Cunderdin, Western Australia: History
The Shire of Cunderdin (2014) reported the first European visitor to the area was Charles Cooke Hunt, who explored the area in 1864 and recorded the name Cunderdin, from the Nyungar Aboriginal name of a nearby hill. The meaning of the name is thought to mean either "place of the bandicoot" or "place of flowers" (Shire of Cunderdin, 2014).
Like many small towns in the area, Cunderdin developed as a stop-off town during the gold rush in the WA Goldfields (Reeves, Frost, & Fahey, 2010). Significantly in 1894 the railway arrived signalling the earliest settlement in the town (Shire of Cunderdin, 2014). In 1901 the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, designed by C. Y. O'Connor, led to a renewed increase in population of the town (Water Corporation, 2015). The townsite was gazetted in 1906.
In 1932 the Wheat Pool of Western Australia announced that the town would have two grain elevators, each fitted with an engine, installed at the railway siding. An elevator was duly erected the following year next to the Westralian Farmers grain-shed.
In late 1933 the local tennis courts were first opened in front of a crowd of about 100 players, a tournament was held the same afternoon. The local hospital also had an X-ray plant installed and commissioned a week later.