South Western Times (Bunbury, WA : 1932 - 1954)|access-date=2019-11-05 |pages=1}}</ref> ===Early colonial period=== [[Image:A view of Koombana Bay 1840.jpg|thumb|right|[[Thomas Colman Dibdin]], ''A view of Koombana Bay'', 1840, hand coloured lithograph, [[National Library of Australia]]]] The first registered sighting of Greater Bunbury was by French explorer Captain [[Louis de Freycinet]] from his ship the ''Casuarina'' in 1803. He named the area Port Leschenault after the expedition's botanist, [[Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de La Tour|Leschenault de La Tour]]. The bay on Greater Bunbury's western shores was named ''Geographe'' after another ship in the fleet. In 1829, Dr [[Alexander Collie]] and Lieutenant Preston explored the area of Bunbury on land. In 1830 Lieutenant Governor Sir [[James Stirling (Royal Navy officer)|James Stirling]] visited the area and a military post was subsequently established; it only lasted six months.<ref name="landgate">{{cite web |title=Town names |url=https://www0.landgate.wa.gov.au/maps-and-imagery/wa-geographic-names/name-history/historical-town-names#B |website=www0.landgate.wa.gov.au|access-date = 2015-12-01 |last=asprott}}</ref> The area was renamed Bunbury by the Governor in recognition of Lieutenant [[Henry William St Pierre Bunbury]], who developed the very difficult inland route from [[Pinjarra, Western Australia|Pinjarra]] to Bunbury.<ref>[[Reed, A. W.]] (1973) ''Place Names of Australia'', p. 48 Sydney, NSW: [[A. H. & A. W. Reed]], {{ISBN|0-589-07115-7}}</ref><ref>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |last= Cammilleri |first= Cara |year= 1966 |volume= 1 |id2=bunbury-henry-william-st-pierre-1846 |title=Bunbury, Henry William St Pierre (1812β1875) |access-date= 24 December 2014 }}</ref> Bunbury's first settlers were John and Helen Scott, their sons Robert, William and John Jr, and step-son Daniel McGregor, who arrived in January 1838.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bunburymail.com.au/story/4519233/founding-family-memorial-to-relocate/ |title=Founding family memorial to relocate |date=9 March 2017}}</ref> Bunbury township was mentioned in the Government Gazette in 1839, but lots in the township were not surveyed until 1841. In March 1841 lots were declared open for selection.<ref name="landgate" /> Intermittent bay whaling activity was conducted on the coast from the 1830s through to the 1850s.<ref>Martin Gibbs, ''The shore whalers of Western Australia; historical archaeology of a maritime frontier'', Sydney University Press, Sydney, 2010, p.130-1.</ref> By 1842 Bunbury was home to 16 buildings including an [[inn]]. Thereafter, a growing [[port]] serviced the settlers and the subsequent local industries that developed.<ref name="bunburyonline" /> One of the major industries to open up to cement the importance of Bunbury as a port was the [[Wood industry|timber industry]]. Timber logs would be floated down the [[Collie River]] to be loaded aboard ships headed to the [[Northern Hemisphere]] or to [[South Africa]] where the [[Hardwood|hardwood timbers]] were used for [[railway sleeper]]s.<ref name="bunburyonline" /> In 1884 the Government decided to construct a railway from Bunbury to [[Boyanup, Western Australia|Boyanup]], {{convert|16|mi|km|0}} long. When the line was completed in 1887, the contractor who had built it obtained a contract to control and work it, which he did with horses. The line was eventually taken over by the Government in 1891 and operated with locomotives. The inconvenience of a railway isolated from the capital gave rise to agitation and in 1893 the [[South Western Railway (Western Australia)|South Western Railway]] was constructed between [[Claisebrook railway station|East Perth]] and [[Picton, Western Australia|Picton]], connecting Greater Bunbury and Perth. The Boyanup line was extended to [[Donnybrook, Western Australia|Donnybrook]] in the same year.<ref>{{Cite report |last1=Gibson |first1=Alex J |last2=du Pleiss |first2=D H C |date=December 1947 |title=Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Management, Workings and Control of the Western Australian Government Railways (without Graphs), Presented to both Houses of Parliament, Second Session of the Nineteenth Parliament |url=http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/intranet/libpages.nsf/WebFiles/Royal+Commission+WA+Government+Railways/$FILE/WA+Government+Railways.pdf |publisher=Government Printer |access-date=28 March 2016}}</ref> The railways connected the port of Bunbury to the [[coal]] and [[mineral]] deposits and agricultural areas to the north and east of Greater Bunbury.<ref name="bunburyonline" /> The population of the town was 2,970 (1,700 males and 1,270 females) in 1898.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article33153441 |title=POPULATION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. |newspaper=[[Western Mail (Western Australia)|Western Mail]] |location=Perth |date=22 April 1898 |access-date=28 May 2012 |page=23 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In 1903 a breakwater to further protect the bay and port area was completed.<ref name="bunburyonline" /> ===Federation to present day=== The [[Old Bunbury railway station]] served as the terminal for the [[Transwa Australind|Australind]] passenger train between [[Perth railway station|Perth]], transporting its first passengers on 24 November 1947.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article95624863 |title=The Australind - Fast Day Train to Bunbury |website=[[Kalgoorlie Miner]] |date=26 November 1947 |page=1 |access-date=10 July 2014}}</ref> The last train to use the station departed on 28 May 1985 with a [[Bunbury railway station|new station]] opening at [[East Bunbury, Western Australia|East Bunbury]], {{convert|4|km|mi|0}} to the south-east the following day.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130409105231/http://bunburyhistoricalsociety.com.au/files/2013/04/BUNBURY-TIME-LINE.pdf Time-line of Key Dates in Bunbury's History] Bunbury Historical Society</ref><ref>"Western Australia" ''[[Railway Digest]]'' August 1985 page 247</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.planning.wa.gov.au/dop_pub_pdf/GBS4.3.pdf |title=Greater Bunbury Strategy |access-date=19 February 2015 |publisher=Government of Western Australia |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924074452/http://www.planning.wa.gov.au/dop_pub_pdf/GBS4.3.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The railway land was then sold and Blair Street realigned. The [[Bunbury woodchip bombing]] in 1976 saw the bombing of Bunbury's export port terminal by environmental activists, in an attempt to disrupt the woodchipping industry in the South West. Two of the three bombs planted failed to explode and the resulting damage to the port was estimated at only $300,000 ({{inflation|AU|300000|1976|fmt=eq|r=-6}}), although shrapnel broke windows in a nearby housing estate and the blast was heard up to {{convert|20|km|mi}} away. There were no injuries although a security guard was held at gunpoint by the bombers.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://salusjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ODonnell_Ewart_Salus_Journal_Volume_5_Number_1_2017_pp_27-47.pdf|title=Reassessing the Bunbury Bombing: Juxtaposition of Political and Media Narratives|journal=Salus|volume=5|number=1|year=2017|pages=27β47|first1=Kate|last1=O'Donnell|first2=Jacqui|last2=Ewart}}</ref>
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Bunbury, Western Australia
(section)
Add topic