|
LOCATION
The town of Gnowangerup is located 345km south east of Perth, Western Australia, within the Great Southern region. Within the Shire of Gnowangerup there are three towns, Gnowangerup, Borden and Ongerup.
Two contrasting landscapes are covered by the Shire (5,000 square kilometres). Most is part of the oldest landscapes on earth. Its bedrock is more than 3,000 million years old and most has never been under the sea. Over a great period of time, erosion has reduced the landscape to a gentle undulating plain. Rising abruptly from the plain is the Stiring Range - one of the few true mountain ranges in Western Australia. About 1,500 million years ago the present site of the range was a slowly sinking lake that filled with more than 1,500m of sediments. They were formed into rock and then pushed upwards. Erosion has sculptered the sediments into one of Western Australia's most outstanding landscapes.
View of Stirling Ranges along Formby South Road
________________________________________________________
GNOWANGERUP, THE NAME
The name, Gnowangerup, originally came from an Aboriginal name for the area, Gnowneerup. This arose from an old Aboriginal legend about two warrior who fought at the place where the Mineral Springs is located. Both were fatally injured and where their blood soaked into the ground two springs arose. One Aboriginal was reincarnated as a 'gnow' which is the Aboriginal name for the malleefowl, and named the district Gnowneerup. This roughly translated means place for mallee hen eggs, as 'neera' is the Aboriginal name for eggs, and 'up' the name for a place. The other Aboriginal reincarnated as an emu or 'waitch' and travelled north to 'Waitchem' , now Wagin.
 |
View along Yougenup Road
Gnowangerup
(below) |
 |
|
|
(above)
The historic Memorial Hall
built in 1923. |
 |
(above)
St Margaret's Church
Gnowangerup |
ALL ABOUT US
Gnowangerup was officially gazetted as a townsite in 1905 but settlement in the area dates back to the 1860s. Principally a farming community, Gnowangerup also boasts strong local commercial/industrial trade.
Gnowangerup has a fine history of sheep breeding, in fact, in the early days, our area was often called the sheep nursery of the state. The annual stud merino field day attracts people from all over Australia.
For more information please visit the Shire of Gnowangerup website or Hidden Treasures of the Great Southern
| 
