Towns in Australia

Exploring Australia, town by town

Koorda WA

Koorda

Postcode: 6475

Koorda is a town located in the North Eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, approximately 236 kilometres (147 mi) east of Perth and 43 kilometres (27 mi) north of Wyalkatchem at the northeastern end of the Cowcowing Lakes. It is the main town in the Shire of Koorda.

In 1913 the government decided to construct a railway from Wyalkatchem to Mount Marshall (southeast of Bencubbin), and the Central Cowcowing Progress Association requested that land be set aside for a townsite at the proposed siding in this area. In 1914 the Jirimbi and Mulji Progress Association again requested a townsite here, and also in 1914 the proposed siding here was named Koorda at the suggestion of J Hope, the Chief Draftsman in the Lands Department. Hope took the name from a list of words obtained from a Noongar Aboriginal in the Margaret River area, the meaning being given as a “married person”. Problems regarding resumption of land for the townsite and the exact siting of the siding meant that the townsite was not gazetted until 1917.