DUMBLEYUNG | Western Australia | www.wanowandthen.com

DESCRIPTION

Dumbleyung is a wheatbelt town located about 270 kilometres from the capital city of Perth.

The town is located close to the lake of the same name and the lake is the largest body of inland water in southern W.A. (When it actually has water in it.)

It covers an area of about 13 x 7 km. Water levels in the lake vary widely depending on yearly rainfall and some years it can be bone dry while others it fills to capacity.

In 1964, Donald Campbell set the water speed record in his boat 'bluebird' on Lake Dumbleyung. He achieved the remarkable speed of 444.66 kph. (This is quoted as 444.71 kph in some sources)

Campbell died (in England) just two years later as he was trying to break the record he had set in the Australian outback.

A memorial to Campbell stands on top of Pussycat Hill and a bust was created to commemorate this dare-devil speed seeker.

The monument by the lake is made of granite and was designed in the shape of Western Australia. Nearby a model of the Bluebird was once illuminated by the sun shining through a hole drilled in the granite on the anniversary of the day the world record was set. In a world that lacks respect, the plaque on the monument and the model of the Bluebird have both been stolen.

A replica of Campbell's Bluebird was unveiled in Dumbleyung on New Year's Eve 2014. To find out more visit the Bluebird Website.

There have been attempts over the years to stock the lake with fish but the unreliable nature of rain in the area has meant that the lake has completely dried out a number of times and no fish are believed to have survived.

Today, where once settlers described fertile land with grasses and trees, there is little but dead trees and barren soil. Salination, a problem that occurs through out the wheat belt, has destroyed a once productive area.

The emblem adopted by the shire is that of a duck about to land. The original design was arrived at by holding a competition which was won by no other than Lesley (wait for it) Walduck.

Travellers in self-contained RVs and caravans can stay in the hotel car park for free as long as they spend some money at the hotel.

There is also a free 72 hour RV stop for self contained vehicles at the local sportsground.

For those without self-contained vehicles there is a great local caravan park available with all the usual facilities.

There are other styles of accommodation in town including the local hotel that has very reasonably priced rooms.

The local Community Resource Centre is housed in the old post office building and you will find a lot of interesting information plus some friendly locals to help answer any questions you may have about the area.

HISTORY

In 1843 Lefroy and Landor with their native guide Cowit took 6 days to reach Lake Norring (near Wagin). Shortly afterwards Cowit reached the limits of his tribe's territory and could lead the explorers no further. Luckily they met two other natives who were able to guide the men further east and it was here that they found Lake Dambeling. (there are reports that the lake appears on a surveyors map as Kondening Lake in 1839.)

Henry Landor described the discovery in his journal:

'After riding 10 miles, we came in sight of Dambeling, the largest of the lakes - 13 miles by 7 or 8. It is like the others, shallow with many low islands in varied and beautiful form. On the northern and eastern shores, there is a good grazing country down to the lake, ending in precipitous banks and extending over the hills 2 or 3 miles distant from the lake. The water is salt and the shore long, flat and muddy, on which we saw the impressions of two stray horses and a foal...'

The natives knew of no major lakes further east and they too were unwilling to leave their tribal lands so Lefroy and Lander returned to York.

George Kersley took up the first grazing lease in the area in 1875 when the area around Lake Dumbleyung was reported as being rich and fertile. The name is said to be a corruption of the Aboriginal word, 'dambeling', which means 'place of large water.'

As Dumbleyung was on the route to the goldfields, some enterprising farmers would load their wagons with supplies and take them out the goldfields and auction the contents. There were also small stands of sandalwood in the area that were too small for sandal wood cutters to bother with but they were a welcome source of income for the early settlers.

The gold rushes of the 1880s drew many people to W.A. and the Government was keen to keep them here once they decided to leave the goldfields. To this end land was made easily available and support given in the form of loans by the Agricultural Bank.

By 1900 most of the land north of Lake Dumbleyung had been leased and in the following 15 years the land south and east was also taken up in pastoral leases.

John Cronin appears to have been the first permanent settler, taking up land 6 miles north of the lake in 1878.

The first town started to develop at Nippering but with the arrival of the rail terminus at Dumbleyung, people gravitated to the rail line and Nippering ceased to exist.

The town was declared in 1906 (one source quotes 1907) and this turns out to be because the initial survey was rejected for some reason and it was re-done the following year.

The railway arrived in 1907, the Road Board was established in 1909 and the local hotel was constructed in 1912. The town grew to be a major service centre.

It was not only the first pioneers who 'did it tough'. After World War II there was a wave of 'new Australians' from all over Europe who migrated to Australia. Heidi Petrik and her husband Tony arrived in 1951 and she wrote:

'What a time it was to arrive, late one summer evening in 1951 and not a soul in sight. At least the stars were out in their multitudes, as though sent by God to welcome us, illuminating the vast sky and the earth below. But oh God, this cannot be our future home, surely? Is this why we left Bavaria to come to Australia? This is what I was thinking to myself and trying hard not to cry as I look at this house. Is this really our home?

It was built at the bottom of the yard - so small, surrounded by wees and grass so plentiful and tall, no fence, just wire and posts. Everything felt and looked so strange, unknown, God forsaken, lost and forlorn: just as I felt. 'Tony how could you do this to us'' I turned to my husband to ask, but not a word passed my lips as I looked into his smiling and proud face. (How was I supposed to know that most of the New Australians that had settled here were living in tents along the railway line.)?

Today, Dumbleyung remains an important service centre for the surrounding farmlands.

It is an attractive town with good facilities and the local hotel is one of the most iconic in Western Australia. It is reminiscent of the Queenslander style hotels that are so common in that state.

TALL TALES AND TRUE

Forbe's Ghost

Over a period of years a strange light was seen by a number of people who were out at night near the Forbes farm. Tractors working the fields at night were followed by the light and it got to the point where some people were afraid to go out after dark. No explanation for the strange light has ever been found but it is certain that at least some of the 'mysterious lights' were pranks. Strangely the light was seen less and less after one tractor driver (who was carrying a rifle) took a pot shot at it.

Suspicious drowning.

In October 1933 a Greek man was drowned in the lake in what some locals suspected to be foul play.

Peter Kosta vanished and besides his neatly folded clothes by the lake and a set of footprints leading to the waters edge, no other sign of him could be found.

Locals had a number of theories about the disappearance but it was not until 1944 that Harry Wann, walking along the dry lake bed, came across human remains. Although it could never be confirmed, it was presumed that the bones belonged to Peter Kosta.

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