Dowerin Western Australia

Dowerin and Districts Museum

A tour to the Dowerin District Museum provides a unique perspective of how settlers lived in a real cottage of 1915-1930’s furnishings and various artefacts from around the district. The building built in 1915 by Eugene O’Shaughnessy, the local Saddler and Harness Maker.

Walk Trail- Town Heritage

The Dowerin Heritage & Leisure Walk Trail is a delicate walk across the city site on an exploration trail that highlights Dowerin’s culturally important buildings and sites. For further insight into pioneering history in Dowerin, upload the Heritage Walk Trail map for more information and stories about the use and growth of each building/site.

Enroute tour our selection of church structures, the initial Dowerin Shearing Shed location and the Dowerin Showgrounds, now renowned for the regular Field Days.

Old Dowerin & Its Lakes  

The name of the Shire and Dowerin’s city site derives from the indigenous word “Daren” given to a series of lakes–once fresher, some 8-10 kilometres south of the city. It was initially created on their manner to the goldfields as a watering hole and stopping location for prospectors and travellers. 

It was first established in 1895, but the railway could not be constructed in the region in 1906 and as a result, the town location was relocated to the current location. The place where the original town reserve once stood is marked by a brass plaque.

Rabbit-Proof Fence 2

This fence was built in 1907-1908 and much of it remains in good condition. It runs north/south through the eastern third of the shire.  The fence initially went north of Cue from Point Anne, where it transformed east to join Rabbit-Proof Fence No. 1 at Gum Creek. It is one of three long state fences meant to control the plague of rabbits, which could wreak huge havoc in agricultural areas.

While much time and money were spent to make them work, the fences failed in their purpose. They are a monument to natural intent to manage a pest that has been and is a domestic issue. The fences are a sign of the rabbit invasion’s widespread fear and the limited and desperate ideas used to control the pest.

Like this, Read this: Whale shark tours Western Australia