Werris Creek - Culture and History

The area is thought to have been formerly occupied by the Kamilaroi Aborigines. 'Werris' would appear to derive from an Aboriginal word first written 'Weia Weia', though its meaning is unclear. In the early days the creek was written in a variety of ways, including Werres, Werries and Weery's.

The Kamilaroi tribe was subdivided into clans and classes which determined marital possibilities (girls being often betrothed in infancy and married by about 14). They wore opossum clothing and, for ceremonial or ornamental purposes, smeared themselves with red ochre and pipe clay, scarred their bodies and wore decorative headwear. The males hunted while the women gathered fruit. Weaponry consisted of elaborately carved clubs, spears and boomerangs and stone or flint tomahawks and knives. Fishing was carried out with the aid of weirs, spears and nets made of grass or bark.

The first Europeans were squatters who were in the area by the 1830s. Drovers and teamsters en route to the north and west via the Great Northern Road were drawn to a waterhole near a crossing over the creek. The Reverend Francis Vidal had established the 32 000-acre Weia Weia Creek Station by 1841.

There were about 20 pastoral families, producing Merino sheep, occupying the valley by the early 1870s. On the eastern side of the present townsite was Summer Hill station which belonged to John Single, after whom the main street is named.

The town proper developed in 1877 when 500 navvies set up temporary housing whilst extending the railway line from Murrurundi to Tamworth. When it was decided to build a branch line to Gunnedah (north-west) the town became a rail junction and a maintenance centre. A post office was established in 1877 and the railway was officially opened the following year. Even the coal mine, which commenced operations in 1925, revolved around the railways, being established to supply fuel for the steam engines although it was inevitably closed (in 1963) after diesel trains emerged.

A bad drought at the end of the 19th century saw some of the larger properties subdivided and sold. Share farmers introduced dairying and wheat farming. However, the completion of the North Coast Railway Line in 1930 saw some of the inland rail traffic diverted.

When the Werris Creek station was subdivided in 1957 it intensified the cultivation of grain and fodder crops. An enormous wheat storage terminal was established and the town became a major base for wheat transportation. However, it has been stripped of its role as a maintenance and marshalling centre and its importance to wheat transportation is in decline. Together with major government cutbacks to country rail facilities the town's importance has receded. There is little to see other than the old but grand train station, a reminder of better days.