This weekend, we (wife and kids) are heading to Tammin to visit mates of ours who live there. It's a nice trip east of Perth along the Great Eastern Highway. There's really nothing in Tammin except open space, dirt, and heat, but it's a great chance to get away and enjoy the wide open spaces and fresh air.
The Nicholls have been working and living (and raising kids) in Tammin for as long as I've known them, which is as long as I've known my wife, which is almost 8 years now.
Here's a bit of history which I dug up from around the place:
A typical, unassuming wheatbelt township
Located 178 km east of Perth, Tammin is a typical wheatbelt town which derives its name from the tammar or tammar wallaby, a small wallaby which was the first Australian marsupial ever sighted by Europeans. The tammar, which only stands about 60 cm, is capable of withstanding droughts of over six months.
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Tammin is a classic wheatbelt one street town with huge wheat silos (constructed in 1960 they were the first concrete silos built in Australia) and a railway line on one side of the road and the faithful old Tammin Hotel and a few shops on the other side.
The success of the town (if a town with a population of about 500 people can be deemed successful) was largely due to the arrival of the Coolgardie water pipeline in 1902. This was less than a decade after the arrival of the first settler, John Packham, a Sussex farmer who had arrived in Australia in 1888, who settled in the area in 1893.
Of course Packham wasn't the first European to pass through the area. That indomitable wheatbelt explorer and well digger, Charles Cooke Hunt, of whom John Forrest is supposed to have remarked 'Will I ever find a place where this man has not been before me', camped at Tammin Spring on 12 July 1864. He noted that the area had 'fair feed and good water' but claimed that the feeding ground was a strip only '3 miles long and 1 mile broad'. It was hardly a description designed to lure graziers into the area.
in 1865, as he passed through the area, Hunt had his men construct a well. His diary entry for 4 March records: 'During the early part of the day the working party engaged sinking well - having made a hole about 10 ft long by 7 ft broad and 6 ft deep - by noon we obtained a plentiful supply of water for travelling purposes.'
Things to see
Hunt's Well
It is hard to overemphasise the importance Hunt's wells played in the opening up of the whole wheatbelt area. He provided vital water holes for both stockmen and for the gold prospectors who came through the area on their way to Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie. Before the arrival of O'Connor¹s pipeline Hunt's wells were the major source of water throughout the area.
Hunt's Well is clearly signposted. It is located to the south of the town.
Charles Gardner Memorial
To the west of the town is the Charles Gardner memorial surrounded by over 50 species of native wildflower. Gardner was the Government Botanist and his name is also commemorated in the Charles Gardner National Park which lies 16 km south of the town and is a delight when the wildflowers are in bloom. It is important as a reserve for sandplain flora especially the rare Casuarina fibrosa.
Yorkrakine Rock
Like so much of the wheatbelt Tammin has its own rocky outcrop. Yorkrakine Rock, 26 km to the north of the town, is a huge outcrop rising 341 metres and covering 160 hectares and is a popular place for picnics and bushwalking.
