CORRIGIN, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

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A town located in the southern Wheatbelt area between Brookton and Kondinin.
Location: 225 km south east of Perth. Altitude 295 metros above sea level.
Origin of name: the townsite was first gazetted in 1913 as "Dondakin". This name was derived from the adjacent railway siding, which in turn was a form of the Aboriginal name of a nearby soak, Dondakine Soak. The local name, "Corrigin", was not accepted by railway authorities at first because of the likelihood of confusion with another siding called "Korrijinn". Eventually, due to public protest, Korrijinn was changed to "Bickley", and Dondakin changed to Corrigin on 15 May 1914. Corrigin is named after Corrigin Well, another local Aboriginal name, first recorded in 1877. The meaning of the name is not known.
Brief history: sheep were run in the district in the 1860s but it wasn't until 1872 that D. G. Lynch took up a lease of 1000 acres which included Corrigin Well that any permanent settlement took place. It wasn't until the early part of the twentieth century that significant numbers of people moved into the area to take up land and to settle permanently.
Natural features: Gorge Rock (20 km south east); Lake Kurren Kutten; Bendering Nature Reserve.
Built features: dog cemetery; pioneer museum; miniature railway and steam train.