Real Estate - Dongara

... the old historical twin towns of Port Denison and Dongara, the coastal contact for the Shire of Irwin. In 1839, an expedition led by George Grey left the Swan River Colony by ship, bound for the area north of the Murchison River. His boats and supplies destroyed in a cyclone, his only alternative was a gruelling 700km trek south to the colony.

Captain Grey and his party thus became the first Europeans to traverse the Irwin District and note the extent of the lush pastoral country in the Irwin Basin.

The Aboriginal people of this region (the Wattandee) saw the first permanent European settlement of Irwin in 1850. Finally, in 1871, the Irwin Road Board was formed. It stretched to the South Australian border and covered 89,000 square miles.

In its early years, meetings were held in the Courthouse which was built around the same time, along with a School and Police Station. This progress continued as surely as the gradual growth of the majestic trees lining the main street.