Narrogin is a large town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, southeast of Perth on the Great Southern Highway between Pingelly and Wagin. In the age of steam engines, Narrogin was one of the largest railway operation hubs in the southern part of Western Australia. History Narrogin is an Aboriginal name, having been first recorded as "Narroging" for a pool in this area in 1869. The meaning of the name is uncertain, various sources recording it as "bat camp", "plenty of everything" or derived from "gnargagin" which means "place of water". The first Europeans into the Narrogin area were Alfred Hillman and his party, who surveyed the track between Perth and Albany in 1835. They passed west of the present site of Narrogin. In time they were followed by the occasional shepherd who drove his sheep into the area seeking good pastures. The area was settled in the 1860s and 1870s when pastoralists moved and settled in isolated outposts. The population was so scattered that there was no incentive to establish a town. Narrogin was officially declared a town in June 1897 and it was gazetted as a municipality on 13 April 1906. The early years of settlement were hard, with farmers relying on sandalwood cutting and the bark from mallee trees (it was used as a tanning agent) to compensate for poor returns from wheat and sheep. By early 1898 the population of the town was 60, 35 males and 25 females. The local agricultural hall was opened the same year by Frederick Piesse. Rail centre The arrival of the Great Southern Railway in July 1889 initiated the first hint of a town. The railway company was in search of good reliable watering points along the route from Perth to Albany. The company that had won the railway contract, the WA Land Company, duly purchased Narrogin pool, and it was around this pool that the town developed. Narrogin was connected to six separate railway destinations – York, Wagin, Collie, Wickepin, Kulin and Boddington. Narrogin remained a major rail centre until the late 1970s when competition from road transport saw a reduction in the railway's workforce. By 1987, Narrogin was very much in decline, largely as the result of altered working of engines through from Avon Yard. The station ceased to be served by scheduled passenger trains from 1978. The number of employees dropped from about 280 people to