The 1961 Book: The History of Morawa District
PDF of the text contents of the book
Way back in 1961 a Mr. F. H. Goldsmith with the assistance of the then newly formed Morawa Shire Council researched and compiled a 100 page (or so) book he titled “The History of Morawa District”. The subtitle of the book was “The Story of Progress”. Included were 16 gloss pages of photographs that Mr. Goldsmith was able to obtain from residents of the town at the time.
I have spent a bit of time converting the text from this book into a searchable PDF format using my Epson 680W high-speed document scanner. The first bit of work is cutting the pages out of the book so they can be scanned. It then takes some trial and error work to get the best possible result. Especially when you want to run it through an OCR package to make it searchable. If the text is not clear and aligned then the OCR outcome will not be as good as it could be and would thereby impact the accuracy of any searching.
The 16 pages containing 53 photographs were scanned separately on my Epson V600 Photographic Quality scanner so that I could get the best result when it comes to these photographs. Sadly when the book was put together back in 1961 they did not have scanners anything like the V600. Nor did they have the benefit of modern printing systems in printing these pictures in the book. As an outcome of this my starting point in doing these scans was somewhat less than optimal.
PDF of images from the book
To open the searchable PDF of the book simply click on the green and white coloured cover page shown. The resulting PDF will open in a new browser window. It loads from a Microsoft Onedrive shared folder so it might take several seconds or so to fully open. If you are using a mobile device and you are asked if you want to open the external app then decline and stay in the browser.
To open the PDF containing the (non-searchable) images from the book click on the picture at left featuring the (South) Merkanooka & Districts Farmer’ Co-op. As for the book, the PDF of images will open in a new tab.
Note: In 2008 another book was written about Morawa titled “A History of the Morawa District — 1850 to 2006” compiled by M. Walter. If this book is of interest it can be found at this link. The content of the PDF of this book is also searchable.
The following notes provide an indication of what is shown in the photographs that will be found in the PDF of images provided above. It is also so that the indexers will index this information.Page IV: Mr. & Mrs. John Stokes first settled in Greenough came to Morawa in 1909. Considered as the Morawa District’s first settlers and wheatgrowers. His father was a ‘red-jacket’ from England who had escorted a party of convicts to Western Australia from England.
Page V: Main street of Morawa in 1924.
Opening of the Morawa Hotel in 1927 featuring Charlie Ridge, Tom Bradley, Jim Powell, Mich Neagle, Les Yewers, Ned Hughes, Charlie Prater, and Charlie Cole.
Page VI: Morawa’s first Co-op store the Morawa & Merkanooka Districts Farmers’ Co-op. Picture shows A. Granville, Mr. Tipping, Mr. Sasse, N Gill, Mr. Hepworth. Prior to being known as Morawa the township was often referred to as South Merkanooka.
A camel train in front of P. H. Lodge & Sons in Morawa. This team was used by an Afghan on the trip from Mingenew to Cue. A farmer who ent to Morawa in 1927 use the camels for farming purposes for two or three years. Some of the camels died through eating poison scrub.
Page VII: Morawa’s first Post Office and Store built and opened by Mr. F. S. Moore and managed by Mr. C. Cole. Later taken over by Mr. Dick Lyons and then sold to Mr. P. H. Lodge in December of 1919.
Morawa’s first brass band.
Morawa’s rifle club circa 1940 was a member of the Northern Districts Rifle Union.
Page VIII: The Lodge Family. Mr. M. E. Lodge (Maurice), Mrs. P. H. Lodge, Mr. S. W. Lodge (Sydney), Mr. P. H. Lodge (Percy a.k.a. Yorkie), Mr. L. W. Lodge (Laurie).
Starting to build the Morawa Hotel.
Page IX: The Rothsay Gold mine, poppet head, and bin.
Wheat handling at Morawa in 1932.
Page X: Merkanooka school children about 1920. Bernie Neagle, Alf Yewers, Dela Ewers, Bob McQuillan, Howard McQuillan, Charlie Ridge, Juan Kramer, Lewis McQuillan, Lennie Harris, Jack Agar, and Bianche Harris.
Morawa makes a start with the bulk handling of its wheat; about 1936.
Page XI: Stacking the wheat harvest in Morawa in 1934.
The Dreghorn homestead. The first real home in the Morawa district. Built in 1910.
Page XII: A picture of a number of people who attended Morawa’s Silver Jubilee at the Morawa Recreation ground in 1935.
Mrs. Coaker, Mr. George Harley, Mrs. S. Valentine, Mrs. M. Neagle, Mrs. Ewers, Mrs. George Harley, Mrs. Arthur Granville, Mrs. Charlie Ridge, Mr. H. Coaker, Mr. Jim Powell, Mr. Tom Kramer, Mr. Mich Neagle, Mr. Arthur Stokes, Mr. & Mrs. G. P. White, Mrs. C (Con) Ryan, Mrs. S. Valentine, Mr. P. Haddock, Mr. Arthur Granville, Mr. Charlie (Chas) Ridge, Mr. Charlie (Chas) Prater, Mr. George Agar, Mr. Les Ewers, Mr. John. W. Tubby, Mr. C. J. Valentine.
Page XIII: Miss Millie Agar in 1912. A pupil of the Morawa School. Millie became Mrs. Coaker.
Les Powell on horseback from the Central Morawa School in 1912.
Page XIV: Early Morawa settlers from 1910 to 1912. Mrs. Monty White.
Group of Morawa women with their babies taken about 1948.
Includes Mrs. Jessie Dreghorn who was celebrating here 100th birthday.
Mrs. A. Yewers, Mrs. Jim Powell.
Page XV: Horse and cart transport in the early days of Morawa. Used for stores, see wheat, super, etc. having to be carted up to 46 miles. Mr. Jack Ryan.
Cutting a hay crop at Morawa using two horses.
Page XVI: Tractors (two caterpillar track style tractors and a road grader) moving a hall by towing it from Morawa to Merkanooka recreation ground located at the corner of Ryan Road and Dreghorn Road WSW of Morawa (a.k.a. South Merkanooka).
Horse drawn waggon (sic, wagon) moving heavy load of hay bales from Anlaby Farm near Merkanooka about 1920.
Page XVII: School building at South Morowa (Morawa) in 1912.
Page XVIII: The Merkanooka Football Team (estimated to be from 1935)
Mud bricks drying out for Mrs. Gladys Powell’s house at Koolanooka.
Page XIX: Country Women’s rest room at Morawa, erected in 1939.
Picture of a group of women at a picnic at the Morawa co-op. These women worked to raise fund for camp comforts during World War I (WWI).
Mrs. j. Dreghorn, Miss E. Langoulant, Miss H. Faulls, Mrs. L. Ewers, Mrs. Jim Powell, Miss Grace Parker, Mrs. M. White, Allison White, Mrs. E. Prater.
Page XXI: Morawa’s main shopping road in 1961.
Page XXII: Morawa Hotel 1961.
Morawa Road Board building 1961.
Page XXIII: Morawa Town Hall 1961 and the Lesser Hall.
New Rural and Industries Bank (R&I Bank) showing the post office building to the left, 1961.
Page XXIV: Morawa railway station and shunting yards, 1961.
Page XXV: Children at the Morawa State School at morning assembly, 1961.
Page XXVI: Pupils attending the Marion Convent school at Morawa, 1961.
Page XXVII: Roman Catholic Church, Morawa, 1961.
Page XXVIII: Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church, Morawa, 1961.
Church of Christ, Morawa, 1961.
Page XXIX: One of Morawa’s large half-tank construction style wheat bins, 1961.
Location of what became Morawa’s first bowling club, 1961.
Page XXXI: Morawa’s “Grand Old Lady” Mrs. Janet Dreghorn, 1961.
There was no Copyright claimed in this book. I had a really good look. However, if someone reading this feels they might own this work and claim copyright then just let me know and I will take the page down.