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Where is Ongerup? Ongerup is located on the Southern Highway: What is Ongerup like? Ongerup is named after a local Noongar word which means 'place of the male kangaroo'. Ongerup town is a small rural service centre of approximately 120 people. Wheat, barley, canola and wool are it's main products, while lesser quantities of lupins, oats, lucerne and other crops are also grown. Beef cattle, fat lambs, and pigs are sideline industries. Uncleared areas of mallee and heath give way to yate country along creeklines and the occasional stand of stately salmon gums or bushy moort trees, supporting a rich and varied birdlife. Ongerup's population forms a small but very positive community, supporting numerous sporting groups and other activities to keep everyone's social life busy. A sense of pride and loyalty towards their home town and its people combines with a genuine welcome to newcomers to make Ongerup a great place to live. A little bit of history The first European to visit the Ongerup district was Surveyor General John Septimus Roe on his 1848 expedition. Settlement in the area commenced with the Moir family who took up land along the Warperup Creek in 1870. In 1910 the land was surveyed into 1,000 acres (405 hectare) blocks, With the opening of the railway at Ongerup in 1913 the settlement increased until drought and the First World War brought a halt to Government assistance. Many holdings were abandoned. During the 1930s depression kangaroo hunters and mallet bark strippers came to the district. The bark was sent to Germany to be used for tanning. Ongerup links Shire of Gnowangerup
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