DESCRIPTION
Gabbin lies north of the main road between Koorda and Bencubbin.
As a town it has all but ceased to exist. Where once the local school was filled with the sounds of children playing in
the playground, now there is just silence and an old Austin school bus sits rusting away.
HISTORY
Settlers started moving into the area in 1910 after leases had originally been used a sheep runs in the winter months.
Gabbin was never really a big town and was not even gazetted as a town until 1918.
Initially the area was known as Mulji, but in 1914 the current name was used. It is Aboriginal in origin and comes from a soak 10 km south
that was called Gababbin.
The railway from Wyalkatchem to
Marshall Rock
came through in 1916. As a result the population increased
and by 1920 the town boasted a school, a bakery, general stores, agricultural parts store, fuel depots, a butcher and a boarding house with
tea-rooms. When the school first opened there were 13 students.
Sports and dances held at the local hall were the main social activities but when the Great Depression struck folowed
by the Second World War, Gabbin went into a period of irreversible decline.
By 1950 there were just three shops operating but the 1960s saw boom times and for a while the population in the area started to rise again.
At the time the school had as many as 60 students attending.
The 1970s saw increasing mechanisation and from then on, the population of the area fell rapidly.
The Gabbin school ceased to function in 2000.
TALL TALES AND TRUE
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OTHER INFORMATION
ATTRACTIONS
Unknown.
BUILDINGS OF NOTE
Old school.
ELECTORAL ZONES
State : Central Wheatbelt
Federal : Durack
OTHER INFO.
Postcode : 6476
Local Government : Shire of Mt Marshall
PHOTOS
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