DOWERIN, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

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A service town in the central Wheatbelt.
Location: 156 km north east of Perth.
Origin of name: derived from nearby Lake Dowerin, first recorded on maps around 1879. One source suggests Dowerin is the Aboriginal word for the twenty eight parrot (Dow-arn), and another suggests it means "place of the throwing stick" (dower).
Brief history: in 1906 the government extended the railway from Goomalling to the developing Dowerin Agricultural Area and decided to survey a townsite at the terminus. The Aboriginal name of the site chosen was Wuguni, but Dowerin, also an Aboriginal name, was already in local use for the place, and was gazetted in 1907.
Natural features: Lake Dowerin.