Wongan Hills, Western Australia
Wongan Hills is a town in the Shire of Wongan-Ballidu, in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.[2] The town is approximately 182 km north of the state capital Perth, at an altitude of 286 metres.
| Wongan Hills Western Australia | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.JPG.webp) View of Fenton Place, Wongan Hills, 2016 | |||||||||
  Wongan Hills | |||||||||
| Coordinates | 30°54′00″S 116°43′00″E | ||||||||
| Population | 745 (2006 census)[1] | ||||||||
| Established | 1911 | ||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 6603 | ||||||||
| Elevation | 286 m (938 ft) | ||||||||
| Location | 182 km (113 mi) NNE of Perth | ||||||||
| LGA(s) | Shire of Wongan-Ballidu | ||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Moore | ||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Durack | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The town is named for a nearby range of hills that are found to the north-west of the town, also named Wongan Hills, which was first recorded in 1836 by Surveyor General of Western Australia John Septimus Roe. As part of Easter celebrations in 2009, a 1.8-by-1.1-kilometre (1.1 by 0.7 mi) cross was laid out in a bare paddock using 460 half-tonne hay bales with the aid of GPS receivers.
The cross was set alight on Good Friday night and was the end of a pilgrimage conducted on Easter Saturday.[3]
History
The area was settled by the 1900s, and in 1911 the town was gazetted and named after the range. "Wongan" is derived from the Indigenous Australian name "wangan-katta", "wanka" and "woongan". "Katta" is known to mean "hill", but the meaning of "wongan" is uncertain. It may be related to "kwongan", an indigenous word for sandplain, or "whispering", in which case "wongan katta" would mean "whispering hills" (katta is a word for hill).[4]
In 1925 an agricultural research station was established about 5 km north of the town which assisted in the diversification and improvements in farm practices through the state. The area is a prosperous agricultural region with activities focused on sheep, grain and pig-farming.[5]
Construction of a grain silo commenced in 1933 as part of the bulk handling scheme that had been introduced by the government and managed by Cooperative Bulk Handling.[6]
In the early 1900s, poet Lilian Wooster Greaves lived with her family at Wongan Hills. Her book of poetry includes a number of prose and poetry items relating to living there at the time of the first world war.[7]
Climate
Wongan Hills historically had a Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa) however drying associated with widening of the Hadley cell has shifted the area in recent times to a hot semi-arid climate (BSh).[8] The climate is similar to Northern Hemisphere areas on the southern Mediterranean Sea like Tripoli or Gaza City, though Wongan Hills’ inland location produces hotter, less arid summers and cooler winters than those localities. Summers are hot to sweltering and generally arid, though occasionally tropical cyclones from the hot Indian Ocean will affect the region after moving inland, whilst winters are comfortable with cold nights and occasional showers.
| Climate data for Wongan Hills | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 47.4 (117.3) |
47.0 (116.6) |
43.5 (110.3) |
39.2 (102.6) |
34.7 (94.5) |
27.5 (81.5) |
25.4 (77.7) |
30.2 (86.4) |
35.2 (95.4) |
39.5 (103.1) |
42.0 (107.6) |
45.0 (113.0) |
47.4 (117.3) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 34.6 (94.3) |
34.1 (93.4) |
30.9 (87.6) |
26.4 (79.5) |
21.5 (70.7) |
18.2 (64.8) |
17.0 (62.6) |
17.9 (64.2) |
20.7 (69.3) |
25.2 (77.4) |
29.2 (84.6) |
32.5 (90.5) |
25.7 (78.3) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 26.3 (79.3) |
26.2 (79.2) |
23.7 (74.7) |
19.9 (67.8) |
15.7 (60.3) |
13.0 (55.4) |
11.8 (53.2) |
12.3 (54.1) |
14.2 (57.6) |
17.7 (63.9) |
21.2 (70.2) |
24.2 (75.6) |
18.9 (66.0) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 17.9 (64.2) |
18.2 (64.8) |
16.4 (61.5) |
13.4 (56.1) |
9.9 (49.8) |
7.7 (45.9) |
6.6 (43.9) |
6.7 (44.1) |
7.6 (45.7) |
10.1 (50.2) |
13.2 (55.8) |
15.8 (60.4) |
12.0 (53.6) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 9.8 (49.6) |
8.5 (47.3) |
5.5 (41.9) |
2.8 (37.0) |
−0.6 (30.9) |
−0.8 (30.6) |
−0.9 (30.4) |
−0.5 (31.1) |
0.5 (32.9) |
0.5 (32.9) |
3.4 (38.1) |
7.3 (45.1) |
−0.9 (30.4) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 15.5 (0.61) |
15.5 (0.61) |
20.8 (0.82) |
22.6 (0.89) |
51.8 (2.04) |
69.5 (2.74) |
69.3 (2.73) |
51.6 (2.03) |
29.8 (1.17) |
19.6 (0.77) |
12.4 (0.49) |
10.0 (0.39) |
388.2 (15.28) |
| Average precipitation days | 2.1 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 4.9 | 8.9 | 12.3 | 13.5 | 12.2 | 8.6 | 5.9 | 3.4 | 2.0 | 79.0 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 24 | 28 | 31 | 38 | 48 | 56 | 58 | 55 | 47 | 34 | 28 | 26 | 39 |
| Source: [9] | |||||||||||||
References
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Wongan Hills (L) (Urban Centre/Locality)". 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
- "Wongan Hills". Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government.
- "Farmers construct huge straw cross for Easter service". 2009. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
- Western Australian Land Information Authority. "History of country town names – W". Retrieved 25 May 2007.
- "Australia's Golden Outback – Wongan Hills". 2006. Retrieved 26 August 2008.
- "Country news". The West Australian. Perth: National Library of Australia. 6 September 1933. p. 6. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
- Greaves, Lilian Wooster (1927), Wongan way, [L.W. Greaves?], retrieved 11 October 2012
- Seidel, Diane J., Qiang Fu, Randell, William J. and Reichler, Thomas J.; ‘Widening of the tropical belt in a changing climate’, Nature, (2008), volume 1, pp. 21-24
- "Climate statistics for Wongan Hills". Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
