HARVEY

HEMA Map reference 74/F3

33° 05' S 115° 24' E

Statistics

Caravan Parks

Services

Attractions

Harvey Weir, Gibbs Pool, Stirling Dam, Fish ladder, Hoffman Mill, Stirlings Cottage, Museum,  Apex Park, Snells Park, Blackboy picnic site, Tea Tree Hollow, Logue Brook Dam,  Wildwater & Slalom Canoe Course, Emu Tech, Italian Internment War Shrine, Harvey River Precinct Gardens, The Big Orange, Harvey Historical Museum,  Rally Australia.

Buildings of note

Cook's Park farmhouse 1862, Internment camp shrine 1940, Runnymede 1867, Harvey Hotel 1898.

Calendar of events

January: Australia Day breakfast, Stirling Cottage concert, Harness racing. February: Harness racing. March: Harvest festival. April: Harvey Show, Rotary Club annual auction.  May: Rotary art prize. July: Sled dogs south west. August:  Harness racing. September: Spring fair. October: Bibbulmun walk. Harvey Show, Spring Fair. November: Rally Australia, Stirling Cottage concert, Harness racing, H20 family events. December: Carols by candle light, Harness racing. Monthly (4th Saturday): Markets.

Description

The town was named after the Harvey River (discovered by Alexander Collie  and William Preston in 1829) which in turn was named after Major Harvey a British army surveyor. (Another source suggests Rear Admiral Sir John Harvey R.N. Commander in Chief of the West Indies Station in 1818 who recommended James Stirling for a promotion.) The town was first known as Korijekup - place of the red-tailed black cockatoo. (No wonder they changed it!)

One of the first people to take up land in the area was Captain James Stirling in 1849-50. He built a hunting lodge on his property and this is now featured in the Stirling Cottage and gardens heritage site. May Gibbs (creator of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie) lived there in 1885. (The cottage that exists today is a replica of the original.)

The first permanent settlers were the Logue family who moved in to the area in the 1850s.

The town was a private development which occurred after the opening of a railway station there in 1893. The initial request to gazette the town site was made in 1926 but this did not happen until 1938.

Harvey had the first irrigation system in W.A. after the Harvey Weir was constructed in 1916.
 

During World War Two and internment camp was established to hold Italian and German residents who were thought to be a security risk. A roadside shrine today commemorates less happy times. (There were three internment camps in Australia and the one at Harvey housed about 1000 men. An internee at the time was quoted as saying: "I can't say they treated me badly, but they took my business away and, worst of all, they took my freedom".)

The area is now the centre of an orange growing industry, and Harvey Fresh is a well known local orange drink. Dairy cattle are also a major local industry, and lately fruit and vegetable growing have added to the economic success of the area.

Other local Industries include - beef, mining, vineyards; export beef abattoir (Harvey Beef); silicon smelter; and a pigment plant.

There are two campsites which are managed by CALM, and several camping sites which require payment, please contact CALM (08) 9729 1505 for further information.