Wundowie Iron Festival 2018

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Sat 20 Oct 2018

Wundowie was the birthplace of Western Australia's iron ore industry. This unique event will celebrate this heritage of the area. On Saturday 20 October, 2018 from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm, Wundowie Oval will spring to life with:




The festival began years ago as an opportunity to showcase local artists and in recent times, has incorporated the community's link to the Charcoal, Iron and Steel Mill. The Wundowie Progress Association aim to go on ensuring that this festival grows each year with the addition of a variety of competitions and entertainment for the local and surrounding communities to enjoy.



Wundowie is a small town amongst dense bushland and it is situated approximately 65 km east of Perth via the Great Eastern Highway. It is in the Darling Range and is just 30 kms south of the town of Northam, which is the regional centre and a much larger town.

The drive down from Perth for this year's Wundowie Iron Festival is a scenic drive for anyone who wants to do it in the day. The main feature of this year's celebrations is the Iron Beast Competition. The Iron Beast is either an individual or a team effort to build a device. This device must be made primarily of iron and steel, and propelled by the [i]"down force of a 20 kg weight."[/i]

There will be a prize of $1,000 which will be awarded for the Beast that travels the longest distance in 30 seconds! This will be great fun to watch!

The festival will also include prize money of:




All the work entered into these competitions will be displayed in the Wundowie Community Hall on Saturday, 20th October from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. The winners' prizes will be presented on Saturday 20th October at the Wundowie Sports Oval.

You can see all the details of these competitions, and more by clicking on this link.

[b]History of Wundowie[/b]
Wundowie was the location of an iron works, siding and stopping place on the Eastern Railway. It was named in 1907 and was a siding on the Chidlow to Northam section of the railway.

The origin of the name is from nearby Woondowing Spring which is an Aboriginal word believed to have to come from Ngwundow, meaning "to lie down". In 1943, the government decided to construct the blast furnace and wood distillation plant to produce charcoal. Then plans were made to develop the townsite.

The actual lots were surveyed in 1946 and the town was gazetted in 1947. The iron works commenced production in 1948 and the railway station was opened in 1949 In 1974, the plant was sold to Agnew-Clough Ltd, and it was then upgraded.

However some years later, there was a shortage in availability of hardwood timber, and so the sawmill was closed, and in 1981, the Mill totally stopped their operations. This was after some 33 years of operating in Wundowie.

The railway line was continued for a while from Northam to service Wundowie - after the main closure of the Chidlows route and the opening of the Avon Valley route in 1966. [Reference: www.town.com.au/town/wundowie]
You can get more information on the event from their Facebook page.

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#escape_the_city
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#october
!date 20/10/2018 -- 20/10/2018
%wnperth