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Kunjin is 275 kilometres south east of Perth. Nothing but a small memorial remains to show where a small town almost developed.
At its height Kunjin had a school, post office, church hall, tennis courts and a railway siding with wheat handling facilities.
It never quite managed to develop into a fully fledged town but the town site was surveyed and gazetted in 1914, one year after the railway route from
Brookton was finalised. (The railway opened in 1915.)
The name was derived from Coonjin Spring but the spelling was altered when the town was gazetted.
In 1978 the last remaining buildings at the siding were demolished and the town that never quite was, ceased to exist.
In 1988 a memorial stone was erected on the site of the old school.
Kunjin virus, a subtype of West Nile Virus, actually has nothing to do with the area and originates from the tribal name of Aborigines in Queensland where the
virus was first identified.
The 'town that never was' even had a book written about it. Quite a feat and a tribute to those who lived in the area.
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