Cookernup

History

In 1835 Stephen Henty and Thomas Peel were the first Europeans to visit the area, being guided through the reaches of the Harvey River by local Aboriginal people. Cookernup's name derives from an Aboriginal name meaning "the place of the swamp hen" (cooki). The first settler, Joseph Logue, came to the area in 1852 with his extended family in search of good farming land, acquiring a grant which he called Kookernup. He later settled on the north bank of a nearby brook, now called Logue Brook. The area was important in the milling and transport of local timber, with a railway reserve being constructed for timber stacking. In the early 1890s, Cookernup had a much greater population than Harvey, and had a school and telegraph office several years earlier. The population of the town was 59 (35 males and 24 females) in 1898.