Pinjarra

History

The name was often shown spelt "Pinjarrup" on early maps, while the accepted spelling for many years was "Pinjarrah". There are conflicting theories regarding the meaning of the name, and it is usually said to mean "place of a swamp", as a corruption of the Aboriginal word "beenjarrup". However, Pinjarra is more likely to have been named after the Pindjarup people who frequented the area. Pinjarra is one of the earliest European settlements to occur in Western Australia; one of the first settlers in the area was Thomas Peel, who established a settlement at the mouth of the Murray River in 1830. In 1834, at the insistence of Thomas Peel, a group was organised and led by Governor James Stirling to do something about the Aboriginal people; this group attacked the village consisting of over 20 mia-mias just after dawn. They approached from both sides of the river, which forced the people into the river where they caught the victims, mostly women and children, in a crossfire. Many bodies were left to float downstream. Official reports referred to it as a battle, and it was only over 150 years later that it was recognised as one of many colonial massacres in Australia. Surveys were carried out in 1836 and land allocated to settlers in 1837. By early 1898, the population of the town was 400, 300 males and 100 females. A British child migration scheme run by Kingsley Fairbridge established a farm school in the area in the early 1900s. Hundreds of orphaned children were educated at Fairbridge Farm between 1913 and 1981. Fairbridge Chapel was built at Pinjarra, in 1924 to Herbert Baker's design. The author Kenneth (Seaforth) McKenzie grew up in Pinjarra, and parts of his experiences as a child living near the Murray River are found in his first novel The Young Desire It.…