Dongara, Western Australia

File:Dongara Royal Steam Roller Flour Mill SI-39 30123-115-N.jpg

The place name 'Dongara' is an anglicised rendition of Thung-arra, the local Wattandee people's name for the estuary adjacent to the town, meaning 'sea lion place'.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

European settlement around the estuary began in 1853 when a harbourmaster, Edward Downes, was stationed there to look out for passing ships. He was employed by Lockier Burges, Edward Hamersley, Samuel Pole Phillips and Bartholomew Urban Vigors' Cattle Company, which was granted 60,000 acres of pastoral leases about 15 kilometres inland.{{cite news |title=Champion Bay |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2930483 |access-date=2 July 2018 |work=The Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News |date=1 January 1858 |page=3}} By the 1860s, ex-convict small farmers were occupying the local river flats, and a flour mill (the Irwin or Smith's Mill) was operating. A townsite was surveyed, and in 1871 it became the seat of a local council established that year (now the Irwin Shire Council), and site of a police station and public school. The Anglican Church of St John the Baptist and a Methodist Church were built in the 1880s.

In the 1890s, the larger Royal Steam Roller Flour Mill was built on the flats next to the new Midland Railway line that connected the district to Perth. The town slowly developed, and although still a comparatively small village by the time of Federation in 1901, it had several churches, municipal offices and hall, a variety of shops, two hotels, a public school and a railway station. The nearby localities were populated by wheat and sheep farmers, centred on the hamlets of Bookara, Irwin and Strawberry. There was also a small population of fishermen, including several Chinese men, at Port Denison.

Dongara is the centre for a small oil and natural gas industry that began with the discovery of the Dongara Gas Field in 1966.{{cite news |last1=Watson |first1=Paul |title=Life After Thirty |url=https://www.afr.com/companies/briefing-19961028-kaywx |access-date=14 November 2019 |work=Australian Financial Review |date=28 October 1996 |location=Sydney}}

Dongara railway station was demolished in 1975 as part of the realignment of the Midland railway line through the town, which was necessitated by the construction of the Dongara–Eneabba railway line.{{cite web |author1=Shire of Irwin |title=Dongara Railway Station (fmr) |url=https://inherit.dplh.wa.gov.au/Public/Inventory/PrintSingleRecord/e08673a1-7464-485c-a076-34d7e37372f3 |website=inHerit |access-date=29 July 2024 |date=21 July 1998}} The new alignment was {{convert|0.9|km|1}} shorter than the original alignment and it opened on 1 June 1975.{{cite web |title=Midland Railway of Western Australia (MRWA) Stations & Sidings |url=https://www.carnamah.com.au/stations+sidings |website=Carnamah Historical Society and Museum |access-date=29 July 2024}} The route of the Dongara–Eneabba railway line travelled through the Dongara Roman Catholic Cemetery, located on the southern side of Brand Highway, so the remains there were re-interred in the Dongara Cemetery.{{cite web |author1=Shire of Irwin |title=RC Cemetery & First Church (fmr) – site |url=https://inherit.dplh.wa.gov.au/Public/Inventory/PrintSingleRecord/73b3d169-e09d-4a46-9d55-41b3648345d2 |website=inHerit |access-date=29 July 2024 |date=18 September 1998}} The Dongara–Eneabba railway line opened in April 1976.{{cite book |last1=Quinlan |first1=Howard |last2=Newland |first2=John R. |title=Australian Railway Routes 1854 to 2000 |date=2000 |publisher=Australian Railway Historical Society, New South Wales Division |isbn=978-0-909650-49-0 |page=69}}{{cite web |title=Plaque for opening of Eneabba – Dongara railway |url=https://collectionswa.net.au/items/879fb2c2-cbc4-48f2-938d-3814042304df |website=Collections WA |access-date=29 July 2024}}

• Sir David Brand (1912–1979), 19th Premier of Western Australia, born at Dongara
• Nathan Broad (1993– ), Australian rules footballer and 3 time AFL premiership player{{cite news |title=Tattooed Tiger Nathan Broad finds a kindred spirit in Dustin Martin |url=https://thewest.com.au/sport/afl/tattooed-tiger-nathan-broad-finds-a-kindred-spirit-in-dustin-martin-ng-b88558623z |work=The West Australian |date=5 August 2017}}{{cite AV media |title=Triple M with Nathan Broad (7:05) |url=https://www.richmondfc.com.au/video/927326/we-needed-to-get-back-on-the-winners-circle-broad?videoId=927326&modal=true&type=video |date=3 May 2021}}
• Robert Bruning (1928–2008), born Robert Bell, PMG linesman, sales manager, actor, film producer, screenwriter, script editor
• Jamie Elliott (1992– ), Australian rules footballer
• Patricia Kailis (1933–2020), geneticist, lived in Dongara from 1962 to 1969
• Carmen Lawrence (1948- ), 25th Premier of Western Australia
• Cranston Albury McEachern (1905–1983), Australian army officer and solicitor
• Jaeger O'Meara (1994– ), Australian rules footballer
• Roxanne Roux, AFLW player

{{Reflist}}

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{{Wikivoyage-inline|Dongara}}

• [http://www.irwin.wa.gov.au/ Shire of Irwin]
• [http://www.perthsites.com/web/design.cgi?website=1061-dongara-information/ Dongara Information]

{{Towns Mid West WA}}

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Category:Coastal towns in Western Australia

Category:Shire of Irwin

Category:Fishing communities in Australia