Life within and life of a mining town: the historical geography of Western Australia’s first iron ore town

ABSTRACT

Small resource-dependent towns are particularly vulnerable to economic decline as they often have limited internal capacity to develop alternative economic functions. This paper presents the story of the development, decline and adaptation of a small resource-dependent town. Recognising that the processes informing the development trajectories of resource communities are diverse, temporally embedded and multi-scalar, this paper argues that the everyday activities of the residents inform the life of resource towns, and, moreover, lives within these places. The paper presents the story of Wundowie—Western Australia’s first iron ore town. This is interwoven with the story of the Kowalski family—a migrant family whose history, typical of many of the town’s original residents, made the town.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural adaptation
• resilience
• historical geography
• Western Australia
• mining town
• path dependence

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the valuable contribution of the current and former residents of Wundowie who participated in this study. Figure 1 was prepared by Dr Xin Liu from Curtin University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Amanda Davies http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1892-9128

Notes

1 Pseudonyms have been used and some details have been adjusted to protect the identity of the interview participants.

2 Correspondence between Union officials and Secretary for Labour in State Records Office of Western Australia Accession No. AU WA S469- cons3914 014/45/000 Charcoal Iron and Steel Industry – Wundowie – General. L14/45 1945-02-26 – 1958-10-15, especially folios 1–5, 37, 47–57, 68, 80.

3 Midland is a sub-regional centre in the greater Perth region and is approximately 45 km from Wundowie.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by Curtin University’s School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts.