(C) Don Copley

WATHEROO

HEMA Map reference 76/H5

30° 17' 40" S 116° 03' 44" E

Statistics

Caravan Parks

Unknown

Services

Attractions

Watheroo National Park, Old observatory, Edawa Lake, Little Salt Lake campsite, 18 hole golf course, Wildflowers in spring.

Description

This is a tiny town between Moora and Coorow on a road known as the Midlands Scenic Way.

Leases in the area go as far back as 1870 and some of the first lease holders were E McIntosh, T.B. Ridley, E. Collin, Walter Padbury, Father Aragon, and Father Francis Salvado - not to be confused with Rosendo Salvado's of New Norcia.

There is a general store and limited accommodation but apart from the Watheroo National Park there is little to attract visitors to the town. It was one of the original stations on the Midland to Walkaway railway and the townsite was declared in 1907.

The name is said to originate with an Aboriginal word meaning seaweed but it is so far from the sea that this does seem rather odd. The first recorded use was Watheroo Spring in 1873. Two different versions of the towns name have been put forward, Wardo meaning little bird in the local Aboriginal dialect or Wardoro meaning water.