Damperwah Ruins - WA

The Department of Agriculture conducted wheat cropping trials at Dampawah State Farm on Karara Station from 1929-39 to determine the best wheat varieties and cropping methods for the York gum and acacia shrubland soils of the region. The Aboriginal name Damperwah is also given to three other features, a spring, a hill and a well at Karara. The name was also given to a spring west of Perenjori, and its has been spelt with variations such as Damperwarra, Dampawah and Damperwar.

The area lies some 40 kms to the north-west of Charles Darwin Reserve but it has featured significantly in the history of the region. Damperwah Spring and hill were key points for Aboriginal movement across the region and they played an important role in Cooke, Monger and Forrest’s explorations of the region in 1868 and 1869.

The first pastoral lease in the region was based around the spring, taken by Brockman in 1869, then J.H.Monger in the early 1870s. The research farm was the centre for the proposed expansion of agriculture which almost reduced much of Charles Darwin Reserve to wheat paddocks in the 1930s.

Info courtesy Member - Phil Bianchi.