The name Dumbleyung is thought be derived from the Aboriginal word ‘Dambeling’ meaning large lake or sea.
Pioneers arrived in the district in 1875 and established their farms out of virgin bush, having to tolerate a shortage of fresh water, finance, medical supplies and loneliness.
Sandalwood cutters and pastoralists began to settle at Nippering, north of Lake Dumbleyung. By 1915 the post office and hall were the only remaining evidence of township at Nippering, with Dumbleyung ten kilometres east becoming the larger and thriving township where the terminus of the Wagin-Dumbleyung railway was located.
Lake Dumbleyung
The first recorded sighting of the lake was in 1843 by the explorers Landor and Lefroy. It is the largest open lake in Western Australia’s southwest at 13 kilometres in length and 6.5 kilometres wide, covering an area of 52 km².
Despite the extreme salinity recorded, the lake continues to provide a habitat for many varieties of water birds.
Lake Dumbleyung received world recognition when Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record on 31 December1964 travelling at 276.3 miles per hour (442.08 km/h) in his boat Bluebird. A granite memorial to Donald Campbell can be seen at Pussy Cat Hill, a prominent feature and vantage point to view the entire lake area.
Dumbleyung, which became a townsite in 1906, is surrounded by a rural district dominated by wheat farming.
Lake Dumbleyung is a wildlife sanctuary fed by the Coblinine River, and is one of the largest inland salt lakes in Western Australia.
In the 1870's one of the first homesteads to be built in the Dumbleyung area was on the property known as Wheatfields, constructed from native timber and materials.
Dumbleyung (33°19′S 117°44′E; post code: 6350) is a town and shire in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, approximately 270km south-east of Perth between Wagin and Lake Grace on State Route 107.
However, in 1907, Dumbleyung was gazetted as a townsite and became the terminus of a railway from Wagin.
The nearby Dumbleyung Lake is a well-known attraction.
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