Cossack - Culture and History

Cossack was established when Walter Padbury, the first settler in the region, charted the harbour and named it Tien Tsin after the barque which had brought him to the area. In the early days it was also known as Port Walcott, North District and The Landing.

In 1871 the name was changed to Cossack in honour of the ship which carried the Western Australian Governor, Sir Frederick Weld, to the area. The townsite was officially declared in 1872 and by 1887 a horse drawn tramway had been built connecting the port with the town of Roebourne.

Cossack's importance at this time was twofold. It became the port for the pastoral industry which, by 1869, had over 39 000 sheep in the Pilbara. This role also brought hundreds of prospectors through the town when gold was discovered in the Pilbara in the 1880s. Cossack was also, from 1866, a centre for pearl divers. By the 1870s over 80 boats were operating out of the port and divers from Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and China were regularly stopping in the town. There was a time when the town had distinctive Chinese, Malay and Japanese areas and even today there is a Japanese cemetery located down a path from the European cemetery at the far end of Perseverance Street.

The evidence available now suggests that Cossack at that time was a town of some substance. The handsome stone buildings suggest a level of sophistication atypical for small, isolated ports. However, this image is not supported by the following account, written by an observer who passed through the port in 1899: 'With the exception of three good-sized buildings, all of the inevitable galvanised-iron types, and a cluster of disreputable shanties made chiefly of empty beer-cases and flattened kerosene cans, I saw nothing to warrant the name of a town. 'Heavens!' said I to myself, 'this surely can't be Cossack!'

Another writer noted that the area was so prone to cyclones that 'all the houses, hotels and stores along the waterfront were chained to the ground with large ships' chains'.

Cossack's life as a town was relatively short-lived. By the turn of the century the pearling fleet had moved north to Broome to take advantage of the pearl beds in the area. By 1910 the harbour had silted up and the once-thriving community had become virtually a ghost town. In 1910 the municipality was dissolved. Quickly Point Samson became the main port for Roebourne.

People continued to live in Cossack until after World War II, but the failure of attempts to ressurect the pearling industry saw the virtual disappearance of the town. In 1976 a committee was formed to restore the town as a kind of museum.

Today Cossack is in the process of being recreated. Where once it was a ruin, now there is a systematic attempt to bring the old buildings back to their former glory.