Ongerup is a town south-east of Perth and east of Gnowangerup in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. At the 2016 census Ongerup had a population of 93. History The name Ongerup means "place of the male kangaroo" in the local Noongar language. The area around Ongerup was explored by Surveyor General John Septimus Roe who passed through in 1848. In the 1870s the Moir family moved to the area and began grazing sheep along the Warperup Creek. In 1910 the land was surveyed into blocks priced at 10 shillings per acre before the townsite was gazetted in 1912. A local newspaper, The Gnowangerup Star and Tambellup-Ongerup Gazette, was launched on 21 August 1915 with the final edition being printed in 2003. The first Ongerup Public Hall was built in 1927 but was replaced by the current building in 1953. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, kangaroo hunters and mallee bark strippers came to the area. The bark was sent to Germany for use in tanning. In 1936 the town established a football club. The club initially played in the Tambellup Football Association before joining with Jerramungup to form the Ongerup Football Association in 1962. The club went into recess in 2010. The town was flooded when of rain, almost a third of the annual average, fell in one day on 17 February 1955. In June 1983 the Ongerup Cemetery received its first burial. In 1983 the Ongerup Shears event was held for the first time. This was a shearing competition that was held on the Queen's Birthday long weekend with international and national shearers competing in the runup to the Perth Royal Show. The event was discontinued in the 1990s. In 2009 a 13-part documentary, entitled The Life of the Town, was made by Ronin Films that looked at the life of the town and focussed on the Australian Rules football team that was under threat. In March 2010 the Ongerup Police Station (established 1962) was moved to the east to Jerramungup in response to the increased populations of Jerramungup and Bremer Bay. In 2012 the town celebrated its centenary with a programme of various events. Railway A branch line to Ongerup from Tambellup on the Great Southern Railway main line between Perth and Albany was opened on 6 January 1913 to serve the growing agriculture industry; it closed on 13 October 1957. A timetable from 1937