The Coorow Hotel

Coorow
Rural service centre for the surrounding wheat and sheep region
Located 262 km north of Perth on the Midlands Road, Coorow is a typical northern wheatbelt town with a tiny service centre which includes a hotel, a caravan park, a single main street and the inevitable bulk handling grain silos and railway line.

The Coorow area was first settled in 1852 when William and Sara Long arrived in the district. They raised sheep and horses. The horses were shipped to Singapore where they were used by the British forces and the wool was taken by dray to Dongara and Perth.

The name 'Coorow' was first used by Surveyor John Forrest who recorded a nearby feature as Coorow Spring in his field book. Predictably no one knows for certain what the word 'coorow' means but the popular versions are either a corruption of the Aboriginal word 'curro' used to describe a portulaca (a local plant with pink flowers) or a word meaning 'place of many mists'.

The railway line arrived in 1894 and the Midland Railway Company established farms along the line which they sold as going concerns in 1912. The townsite was officially declared in 1911, a tent school began lessons in 1912 (with eight students) but the town only had one shop until about 1920. The town's large and interesting hotel was completed in 1930.

In spite of this the town's development was slow. The Post Office didn't arrive until 1956 and a non-denomination protestant church wasn't completed until 1959.

Today Coorow is the headquarters of a shire which covers 4137 sq km, has a population of slightly less than 1500 (there are only about 240 people living in the town) and yet from only 108 rural holdings produces (in 1987/88) 43,100 tonnes of wheat, 19,400 tonnes of lupins and 2 723 890 kg of wool from 455 000 sheep. These figures are typical of the productivity of the whole of the fertile Central West.

Things to see:  

Wildflowers
About 50 km to the west of the town is the Alexander Morrison National Park which is noted for its spectacular wildflower displays which occur in the spring.

	Tourist Information
	Leeman Tourist Information Centre Shire Council Coorow WA 6515 Telephone: (08) 9952 1103 Facsimile: (08) 9952 1173
	Hotels
	Coorow Hotel Main St Coorow WA 6515 Telephone: (08) 9952 1023 Facsimile: (08) 9952 1097
	Farm & Eco Holidays
	Mingaree Home & Farmstay Hughes Rd Coorow WA 6515 Telephone: (08) 9952 5013
	Woodlands Farmstay P.O. Box 11 Coorow WA 6515 Telephone: (08) 9952 5022
	Caravan Parks
	Coorow Caravan Park Station St Coorow WA 6515 Telephone: (08) 9952 1061
	Restaurants
	Coorow Hotel Main St Coorow WA 6515 Telephone: (08) 9952 1023 Facsimile: (08) 9952 1097