DOWERIN, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

'Dowerin' is a town and shire located north-east of Perth in the central Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.

Contents

History

Field Day

Theo's run

See also

References

External links

History

In 1906 the government extended the railway from Goomalling to the developing Dowerin Agricultural Area and decided to develop 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 the name gazetted in 1907. The name is 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).^[1]

Field Day

Dowerin is home to the 'Dowerin GWN Field Days', currently a two day annual event showcasing agricultural and associated equipment, as well as providing information and services to people from rural areas. It is held in each year towards the end of August, and attracts on average in excess of 600 exhibitors as well as several thousand local and national visitors.
The event was first held as the Dowerin Machinery Field Day on 3 September 1965, and was the result of meetings by the Dowerin Progress Association the previous year which looked at ideas to prevent the town of Dowerin from becoming a ghost town. Some twenty exhibitors and two thousand visitors attended the first field day, with funds raised from the first event going towards funding the construction of a dam and a grassed tennis court. The event continues to be run and managed by the local community, with three full time staff and 400 volunteers involved in the event's running each year.
Since 1992, regional television broadcaster Golden West Network (GWN) has been the event's naming rights sponsor.

Theo's run

Between 1927 and 1939, the town hosted one of the major racetracks in the state. The Second World War brought an end to the racing and when it started again afterwards, racers moved to a track at Caversham. Later, they moved from Caversham to Wannneroo, which today is known as Barbagallo Raceway.
In May 2007, a vintage car motoring event was run to commemorate the town's history and its association with motor racing in Western Australia. Known as ''Theo's run'', the event is named after Theo Maisey, who raced on the Dowerin track in its heyday in the 1930s and is expected to become an annual event. The 2007 event included a vintage car run from Perth with Jaguar and Riley cars participating.^[2]

See also

★ Newdegate, Western Australia

References

1.
2. Dowerin gets up to speed

External links

★ Dowerin GWN Machinery Field Days website